Biography
Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, a Professor in the Communication Department, teaches a wide range of journalism courses but has a special interest in magazine writing and editing as well as solutions journalism. She is also the creator of Columbia Votes, the college's nationally recognized voter education, motivation and registration initiative. A dedicated teacher, she was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2013 and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Teaching Activism Award in 2022. Sharon is active in the Magazine Media Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and a co-organizer of Mapping the Magazine, an international research conference. Her scholarly interests include magzine media and solutions journalism. Her research has been published in Journalism Practice, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Handbook of Magazine Media and the Journal of Magazine Media and she is co-editor of Curating Culture: How 20th Century Magazines Influenced America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). She has also contributed articles to Belt, Chicago magazine, In These Times, Common Review, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, Ocean Paddler, Adventure Kayak, Sea Kayaker and other publications. She has a M.A. in English from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in General Studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago.
Instructional Areas
Solutions Journalism, narrative journalism, magazine writing, magazine editing, travel writing, interviewing, blogging, grammar.
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Fact checking in the digital age, and the cultural impact of consumer magazines.
Degrees
B.A., General Studies University of Chicago 1984
M.A., English Language and Literature University of Virginia 1986