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Last November, after University of Missouri communications professor Melissa Click called for some "muscle" to get rid of a student journalist trying to videotape a student protest in a First Amendment-protected public place on the state-supported campus, I wrote the following:
I predict a stellar academic future for Melissa Click.
And I predicted right!
Well, actually I also predicted that Click would get tenure at Mizzou as a reward for egging on those protesters against hegemony or racism or whatever it–and also as a way to say "Take that!" to the mean old Republicans in the Missouri legislature who were calling for Click's ouster.
As it turned out, that tenure didn't materialize. Mizzou fired Click–over a good deal of protest from its faculty, which had hoped to do a lot of foot-dragging about disciplining Click so that eventually the whole matter would all go away.
But I came close. Melissa Click may not longer be at Mizzou, but she has quickly landed a lecturer slot in the communications studies department at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Here is the description of her on the department's website:
Dr. Melissa A. Click's research interests center on popular culture texts and audiences, particularly texts and audiences disdained in mainstream culture. Her work in this area is guided by audience studies, theories of gender and sexuality, and media literacy. Recent research projects involve romance readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with celebrities, masculinity and male fans, and the inevitable changes fans experience in their fandom over time. Her scholarship has been published in Television & New Media, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Men & Masculinities, Popular Communication, Popular Music & Society, and Transformative Works & Cultures. She is the co-editor of Bitten by Twilight and the Routledge Companion to Media Fandom (forthcoming). NYU Press will publish her forthcoming edited collection, Dislike, Hate, and Anti-fandom in the Digital Age.
Furthermore, the Chicago Tribune reports:
Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak, dean of Gonzaga's College of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement to Missouri media outlets that Gonzaga officials were aware of Click's recent past but, after a national search, deemed her "the most qualified and experienced candidate for the position."
Click "has excellent recommendations for both her teaching and scholarship, which includes an extensive record of publication," Mermann-Jozwiak wrote. "We are confident she has learned much from her experiences at the University of Missouri and believe she will uphold the rigorous standards of academic excellence demanded of Gonzaga faculty and students."
Mmm, right. Usually an "extensive search" to fill a faculty slot begins with the "most qualified and experienced candidate" begins about a full year before the candidate, once selected, starts teaching. That's because most faculty job openings attract hundreds of applicants to be weeded out.
Of course, maybe Click's important paper "Let's Hug It Out, Bitch: HBO's Entourage, Masculinity in Crisis, and the Value of Audience Studies" pushed her to the top of the list in just a couple of months.
And all that stuff at Mizzou was just a coincidence.
But at any rate, wasn't I right when I said that Melissa Click had a stellar academic future?
I predict a stellar academic future for Melissa Click. – See more at: http://www.iwf.org/blog/2798661/University-of-Missouri-Media-Professor-Tries-the-Run-the-Press-Off-Campus#sthash.seLVdPrB.dpuf