EDUCATION
Rutgers University School of Communication, Information and Library Studies. Doctoral
Candidate. Ph.D. in media studies anticipated, summer 2013. Dissertation title: “A Ringing Declaration of Purpose: More: a Journalism Review, and the A.J. Liebling Counter-Conventions, 1971-1978.” Areas of research: press criticism, arts and cultural criticism, journalism education, the intellectual history of journalism, and media law.
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Master of Science in Journalism, 2000. Concentration in magazine writing and production.
University of Pennsylvania, Bachelor of Arts in English, 1999. Magna cum laude, concentration in nonfiction writing.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Affiliate Assistant Professor, June 2011–May 2013 Visiting Assistant Professor, September 2009–May 2011 Marist College Department of Communication (journalism) Poughkeepsie, NY Adjunct Lecturer, June–July 2010 Rutgers University Department of Journalism and Media Studies New Brunswick, NJ Visiting Instructor, September 2008–August 2009 Seton Hall University Department of Communication (journalism) South Orange, NJ Lecturer, September 2003–August 2008 Adjunct Lecturer, September 2002– August 2003 LaGuardia Community College/City University of New York English department (journalism) Certificate of Continuing Employment granted, effective September 2008. Long Island City, NYPROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE
Freelance writer and reviewer, May 2000–present. Slate, The New York Times, New York magazine, Metropolismag.com and others.
Research assistant to Matthew Dallek for his forthcoming book State of Siege: Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Battle to Defend America during the Second World War. 2010–2011. Tasks include archival research at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and secondary research.
Editor, “BTS on the Web” (Freelance), Architectural Record magazine, March 2007–March 2008. Duties included choosing and scheduling ten articles per month; contacting architects and photographers; choosing illustrations and photographs; and writing and editing stories.
Associate Editor (Web Editor), Architectural Record magazine, April 2001–August 2003. Responsibilities included scheduling, editing, and writing all content for web site, including online news updates and the “House of the Month” feature.
Web Content Coordinator, Architectural Record, June 2000–April 2001. www.architecturalrecord.com. Responsibilities: same as associate editor, above
Editor, “archrecord2,” March 2001–December, 2003 (Freelance from September–December 2003). Served as founding editor. A department of Architectural Record and a stand-alone web publication for and about young architects. Responsibilities: writing monthly profiles of architects; and assigning and editing stories by freelance writers.
Editor, In the Cause of Architecture, April 2002–August 2003. An online journal of ideas devoted to architecture, culture, and the allied arts. Responsibilities: Writing and editing reviews, articles, and essays.
VOLUNTEER JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE
Editor, assignmentzero.net, May, 2007. Edited interviews for the experimental collaborative journalism website, co-sponsored by Wired.com and newassignment.net, led by New York University Journalism professor Jay Rosen. Published on Wired.com, July 2007.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
“The Structure and Style of Narrative Journalism” (Review of StoryCraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, by Jack Hart). Journal of Magazine and New Media Research. Vol. 12, No. 2: Summer 2011.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Research paper presentations
“A Culture of Self-Correction: A.M. Rosenthal, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Press Criticism and the Birth of the Contemporary Newspaper Correction in The New York Times.” Accepted for presentation at the 2012 conference of the American Journalism Historians Association, Raleigh, October 11–13, 2012.
“The Journalism Review [MORE] and the Fight Against the Mainstreaming of the Press, 1971–1978.” Accepted for presentation at Protest on the Page: Print Culture in Opposition to Almost Anything* (*you can think of); the 2012 conference of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin, September 28–29, 2012.
“A Ringing Declaration of Purpose: More, a Journalism Review, and the A.J. Liebling Counter-Conventions, 1971-1978.” Presented in the Research in Progress session at the American Journalism Historians Association Annual Convention, October 6–8, 2011, Kansas City, Missouri.
“Intellectual Heft: A.J. Liebling as an Opponent of Anti-Intellectualism in American Journalism.” A study of A.J. Liebling’s output as the press critic for The New Yorker, in light of his attempts to stem the anti-intellectual attitudes of the American press. Presented at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 10-13, 2011, St. Louis, Missouri. Awarded top poster prize for the History Division.
