Steve and Pam Hall Philanthropy supports M.S. Global Media & Cultures

Steve and Pamela Hall are paragons of philanthropy at Georgia Tech, and especially for LMC. And they were among the first to see the value of supporting our (still relatively new) M.S. in Global Media and Cultures (GMC). Here is the list of projects supported by Pam and Steve last year, and they just have committed to the same levels of support for five GMC students for 2021. Check out the descriptions for these projects, all very different, but all combining graduate level work in linguistic and cultural competency, fused with work on a variety of media. Heartfelt thanks to Steve and Pam, for their steadfast friendship and support, on behalf of our GMC students.

2020 Awards and Projects

Pamela and Stephen C. Hall Fellowships for M.S. in Global Media and Cultures

Bryant Campbell Beadles, MS-GMC Russian

Tbilisi Protests in Context: Media, Language, and Russian Strategy in the Caucasus

Format: Research article

On June 20, 2019 protests broke out in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi after a speech, delivered in Russian and from the chair reserved for the Head of the Georgian Parliament, by Russian Duma Deputy Sergei Gavrilov. Russia responded to the to the protests by banning flights between the two countries and imposing stricter import regulations on Georgian wine, and threatened to ban the importation of Georgian wine and mineral water altogether. This article demonstrates that Russia's reactions to the protests were part of a broader strategy to restore and maintain its sphere of influence in the Caucasus region. Economics, media, and the historical relationship between Georgia and Russia are analyzed in the article, and the economic and cultural attacks on Georgia are Russia's attempts to maintain its influence and prevent Georgia from exercising self-determination and escaping Russian control.

“I really enjoyed diving deep into such a recent and important issue and combining my background in business, Russian studies, and media studies.”

Shaidah Herron, MS-GMC French

Community Mental Health

Format: An educational 4-part video series hosted on Youtube

"Community Mental Health" is an educational video series about building relationships in your community with people who have mental disorder; Because a neglect to one is a neglect to all. With 1/5 people experiencing a mental disorder in a year, and 60% of counties in America without a single practicing psychiatrist, it is not effective to solely depend on specialized care to provide the needs of people with mental disorders; Especially since all humans have the same psychological needs and therefore can learn to support the needs of others. No matter if we have mental disorder or not, we all need a community. It is in the community that we find a sense of belonging and learn our place in the world.

“My favorite part about the project was creating an interactive video that makes learning fun.”

Ci Song, MS-GMC Chinese

Entrepreneurship and Technology Adoption Across Languages and Cultures

Format: Internship

This project is an internship serving as an instructional designer Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, the largest and most comprehensive university-based industry assistance program in the United States. Song collaborated with Carl Rust, director of Innovation Ecosystems at the Cell Manufacturing Technologies Research Center, to design and launch a virtual course on innovation ecosystems and technology commercialization for Chinese entrepreneurs. In addition to translation, Song provides consultation on development strategy, such as how to time the course to work with China’s calendar. In this role, she builds on several experiences in the MS-GMC. As a graduate assistant, Song designed the graduate program’s first-ever international marketing campaign, translating flyers into Chinese for an international audience. She also tutored undergraduates and launched a weekly community tea hour to bring together faculty and students from 14 different language groups to pause their busy days and create a shared community space.

“It was interesting to learn Chinese in an American perspective among students from all over the world. During the program, I gained a unique outlook on Chinese language and culture that I don’t think I would have gotten if I remained in China.”

Maria Daniela Rodriguez, MS-GMC Spanish

Pan de Cada Día

Format: Documentary Film | Project link: https://vimeo.com/446595739

This documentary film aims to commemorate Colombian panaderias, family-owned bread stores, while reintroducing the value of neighborhood culture, informality, and manual labor. In a rapidly globalizing world, it is important to recognize the value of these alternative (and disappearing) ways of business making and relating as they can be opportunity for flexibility, experimentation and appropriateness for Colombia’s working class.

Working in this project allowed me to take a closer look at the city I grew up in and talk to people that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to—It gave me a more robust insight into something I would take for granted as face value.

Oriana Valencia, MS-GMC Spanish

Bendichas manos que lo cozinó, An Atlanta Jewish Story

Format: Documentary Film | Project link: https://arcg.is/1Pi1K1

The documentary Bendichas manos que lo cozinó: An Atlanta Jewish Story explores the intersections between faith and cultural heritage. Warmth, responsibility and cultural pride exude in the interviews as members of the congregation recount the stories of their community. The goal of this project is to tell an alternate history of Atlanta through minority voices.

“I was curious about the Sephardic identity, especially within the Spanish-speaking context, but as I started to interact with the community of Or VeShalom, I found that the Sephardic identity was far more complex and multicultural.”