SC&I faculty and scholars are participating in the 109th annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference, taking place August 5–8, 2026, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference theme is “Jazz & Jambalaya: Nurturing Harmony and Health in Higher Education.”
AEJMC is a nonprofit educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students, and media professionals. The 2026 conference features research sessions, panels, workshops, award presentations, and networking opportunities across journalism, media studies, communication, technology, public relations, law, ethics, and related fields. Weijia Jiang, senior White House correspondent for CBS News, is the keynote speaker.
SC&I Participation
- AEJMC past president, Associate Dean for Programs, and Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Susan Keith is participating in multiple sessions. Her roles include moderating the Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division research panel session, “The State of Weather Media Studies and Why It Matters,” serving as a panelist for “Leading with Integrity: Navigating Political Pressure, Public Scrutiny, and Institutional Values in Higher Education,” serving as a discussant for a Cultural and Critical Studies Division session, moderating and participating in the “Gene Burd Awards for Excellence in Urban Journalism and Urban Journalism Research” session, and serving as a panelist on “Compelling Faith: The Growing Tensions between the Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment.”
- Library and Information Science part-time faculty member Mengyu Li is a co-author on the Political Communication Division research-in-progress poster, “When Reality Wins: Citizen Journalism and Narrative Contestation in the Minneapolis Shooting Cases.”
- Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Regina Marchi and doctoral student Sherry Mason are presenting “Trauma, Victimhood, and the Politics of Memory in the Films 'Coco' and 'Encanto'” in the Minorities and Communication Division refereed research paper session, “Populace Culture, Racial Representation, and the Struggle for Cultural Citizenship.” Mason is also being recognized as an AEJMC & MCSD Diversity and Inclusion Career Development Fellow.
- Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies María Celeste Wagner is recognized as a co-recipient of the AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize for “The Patina of Distrust: What People Do with Misinformation,” written with Eugenia Mitchelstein, Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Facundo Suenzo. Wagner is also being recognized during the James W. Tankard Jr./AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize Book Awards session.
- Professor of Communication Matthew Weber is serving as a panelist for the Community Journalism Interest Group PFR panel session, “Beyond Information Needs: Mapping and Understanding Communities.”
Together, SC&I’s representation at AEJMC 2026 reflects the school’s strength in journalism and media studies, communication, library and information science, local news ecosystems, misinformation research, media culture, and public-interest scholarship. Visit the AEJMC conference website to view the full schedule. Explore SC&I’s academic programs and discover opportunities to study with leading scholars at sci.rutgers.edu.