“J-School Ate Their Brains: Anti-Intellectualism in the American Press in Essays Denouncing Journalism Schools, 1869–2008.” A revised version of the previously-presented paper below. This substantial revision of a critical history of a small but notable genre of essay attacking the idea of journalism school as useless and wrongheaded takes includes a new literature review of American anti-intellectualism as explored by historian Richard Hofstadter and sociologist Daniel Rigney. Presented at the Annual Conference of The American Journalism Historians Association, October 7–9, 2010, Tucson, Arizona.
“The Opponents of Anti-Intellectualism in the American Press: Lincoln Steffens to Jon Stewart.” A work in progress toward the completion of the dissertation, addressing four case studies of people, movements, and institutions that attempted to change the dominant atmosphere of anti-intellectualism in the mainstream United States press. Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 13, 2010, New York City.
“J-School Ate Their Brains: Essays In the Popular Press Denouncing Journalism Schools, 1869–2008.” A critical history of a small but notable genre of essay attacking the idea of journalism school as useless and wrongheaded. Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 14, 2009, New York City.
“The Origins of Journalism Education and its Failure to Emerge as a Professional School, 1869–1912.” Presented at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 6, 2008, Chicago. A history of the origins of journalism programs in American colleges universities between the end of the Civil War and the eve of the founding of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1912. N.B.: This paper is a revised version of the following paper, presented previously.
“Chalk-stained Wretches: Journalism as a Failed Professional School in the era of University Reform, Professionalization, and the Progressive Movement.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 15, 2008, New York City. A history of the origins of journalism programs in American colleges universities between the end of the Civil War and the eve of the founding of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1912. Originally prepared as a research practicum under the supervision of Dr. David Greenberg, Rutgers University.
“A Conversation Model of First Amendment Theory and Its Applicability to College and University Free Speech Rights in Hosty v. Carter.” Presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Southeast Colloquium, March 14, 2008, Auburn, Alabama. The paper applies the conversation model of media theory advocated by James Carey to existing ways of thinking about the First Amendment, and shows how this new hybrid theory can aid the case of students at Governors State University in Illinois. Originally prepared for the Rutgers University seminar Information Law and Policy, Fall 2007, Dr. Susan Keith.
“’Magazining’ and muckraking: The special place of magazines in American media and culture.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 24, 2007, New York City. The original wave of U.S. muckraking was facilitated by the particular qualities of magazine journalism, suggesting that more in-depth study of magazine journalism as a historical and cultural form is needed. Originally prepared for the Rutgers University seminar Media History and Institutions, Fall 2006, Dr. David Greenberg.
“Masters and voice: The struggle for personal writing style in American newsrooms, 1890–1940.” Presented on the panel “Journalism in the History and Theory of Writing,” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Meeting, November 10–12, 2006, Charlotte, NC. Study of several memoirs of writers who worked as reporters in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries show discontent with the formulaic writing that newspaper editors required. Originally prepared for Rutgers independent study credit, Spring 2006, Dr. Linda Steiner.
Panels moderated
Magazine and Visual Communication Divisions Teaching Marathon, AEJMC annual convention, August 9, 2012. Organized and moderated panel of 15 faculty sharing teaching tips.
Professional conference and workshop presentations:
Digging Deep: Training for Reporters and Editors, the New York State Associated Press Association Workshop. March 26, 2011. Invited presentation on the use of social media in reporting. Presented to an audience of editors and reporters for New York State member publications of the Associated Press. Co-presenter with Dr. Lyn Lepre of Marist College.
Many Cultures, Many Stories. College Media Advisers Spring National Media Convention, New York City, March 17–19, 2005, seminar leader. Workshop on how to coach student journalists to include multicultural coverage in campus publications.
The Bridge Student Newspaper Interviewing Techniques Workshop, November 1, 2006, workshop leader.
