UF names nationally acclaimed professor its eminent scholar in mass communication
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications has named nationally acclaimed Pennsylvania State University professor Clay Calvert as an eminent scholar in mass communication, Dean John Wright has announced.
In this role — UF’s highest faculty level — Calvert will teach media law at the graduate and undergraduate level, direct doctoral research and coordinate the college’s media law program.
“It’s an awesome opportunity, not only to work in one of the nation’s top colleges of journalism and communications,” Calvert said, “but also to teach some of the best and brightest students in the country.”
Calvert has worked at Penn State since 1996, currently as the John & Ann Curley Professor of First Amendment Studies. He’s published several books and more than 100 research articles in a variety of journals and law reviews. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, juris doctorate from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law and doctorate from Stanford. He won the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s 2004 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award for Teaching, Research and Public Service. A multiple winner of AEJMC’s Top Faculty Paper for the Law Division, Calvert has appeared as a media law expert on NBC’s “Today Show” and CBS’ “Saturday Early Show” and has been quoted by Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
“We are delighted that professor Calvert has decided to join our faculty,” Wright said. “He is considered, if not the top, one of the very top media law scholars internationally and is highly respected by mass communication scholars everywhere. The faculty and students are excited and eagerly await his arrival.”
As the Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication, Calvert will also work with the college’s Marion Brechner Citizens Access Project, which currently examines constitutional provisions, statutory provisions and appellate judicial opinions bearing upon access to government meetings and records in every state and the District of Columbia.
The college is a national leader in the professional education of future journalists and other communication practitioners.