CMCI Now magazine

With the award of a $108,000 Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Scholars and Society Fellowship, Assistant Professor Sandra Ristovska is undertaking the first rigorous publicly engaged research project to address the intricacies of “seeing” in court. Working in partnership with the American Bar Association’s Scientific Evidence Committee, her project will systematically examine the use of video as evidence in state and federal court trials (1990-2020) in criminal, immigration and American Indian law.

By Lori Emerson (Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance)

ProPublica’s 10-part series “The NYPD Files” is a searing investigation into how the country’s largest police department maintains impunity from public oversight and the toll that impunity takes on the city’s civilians––especially those who are marginalized and most at risk. The series is the winner of this year’s Al Nakkula Award for police reporting, co-sponsored by The Denver Press Club and CMCI.

Short for fermentation, the small-scale bakery, Ferment, is a start-up enterprise that Andre Gruber, an engineering major, and Rafaelo Infante, a strategic communication major, launched in the spring while most of the state was shut down.

It’s unlikely that any level of planning could have prepared organizations for COVID-19 and the other crises 2020 unleashed. But whether it’s a global pandemic, an economic crisis or a wildfire, practicing how to navigate group communication and decision making can help prepare for future crises, says Associate Professor Matt Koschmann.

Journalism Instructor and Assistant Dean for Student Success Steve Jones started his career at CU in 1976. Credited by alumni for setting “countless careers in motion,” teaching “with an open heart and open door,” and having “the greatest sly sense of humor and the best tie collection,” Jones will retire this December after 44 years.

Faculty updates

After winning CU Boulder Grand Challenge funding, the co-founders of the new Nature, Environment, Science and Technology Studio for the Arts harness the symbiosis of artistic and scientific thinking.

Assistant Professor Erin Willis is faculty in residence for CMCI’s Communication and Society Residential Academic Program, known as CommRAP, which is based in Buckingham. The unique position allows her to connect with students outside of the classroom or office hours.

Fifty years after their seminal study on coverage of the 1968 presidential election, the founding fathers of agenda-setting research and CMCI’s Chris Vargo discuss how the media continue to shape what we think about.