Roy W. Howard Professor David Weaver wrote this biography about professor Christine L. Ogan. It was published by the Dean of Faculties office in honor of retiring faculty and presented in a booklet at a ceremony April 16.
Christine Ogan retires this spring as professor of journalism and professor of informatics after a long and distinguished career at Indiana University that began in 1976 with her appointment as a lecturer in the Department of Speech and Drama at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and a part-time assistant professor in the School of Journalism at IU-Bloomington after completion of her Ph.D. in mass communication research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In the 32 years that she has served Indiana University, her appointments have included assistant, associate and full professor of journalism as well as a joint appointment as professor of the new School of Informatics launched in 2000.
Before then, she completed bachelors and masters degrees at Bowling Green State University and taught in the English department at John Hay High School in Cleveland, in the Speech and Drama department at Ithaca College in New York, in the English department at Ankara Koleji in Turkey, in the English department at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, and in the English department at North Carolina Central University in Durham.
In the School of Journalism here at IU, she has taught a wide range of courses, including beginning news writing, international communication, communication and development, and information technology issues.
In addition to significant and innovative research that includes three books and numerous articles and chapters concerning communication and national development, women in media management, and the use of media by Turkish migrants in Amsterdam, she has served in a number of administrative positions that include Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Bureau of Media Research in the School of Journalism, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the School of Informatics.
She has also served as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Middle East University in Ankara, Turkey, as the Park Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as a Visiting Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. She was the Interim Director of the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at IU in the spring of 2007 and a co-director of a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on gender equitable outcomes in IT higher education in September of 2007.
Her work has been recognized and honored by the Office for Women’s Affairs Distinguished Scholar Award in March 2002 for outstanding scholarship and efforts to enhance women’s lives through research, as well as the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University in New York where she was a Research Fellow in the fall of 1986. She also received a mid-career faculty fellowship from IU in 1990-91.
Over the past 32 years, she has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of communication research and to enhance the role of women in this research and in higher education more generally. She has earned a reputation as a tough but caring teacher who sets high expectations for her students, but never higher than those she sets for herself.
I have worked with her on several studies, and I know firsthand from these experiences of her integrity, high standards and incredible capacity for hard work. She simply will not give up in the face of many obstacles that would stop most scholars. Ever since coming to Bloomington in 1974, she has met and overcome numerous barriers to her own professional advancement, rising to become the second woman to attain the rank of full professor in the School of Journalism in 1994 after being hired as a fulltime faculty member in 1981. She has supervised more theses and dissertations than almost any other faculty member in the School of Journalism during this time and has given generously to her students while holding them to very high standards.
Her research on Turkish migrants in Amsterdam has required not only Turkish language skills, but also extraordinary perseverance in completing in-depth interviews with total strangers living in a highly concentrated and complex urban environment. Years of research went into her book, Communication and Identity in the Diaspora, which is a landmark study of the uses and impact of mass media and will be cited for years to come in studies of media and cultural identity.
In her years at Indiana University, professor Ogan has been a model of the ideal teacher-scholar-administrator. She has held herself and her students to the highest standards and has striven mightily to be the complete academic citizen, participating outside her home unit on the faculties of African Studies, West European Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Central Eurasian Studies as well as on a variety of important university committees such as the Board of Review, Grievance, Affirmative Action, and Faculty Affairs. Some have found her to be a tough critic, but they know that she is as tough on herself as on others, and that she is, at heart, someone who wants the best for her students, her field, and her university.
She will be sorely missed and very difficult to replace, but we know that she will not stop studying and writing and teaching about communication in her retirement. We won’t be able to really replace her, but we will try to carry on her outstanding work and high standards in the years to come.
David Weaver
Roy W. Howard Professor
School of Journalism
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Christine Ogan retires this spring as professor of journalism and professor of informatics after a long and distinguished career at Indiana University that began in 1976 with her appointment as a lecturer in the Department of Speech and Drama at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and a part-time assistant professor in the School of Journalism at IU-Bloomington after completion of her Ph.D. in mass communication research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In the 32 years that she has served Indiana University, her appointments have included assistant, associate and full professor of journalism as well as a joint appointment as professor of the new School of Informatics launched in 2000.
Before then, she completed bachelors and masters degrees at Bowling Green State University and taught in the English department at John Hay High School in Cleveland, in the Speech and Drama department at Ithaca College in New York, in the English department at Ankara Koleji in Turkey, in the English department at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, and in the English department at North Carolina Central University in Durham.
In the School of Journalism here at IU, she has taught a wide range of courses, including beginning news writing, international communication, communication and development, and information technology issues.
In addition to significant and innovative research that includes three books and numerous articles and chapters concerning communication and national development, women in media management, and the use of media by Turkish migrants in Amsterdam, she has served in a number of administrative positions that include Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Bureau of Media Research in the School of Journalism, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the School of Informatics.
She has also served as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Middle East University in Ankara, Turkey, as the Park Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as a Visiting Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. She was the Interim Director of the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at IU in the spring of 2007 and a co-director of a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on gender equitable outcomes in IT higher education in September of 2007.
Her work has been recognized and honored by the Office for Women’s Affairs Distinguished Scholar Award in March 2002 for outstanding scholarship and efforts to enhance women’s lives through research, as well as the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University in New York where she was a Research Fellow in the fall of 1986. She also received a mid-career faculty fellowship from IU in 1990-91.
Over the past 32 years, she has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of communication research and to enhance the role of women in this research and in higher education more generally. She has earned a reputation as a tough but caring teacher who sets high expectations for her students, but never higher than those she sets for herself.
I have worked with her on several studies, and I know firsthand from these experiences of her integrity, high standards and incredible capacity for hard work. She simply will not give up in the face of many obstacles that would stop most scholars. Ever since coming to Bloomington in 1974, she has met and overcome numerous barriers to her own professional advancement, rising to become the second woman to attain the rank of full professor in the School of Journalism in 1994 after being hired as a fulltime faculty member in 1981. She has supervised more theses and dissertations than almost any other faculty member in the School of Journalism during this time and has given generously to her students while holding them to very high standards.
Her research on Turkish migrants in Amsterdam has required not only Turkish language skills, but also extraordinary perseverance in completing in-depth interviews with total strangers living in a highly concentrated and complex urban environment. Years of research went into her book, Communication and Identity in the Diaspora, which is a landmark study of the uses and impact of mass media and will be cited for years to come in studies of media and cultural identity.
In her years at Indiana University, professor Ogan has been a model of the ideal teacher-scholar-administrator. She has held herself and her students to the highest standards and has striven mightily to be the complete academic citizen, participating outside her home unit on the faculties of African Studies, West European Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Central Eurasian Studies as well as on a variety of important university committees such as the Board of Review, Grievance, Affirmative Action, and Faculty Affairs. Some have found her to be a tough critic, but they know that she is as tough on herself as on others, and that she is, at heart, someone who wants the best for her students, her field, and her university.
She will be sorely missed and very difficult to replace, but we know that she will not stop studying and writing and teaching about communication in her retirement. We won’t be able to really replace her, but we will try to carry on her outstanding work and high standards in the years to come.
David Weaver
Roy W. Howard Professor
School of Journalism
back to Uncategorized
