It’s exhilarating for media scholar Anna Shechtman to see who shows up on the first day of an introductory media studies class: students from literature and theater, but also from computing, information science, East Asian studies, religious studies and other diverse majors.

Credit: Chris Kitchen

“I’ve come in at the start of the course when that question of what media is and what media studies studies is on the table,” said Shechtman, a Klarman Fellow in literatures in English. “And I see everyone’s minds being blown a little bit by realizing the scope and scale of media studies and what it could be. That’s an exciting moment because hopefully they’ll be able to see that whatever work they’re interested in in their own field can participate in this developing discourse.”

Shechtman is at the forefront of the growing media studies field. During her Klarman Fellowship, she is writing a book on the media concept, which presents both problems and potential to scholars.

“Anna's research is a timely intellectual and cultural history of the things we have meant when we have used the word ‘media,’” said Jeremy Braddock, associate professor of literatures in English and Shechtman’s faculty host. “Her book project is remarkably in step with the work we have been doing in media studies over the last several years at Cornell.”

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.