Paula Hunt Selected for Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2016-17 Academic Year
The Program Provides Teaching and Development Opportunities for Recent Doctoral Graduates
Columbia, Mo. (Aug. 17, 2016) — Paula Hunt, MA ’10, PhD ’16, is the recipient of a Preparing Future Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2016-17 academic year at the University of Missouri.
The program, sponsored by the graduate school, provides teaching and professional development opportunities for recent MU doctoral graduates and/or current postdoctoral fellows. Fellows serve as mentored faculty members and more fully prepare for their careers. They are invited to develop discipline-based or interdisciplinary courses or teach prepared courses in their discipline. Among the courses Hunt will teach this year at the School are History of American Journalism and the graduate-level Mass Media Seminar.
Hunt earned her doctorate in journalism in May. Her dissertation examined the publishing enterprise of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist group active in the 1830s. Her research examines the cultural history of America and been published in Journalism History and the New England Quarterly.
Hunt was a veteran health reporter from the San Antonio News Express in Texas when she was selected as the School’s first Smith/Patterson Science Fellow. She studied convergence journalism in her master’s program. The Smith/Patterson Fellowship and accompanying lecture series were made possible through a $100,000 gift from Russell G. Smith II and Gail Smith in honor of former MU Professor Joye Patterson, who was Russell’s mentor throughout college. Patterson taught science writing at the Journalism School from 1966 to 1988.
Missouri journalism professors Earnest Perry (chair), Yong Volz and Tim Vos; history Professor Emerita LeeAnn Whites; and Professor Ronald Walters from The Johns Hopkins University were her doctoral committee members.
Before beginning her graduate degrees, Hunt worked as a journalist in New York City and Texas.
Updated: September 30, 2020