Announcing the Spring 2016 Shapiro Fellows: Yong-Chan Kim and Laura King


January 22, 2016

The School of Media and Public Affairs is pleased to announce the 2016  J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellows in Media and Public Affairs., communication professor Yong-Chan Kim and international journalist Laura King.

Kim is currently a professor at the College of Communication at Yonsei University, South Korea, where he also serves as the director of Urban Socio-Spatial Informatics Center and Principal Investigator of Urban Communication Lab.

Meeting and talking with SMPA faculty, fellows, and students always gives me new insights and new ideas,” said Kim. “In addition, I love Washington, DC.  As a person who has been interested in urban communication, this is one of the perfect places to be in.”

This semester Kim will teach “Communication and the City,” which equips students with a deeper understanding of developments in communication technologies.

This course is designed to help undergraduate-level students have a good understanding about how communication technologies and urban communities are shaping one another,” said Kim.

King—currently on leave from her post as the “Los Angeles Times” Bureau Chief in Cairo, Egypt—has spent much of her journalistic career covering conflicts and was previously a correspondent for the Associated Press. She has been with the “LA Times” since 2002, and was assigned a regional beat that included Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“I'm delighted to be teaching ‘Writing and War’ this semester and to have a chance to spend time with such bright and engaged students.” said King. “I'm looking forward to interacting with the larger GW community, with all its diverse interests.”

In addition to the courses they are teaching, the Shapiro Fellows will host informal brown bag talks on their areas of expertise for SMPA faculty and students.

About the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellows in Media and Public Affairs

Established in 1997 as part of the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Charitable Trust, Shapiro Fellows in Media and Public Affairs are active, respected professionals in a field related to media and public affairs who are invited to campus for an academic semester to teach and participate in school activities.