Shannon Ryker | Dec. 17, 2008
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| Photo by Ann Schertz |
| Associate professor Holly Stocking retires this year. |
Stocking said she’ll miss the energy around the school as it prepares students for careers.
“Under our new dean, we have more active alums willing to help students than ever before,” she said. “We continue to receive funding to support all kinds of student initiatives — a student magazine that looks better and better every year, trips to national meetings, trips abroad.”
A full-time faculty member since 1986, Stocking taught here while working on her doctorate, contributing to that energy through her own teaching and research. Since receiving her Ph.D., Stocking has co-written or co-authored four books and about 50 articles, essays and chapters in textbooks, handbooks, encyclopedias and academic journals.
She also has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge in England in the history and philosophy of science department. Before coming to IU, she taught at UCLA, Cal State Long Beach and, briefly, at Boston University.
Stocking has worked at numerous print publications, including the Los Angeles Times, where she was the second woman hired in the news department. She also worked at the Minneapolis Tribune and the Associated Press and was a contributing editor for Human Behavior Magazine. Her freelance work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Columbia Journalism Review, Ms., Ladies’ Home Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Pacific News Service.
Much of Stocking’s research interests have been in the public communication of science, though some of her more recent work has focused on media ethics. She currently is under contract with the Congressional Quarterly Press to create a collection of science articles from The New York Times.
In 2007, Stocking’s accomplishments in science communication led to her election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, only the second non-scientist from Indiana University to receive this honor.
When Stocking is not writing for various publications, she is teaching students at the School of Journalism. In addition to science writing, her class lists include media ethics, literary journalism, magazine reporting and editing, and J200 Reporting, Writing and Editing I and J201 Reporting, Writing and Editing II. She also has taught classes in science, society and media, journalism for social change, public affairs reporting, psychology and media, the newsgathering process, and the journalistic essay.
“Holly has really pushed the school toward more science and environmental writing. It was something we didn’t really have before she showed interest in it,” said Bonnie Brownlee, associate dean for undergraduate studies.
The school has supported Stocking’s efforts.
“With generous support of our new dean, I’ve taken science writing students to national meetings, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of Science Writers,” she said. “These were amazing experiences for the students, terrific motivators, and that can make all the difference in an educational setting.”
For all the journalism students who are looking to graduate this year, or in the near future, Stocking has some advice.
“Get clips or their equivalent, even if it means staying over the summer after you graduate and writing for the IDS.”
Stocking also mentioned it is crucial for students to, “learn everything you can about emerging technologies.” And, job hunters should take the initiative.
“Don’t wait for job notices,” she said. “Be a bulldog. But be patient, too. There is always going to be a place for people who can bulldog information and write clear, engaging prose.”
Learning doesn’t end in the classroom, she said.
“Learn about as many different things as you can both inside and outside the classroom.”
Stocking says this could be by simply changing the way you walk home or reading a different type of book.
“Wake up to everyone and everything around you. It’s a good rule both for professionals in the media and for life,” she said.
After her retirement, Stocking says she will miss her students the most.
“I love being around people whose life experiences are different from my own and this generation in many ways is different from my own. They teach me so much,” she said.
Students and colleagues will miss her, too.
“It really is bittersweet to see Holly go. She has been here as long as I have and is a good colleague to have,” said Brownlee.
Stocking says she is ready to go.
“Journalism as I once knew it and loved it is dying,” she said. “There’s still some excellent journalism going on, but less and less of it is being done in the print media, where I garnered most of my professional experience, and more and more of it’s being done on platforms I’ve never experienced.”
Retirement for Stocking, however, will not be all leisure but rather more of what she loves: her work. Among other things, she plans to finish many of what a retired friend calls her “legacy projects,” those in which she can share the expertise she’s accumulated over the years. The Congressional Quarterly collection is an example of this, she said.
Of a personal interest, Stocking wants to write a collection of Buddhist stories and folk tales she has collected over the last 10 years.
Other than these projects, Stocking’s schedule is open.
“If any of my former students out there are in a position to hire writers, call me,” she said.
She said it is an exciting time to be in the school, and is sad, in many ways, to go.
One thing she said she won’t miss, though, is grading papers.