The Bridge Student Newspaper News Writing Workshop, November 22, 2005, workshop leader. Repeated October 4, 2006.
English Archives Research Program Roundtable, May 4, 2005, presenter.
Paper presented on behalf of its author:
“War and the Expansion of Presidential Power: The Case of Public Persuasion.” Presented on behalf of Dr. David Greenberg at the Interdisciplinary Studies in Information Privacy and Security (ISIPS) First Annual Workshop on Privacy and Security, May 22, 2007, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
TEACHING
Marist College, 2009–2012
Courses taught:
COM 443: Narrative Journalism. Students complete a magazine-length work of literary narrative journalism over the course of the semester, through intensive workshops and close study of canonical works in the genre.
COM 236 (previously COM 441): News Editing. Introduction to the basics of copyediting for print and online publication, including headline writing, grammar and style, and critical thinking about the nature and role of news and editorial decision-making.
COM 401: Communication Capping. The capstone course for communication majors. Students complete faculty-supervised independent projects that attempt to encapsulate their undergraduate educations. Projects include blogs, film projects, and long-form journalism.
COM 341: Press in America. Sophomore/junior–level course examining the history and theory of the First Amendment; the history of the organized press in the United States; and contemporary problems facing the press.
COM 322 (previously COM 340): Newswriting (previously Journalism II). An advanced course in reporting and writing, with an increased focus on feature writing, in-depth reporting, and the integration of elements of multimedia into journalism. Students publish their work in the online magazine My 575: http://www.maristmy575.com/
COM 300: Mass Communication Law. Overview of the law of mass communication in the United States, including the First Amendment, libel, privacy, intellectual property, issues of the law and reporting, and telecommunication and advertising regulation.
COM 242 (previously COM 241): Introduction to Journalism (previously Journalism I). An introduction to reporting and writing news. Students practice newsgathering and writing techniques through in-class exercises and writing assignments, and eventually complete a reported story of their own using real-world sources. Students also learn Associated Press style.
COM 201: Communication and Society. An introduction to mass communication and its interplay with society. Includes discussion of major theories of the mass media.
COM 100: Communication Principles. A freshman-level introduction to the academic study of communication.
Rutgers University, 2010
Course taught:
COMM 480: Media Ethics and Law. An upper-level course for journalism and public relations majors covering various approaches to media ethics with a brief primer on libel and privacy law.
Seton Hall University, 2008–2009
Courses taught:
COJR 2431: American Journalism. History of journalism in the United States. Junior-level course, providing an overview of major themes in journalism, communication and public relations history, with a focus on the role of journalism in a democratic society, journalism and communication as industries and as professions.
COJR 3426: Magazine Writing. Workshop in magazine journalism. Upper-level writing-intensive course intended for journalism majors. Intensive discussion of student work, with time given to both short-form and long-form magazine writing. Discussion of magazine publishing process and occasional guest speakers.
COMM 2135: Communication Research. Introduction to various research methods in communication, covering quantitative, qualitative, and critical research methods and introductory descriptive statistics. Prepares students for original research in senior seminar.
COMM 1421: Writing for the Media. Writing-intensive overview of various styles of writing used among communication professionals, including news and feature writing, broadcast news writing, press releases, and online writing. Covers Associated Press writing style and incorporates a critical essay as well.
LaGuardia Community College, 2002–2008
Courses taught:
ENG 210 Journalism: Its scope and use. Introduction to journalism for prospective journalists and media consumers. Covers the importance of journalism in society, U.S. and international journalism history, journalism ethics, and responsibilities of journalists to the public.
ENG 211 Journalism: The craft of gathering and reporting the news. Basic reporting and writing course. Students practice newsgathering and writing skills through in-class drills and by covering individually assigned beats around the college and its neighborhood.
ENG 212 Feature writing for newspapers and magazines. Students learn the fundamentals of feature writing through a series of genre-oriented assignments.
