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Andrea Press, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Media Studies and Sociology, is the Interim Chair of Media Studies in 2021-22. Professor Press arrived at UVA in 2006 to transition the then-new Media Studies program into a department and served as the Executive Director of the Virginia Film Festival. Professor Press currently serves as Chair of the Feminist Scholarship Division of the International Communication Association, and was recently elected as an ICA Fellow. As chair, she continues to move the Department forward and has undertaken several goals:

With faculty and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, she submitted a proposal for a new PhD program in Media Studies scheduled to launch in fall 2024.

With Professor Chris Ali, interim Director of Graduate Studies, and several graduate students, she expanded the Master’s program curriculum.

With Professor William Little, Director of Undergraduate Programs, she is designing a new introductory course for the Film Studies concentration.

Press is also working closely with Professor Jack Hamilton and the Carter G. Woodson Institute to hire a new tenure-track faculty member in Race and Digital Studies. 

With Professor Lana Swartz, she is launching a speaker series that will bring prominent scholars and media practitioners to Grounds for the community.

Press also maintains a strong commitment to research and teaching. In March, she published Media-Ready Feminism and Everyday Sexism and will soon complete Cinema and Feminism: A Quick Immersion. She is midway through two research projects: one follows the lives of women in STEM careers who experience harassment in the era of #MeToo and social media, while the other explores the proliferation of coaches in online dating. This spring, she is teaching a January-term undergraduate course, Gender, Power, and Film, and a graduate seminar, Feminist Media and Cultural Studies.