Congratulations to this year’s winners of the MMI Teaching and Student Prize Competition!

To view the entire 2022 award ceremony, see here.

2022 MMI Teaching Prize for Innovative Uses of Media

Created in 2020 in response to the sudden and mass shift to remote learning, the MMI Teaching Prize for Innovative Uses of Media recognizes our faculty and instructors for their efforts and achievements they made in adapting course content and practice. Courses were evaluated on innovation, appeal, accessibility, pedagogical efficacy, and community building. The superb work of these faculty and instructors maintained learning excellence while adapting to various platforms and contingencies. They also add to a growing list of best practices, as hybrid learning environments remain a major aspect of college and university life.

Winners

Full-time faculty, tenured and tenure track

• • CLASS: Melody Yunzi Li, CHNS 3343: Chinese Popular Culture
  • McGovern: Rob Smith, MUSI 4101: New Music Ensemble

Full-time faculty, non-tenure track

• • CLASS: Jing Zhang, CHNS 1501: Elementary Chinese
  • McGovern: N/A

Part-time instructors

• • CLASS: Jing Liu, JAPN 2311:  Intermediate Japanese
  • McGovern: Mark Chen, ART 3374: Computer Imaging

Teaching Prize Jury

• Beckham Dossett, Associate Dean of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of Arts
• Erin Hansen, School of Music
• Eunjeong Lee, Department of English
• Julie Tolliver, Department of Modern & Classical Languages
• Joshua Unikel, School of Art
• Toni Valle, School of Theatre & Dance
  
  

2022 MMI Student Prize Competition

Now in its third year, the MMI Student Prize Competition recognizes student work in media studies-related fields. Our competition is notable in having three different competition categories—Critical, Creative, and Applied—in order to recognize the variety of different media-related work on campus. This year the former “Best in Show” category was also reconceived as a Special Jury prize.

For a montage of all of this year’s submissions, view here.

Student Prize Competition Winners

Creative: “Miguelito,” an original script by Aixa Tovar

Applied: “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace,” an educational interview by Angeline Abrera

Jury Selection: “Pectin,” a videoessay/memoir short film by Brittny Ray-Crowell

Student Prize Competition Jury

Amir Aboulela
Veteran actor Amir Aboulela has appeared in episodes of Pretty Little Liars, Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Born in Egypt and raised in Texas, Amir is a graduate of the UT-Arlington. In 1998, Amir had a key part in Bill Condon’s Academy Award-winning film, God's and Monsters, as Boris Karloff's Frankenstein—a role for which Amir still receives fan mail.

Lester Gretsch
Trilingual, Emmy award-winning communications professional Lester Gretsch is currently serving as Chief Communications Officer for Spring ISD. Lester is also a prominent former local sports anchor and executive. At Univision, he developed the station's Sunday-evening sports show, Contacto Deportivo Extra, into a ratings driver. The program was also selected as the Best Sportscast in Texas in 2018 and 2021. Prior to that, Lester was Senior Director of Communications and Broadcasting for the Houston Dynamo, where he led media coverage for our local pro soccer team. He also helped support the launch of Houston Dash, the women’s pro team.

Danielle Seid
Scholar and filmmaker Danielle Seid teaches courses in film, television, and media at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Originally from San Diego, Danielle grew up devouring indie films and spending time at the local movie theater, where her grandfather screened imported Hong Kong films. Danielle earned her PhD from the University of Oregon and has previously taught at Baruch College, of the City University of New York. Widely published widely in academic journals and many other venues, Danielle writes about topics ranging from cooking web series, Asian American women’s TV representation, trans media, and the orphan documentary film Forever Chinatown (directed by her grandparents).

Congratulations to the winners of our inaugural Student Prize Competition!

Critical Studies ........... Shannon Duncan, Modern Day Slavery
Creative Work ............ Taylor Andreozzi, The Lemon of Pink
Applied Technology ..... Walter Barta, Digital Monology

Thank you to our jury and keynote speaker!

Keynote Speaker: Filmmaker Jenny Waldo (director, The Preacher's Daughter)

Jury:

• Rick Ferguson ............ Houston Film Commission
• Kristian Salinas .......... QFest
• Tracy Stephenson ...... Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Tish Stringer, Rice University
• Neal Verma, iRazoo 

To view the complete award ceremony, click here.

Here is a montage of some of the student entries.