Curriculum development:
Ad Hoc Committee on The Writing and Literature Major, LaGuardia Community College. Contributed significantly to the writing of a letter of intent for a new English major, to be presented to all CUNY colleges in Spring, 2007. Researched journalism programs across CUNY colleges. Developed and administered a survey of students to determine interest in an English major. Worked to secure articulation with Queens College English Department. Presented the Major to the college-wide curriculum committee.
Designed the new Nonfiction Writing Workshop for LaGuardia Community College, wrote the course proposal, and presented the course to the departmental and college-wide curriculum committees. Approved by the college Senate, Spring 2006.
LaGuardia Community College English Department Curriculum Committee, 2004–2008. Reviewed and edited course proposals for all new and revised courses during this period.
Course development:
Created and led the freshman Liberal Arts course cluster Journalism and Ethics at LaGuardia Community College. Taught a section of ENG101 Composition I and ENG103 The Research Paper, using H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to examine journalistic ethics. Students concurrently enrolled in a photojournalism course and an ethics course taught respectively by a photographer and a philosopher, both from the Humanities Department.
Developed a section of ENG101 Composition I in conjunction with the English Archives Research Project (EARP) at LaGuardia Community College. Researched primary documents held in the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Students researched the 1939 New York World’s Fair using these documents from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s administration; read E.L. Doctorow’s novel World’s Fair; and visited Flushing Meadows Park, the site of the Fair in order to write their essays.
GRANTS
LaGuardia Community College Senate Professional Development Subcommittee, Educational Development Initiative Team (EDIT) Grant, awarded Fall 2006, to cover travel expenses to present the paper “Masters and voice: The struggle for personal writing style in American newsrooms, 1890–1940” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Meeting, November 10–12, 2006, Charlotte, NC.
AWARDS
Top Research Poster, History Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Convention, St. Louis, Missouri, August 10–13, 2011. Won for “Intellectual Heft: A.J. Liebling as an Opponent of Anti-Intellectualism in American Journalism.”
Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century (TNT21) co-winner, graduate student division. Teaching ideas competition sponsored by the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 1, 2010. “The Subverted Inverted Pyramid” lead-writing drill.
National Magazine Award for General Excellence as part of the Architectural Record editorial staff, 2003.
The McGraw-Hill Companies Corporate Achievement Award for Editorial Excellence, 2002.
Finalist, Jesse H. Neal Award for best news (9/11 coverage team), Architectural Record, 2002.
Finalist, Jesse H. Neal Award for best web site, architecturalrecord.com, 2001.
SELECTED FREELANCE JOURNALISM
“Wonder of Wonders: 80 Years of Thrills, Chills and Romance at Coney Island’s Oldest Operating Attraction.” The New York Times. May 28, 2000. A history of the Wonder Wheel.
“Meet the New Boss.” New York. July 23, 2001. Essay about interviewing for a job with the New York Yankees, and about George Steinbrenner’s employment policies.
Reviews of Manhattan restaurants for Citysearch.com. 2002–2003.
“A Quarter Century of Discovery: The Young Architects Forum, a competition for emerging designers, celebrates its 25th Anniversary.” Metropolismag.com. October 6, 2006.
“Man With a Plan: Rohit Aggarwala is overseeing New York’s greener future.” O2 Magazine, issue #2, Spring 2008. Available at http://www.o2greenmagazine.com.
Several dozen news and feature stories about architecture and urban planning for Architectural Record magazine and its web site, between 2003 and the present.
MENTIONS AND QUOTATIONS IN THE PRESS
“Twitter Reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s Death (TWEETS),” by Craig Kanalley, The Huffington Post, May 2, 2011. Quoted Twitter feed, noting significance of Library of Congress Twitter archive. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-death-tweets_n_856119.html#s272179&title=Kevin_Lerner_Journalism
“Could the media have ignored Terry Jones and his Koran-burning plan?” by Gloria Goodale, The Christian Science Monitor. Quoted as expert on journalism and social media. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2010/0910/Could-the-media-have-ignored-Terry-Jones-and-his-Koran-burning-plan
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Assistant Editor, Journal for Magazine and New Media Research, summer 2012–present. Collaborate with the editorial staff and advisory board of the journal in soliciting manuscripts, distributing them for peer review, working with authors, and editing manuscripts for publication.
