Faculty Work

Prof. Barry Yeoman’s Latest: Has the Pork Industry Gone Green?

Posted on June 11, 2024

Posted on behalf of Prof. Barry Yeoman. Four years ago, the world’s largest pork processor settled a lawsuit with more than 500 North Carolinians. The plaintiffs, who live near industrial hog farms, said the stench and flies had made their lives unbearable. Today, the pork industry calls itself “a good steward of the environment” because it captures methane from hog waste and converts it to biogas. Has the industry gone green? Has life improved on North Carolina’s coastal plain? ToRead More→

Prof. Lisa Sorg Joins Inside Climate News

Posted on June 7, 2024

Lisa Sorg, adjunct professor in the Journalism Program, has joined national media outlet Inside Climate News as its North Carolina reporter. She will be covering energy, climate change, the environment and agriculture for ICN, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom. She previously served as an environmental investigative reporter for NC Newsline, based in Raleigh. Prof. Sorg will be teaching JOU 375: Special Topics: Environmental Journalism in the Fall 2024 semester.

Affiliated Journalism Faculty Member Joel Tauber Premieres First Feature Film

Posted on May 31, 2024

Joel Tauber, Associate Professor of Art and an affiliated faculty member for the Journalism Program, recently had a premiere screening for his first feature film, Sick-Amour: A Love Story (2024), at the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival at the Ffwrnes Theatre (Llanelli, Wales, United Kingdom) on May 20 at 3:30 pm, and online, geo-blocked to Wales from May 20-23. The movie has also been nominated by the festival for Best Feature Documentary. More information on the film can be found here.

Z. Smith Reynolds Library and Journalism Program Faculty Discuss Threat of Mis/Disinformation with Alumni

Posted on April 25, 2024

Original blog post written by Hu Womack and Roz Tedford. It had been four years since we last visited Wake Washington. That visit to present and discuss mis/disinformation happened just weeks before COVID-19, and we promised not to be harbingers of disaster this time! Just to make sure, we changed our topic to “Election Mis/Disinformation: How to Spot it, why it’s Effective, and What We Can Do to Avoid It.” Twenty WFU Alumni and friends joined us on a beautifulRead More→

New York Times Publishes Journalism Professor Phoebe Zerwick’s Piece on Deathbed Visions

Posted on April 1, 2024

Professor Phoebe Zerwick’s article, “What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living,” was published by the New York Times in mid-March. The piece, which describes hospice physician Chris Kerr’s personal and professional encounters with deathbed visions along with Prof. Zerwick’s own encounter with the phenomenon during her mother’s final moments, has drawn wide engagement since publication, with around 1,400 commenters sharing their own experiences with deathbed visions and what they learned from them. To read Prof. Zerwick’s article, please click here.Read More→

Prof. Phoebe Zerwick’s book, Beyond Innocence, selected for 2024 North Carolina Reads

Posted on February 12, 2024

Journalism Director Phoebe Zerwick’s Beyond Innocence, The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt, by Jornalism director, is this month’s section for the NC Humanities Council statewide book club NC Reads. Register here for a zoom discussion Feb. 27.

Reflections on Returning to the Classroom

Posted on November 21, 2023

The following reflection was composed by Journalism Program Adjunct Professor Michael Venutolo-Mantovani, who joined the Journalism faculty this fall to teach JOU 270: Introduction to Journalism. It’s a hard class to teach but mostly because of timing. Two-and-a-half-hours at 9:30 on Tuesday mornings. For 19- and 20-year-old college freshmen and sophomores, that’s a marathon. Credit to the department, though, who took into consideration my long commute from Chapel Hill and respected the fact that I didn’t want to drive threeRead More→

Recent Story Published in Mongabay by Prof. Justin Catanoso explores connection between faith communities and climate action

Posted on November 3, 2023

Among the issues Professor Catanoso covers for Mongabay, an international environmental news agency, is the connection between faith communities and climate action. In a recent story, Catanoso interviews religious activists, policy makers and theologians to assess the potential impact of a new declaration by Pope Francis in defense of the planet in advance of the 28th United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.To read the full story and learn more, please click here: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/ahead-of-cop28-pope-spurs-policymakers-faith-leaders-to-push-climate-action/.

Prof. Yeoman Publishes Article “Judgment Day” in The Assembly

Posted on October 25, 2023

Journalism Program adjunct professor Barry Yeoman recently published an article in The Assembly titled “Judgment Day.” The article sheds light on the work of Sally Greene, an attorney who spent 23 years uncovering how a once-celebrated N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Thomas Ruffin, condoned the brutal treatment of enslaved workers in a decision called State v. Mann. Ruffin himself had a financial investment in the slave-trafficking industry. To read the full article, please click here.

Journalism Program Alumna Meagan Marks (’23) Published in Triad City Beat

Posted on October 12, 2023

Meagan Marks (’23), who graduated in May, had a September cover story published in Triad City Beat about the Athenas, an all-female weightlifting group on Wake Forest’s campus. The story originated in adjunct instructor Jeremy Markovich’s magazine writing course (JOU 340) during the Spring 2023 semester, and Marks and Markovich worked together afterward to find a home for it in print. Marks, who earned a B.A. in psychology and minored in neuroscience and journalism, is currently a Post-baccalaureate Research FellowRead More→

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