• In three weeks, I’m starting my American Scandinavian Foundation fellowship in Denmark.  It’s the culmination of a lifelong dream that required earning a PhD, launching two kids to adulthood and reaching proficiency in my dad’s first language. Speaking Danish has been described as having a mouthful of potatoes and pronouncing only every third letter. That feels accurate. 

    I’m excited, but nervous about convincing journalists to let me interview them, sit in on their meetings, and observe in their newsrooms. I’m still figuring out what to say when people bring up Greenland. 

    In 2024, I finished my term as the head of the AEJMC Commission on the Status of Women, which was important, but exhausting work. I also published two journal articles with Brian J. Bowe and Tunisian colleague Arwa Kooli out of our work in Tunisia. 

    This year, I’ve been enjoying teaching mass media law, reporting, senior seminar and an over-capacity-due-to-high demand Diversity, Mass Media and Social Change course. Our alumni would be proud of these students’ global awareness, critical-thinking skills and healthy skepticism. The future of our field is in good hands. 

    I’ve appreciated our alums who have been guest speakers in my classes this year. Gabrielle Nomura Gainor and Lauren Gallup, it was such a pleasure to showcase your work and highlight your paths to show students what is possible.  

    This brings me to my final point –– it’s difficult, but important to acknowledge.  

    We lost a dear, bright student fall quarter. Eric Bachman died in a motorcycle accident on Halloween. Eric was a source of light and humor in my classroom. He was a mass of energy going in so many directions at once and with so much potential in each of them. 

    A few times this quarter, I have mistakenly thought I saw him in the hall, only to experience the sinking understanding that will never happen.  

    Eric’s mom hosted a standing-room-only celebration of life on campus followed by a candlelight vigil in Red Square. The Journalism Department’s Colleen Van Pelt and Jennifer Dalton set up a memory box to allow everyone to write letters to Eric’s family, then put those letters in a beautiful book for them. The way students, staff and faculty came together to support one another showed a powerful sense of community. I continue to hold his family and friends in my thoughts.  

    People gather around Red Square for a candlelight vigii at Western Washington University.
    Family, friends and classmates of Eric Bachman gather for a candlelight vigil in Red Square on Nov. 7, 2024. // Photo by Joe Gosen