Professional Freedom and Responsibility Chair, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2012–2013. Arranging PF&R panels for the 2013 AEJMC Conference in Washington, DC.
Teaching Chair, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2011–2012. Arranging teaching panels for 2012 AEJMC Conference in Chicago.
Co-coordinator, Joint Journalism and Media Historians Conference, representing the American Journalism Historians Association, 2010-2013. Collaborated with Dr. Lisa Burns of Quinnipiac University to organize the annual one-day conference. 2010-2011 duties included site coordination, interacting with professional and technical staff at New York University’s Carter Institute for Journalism, the conference site. Also developed the web site for the conference using WordPress content management system. 2011-2012 duties will include coordinating the research paper competition, including the call for entries and the review process, and developing the conference program. 2013 duties will include mentoring the successor to Dr. Burns, who will be appointed by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Advisory Board member, Media History Exchange, 2010-present. Served with the group of faculty and engineers developing the MHX, an interdisciplinary social network for media historians, as well as a conference and meeting scheduling tool. Attended the advisory board meeting at St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ, March 11, 2011.
Cssistant editor, FoxTalk Magazine, 2011–2012. Copyedited the in-house magazine of the Marist College School of Communication and the Arts, written by Marist students and edited by Dr. Lyn Lepre.
Judge, the Silver Fox Awards, news and sports category, April 2010. Served as judge for student video news production competition.
Pre-publication reviewer, Media and Communication Research Methods, second edition, by Arthur Asa Berger, Sage. January 2010.
Chair, Journalism Program Committee, English Department, LaGuardia Community College. 2007–2008.
Pre-publication reviewer, Telling the Story, news reporting and writing textbook, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. May, 2008.
Editorial Assistant, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Spring and Summer, 2006. Assisted editor Linda Steiner of Rutgers University in editing and entering changes to manuscripts.
Editor, Faculty and Staff Notes, LaGuardia Community College, 2006. Solicited submissions for and edited a yearly compendium of faculty accomplishments.
Alumni critic for 34th Street Magazine, the weekly arts and entertainment magazine of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Critiqued an issue of the undergraduate magazine to offer professional advice. January 25, 2007 issue.
Journalist mentor to editors of The Bridge student newspaper; aided editors with ethics and journalism issues.
LaGuardia Community College English Department Curriculum Committee, 2004–2007.
Creative Writing Committee. Wrote and proposed ENG274: Creative Nonfiction Workshop, which was approved by the College-wide Curriculum Committee February, 2006.
Mentor to new adjunct faculty, Fall 2004 and Spring 2005.
Grant reviewer, PSC-CUNY Grants. Communication Arts & Sciences Panel. 2006-2007 Cycle.
Writing in the Disciplines faculty development seminar, LaGuardia Community College center for Teaching and Learning, 2005–2006
New York Stories, Contributing Editor, evaluated manuscripts for publication, 2003–2005.
Departmental Personnel and Budget Committee Workshop on Career Building, October 22, 2003.
English Archives Research Project.. Developed an archives-based research project using primary documents, and based on the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Professional Development Committee Conference on Conferences, November 24, 2003
Center for Teaching and Learning New Faculty Colloquium, 2003–2004.
Black Literature Series African-American Read-In, reader, 2005.
Faculty Council Tenure and Promotion Forum, November 12, 2003.
English Department Professional Development Committee Roundtable on Grant Writing, March 29, 2004.
English Department Professional Development Committee Book Publishing Forum, April 4, 2005.
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Yearbook, Editor-in-chief, 1999–2000.
Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia University Chapter, secretary, 1999–2000.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, member; 2004–present.
American Journalism Historians Association, member; 2010–present.
Society of Professional Journalists, member; 1999–2000; 2004–present.
Daily Pennsylvanian Alumni Association, member; 1999–present.
Community College Journalism Association, member; 2004–2008.
INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Blog: http://presscriticism.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/klerner
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/klerner
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmlerner
