Remembering the Unforgettable: Professor Katherine McAdams
By Saswat Pattanayak
New York, October 1, 2020
Professor (Dr.) Katherine C. McAdams is not among us anymore. She was a beloved professor, administrator, and researcher at the University of Maryland, where she had worked in various capacities - as a professor Emerita, an associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the Ombudsperson of the university’s Graduate School, the Associate Dean in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, the Executive Director of College Park Scholars program, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Merrill College, among others. She also worked at the the American University (Washington DC) as the Assessment Advisor for the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
She had earned her Ph.D. in Mass Communication Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989, where her research dealt with “subtle forms of bias transmitted to audiences via traditional news formats.” Dr. McAdams was a freelance journalist and a copy editor for washingtonpost.com in its early days. And her book “Reaching Audiences: A Guide to Media Writing” was a canonical work for media literacy that had reached at least five editions. She has been recognized for outstanding teaching by the Panhellenic Council, by the Center for Teaching Excellence, and by the Omicron Delta Kappa service honorary.
I would go on listing more of her accomplishments, but I know she would not have approved of such an undertaking. She always preferred to maintain a low-profile, did not crave for awards, grants, and recognitions; and certainly did not do anything to seek favors from elite academic circles or likes from the populist social media fan clubs. In her nearly three decades of teaching career, she was focused only on one element - her students.
She championed her students and that she did, extraordinarily well. At a juncture where the world of academia is jeopardized by financial considerations, and research interests developed to cater to special interests, and fostering of critical thinking skills has been replaced by professional grant writing skills - Dr. McAdams was an exception to the norms. She always went beyond and above her job expectations and requirements to represent her students’ interests, first and foremost.
All of her masters and doctoral students know this. And I know it as well, especially because I was her very last doctoral advisee. She had to battle severe health issues in a timely manner, and challenge hostile administrative limitations, just because she refused to give up on my dissertation. After I moved to New York, I had started to receive discouraging feedbacks from many who almost tried to convince me that I could not finish the program on time. Not to mention, there came a phase when my dissertation committee did not have a chair, as Dr. McAdams was hospitalized, and folks hastily assumed she was not going to come back from the hospital to become my academic advisor again. Well-meaning professors also proposed to me names of others I could approach to head my committee. But I knew I was not going to take this shorter route. I simply could not imagine the merit of an honor that she could not bestow upon me. So I waited for her instead.
At Home. Dr. Kathy and Mr. Tim McAdams with Bruno.
And during that time, Dr. McAdams too did not quit. She fought hard and steady, to earn her Emerita status just so she could continue advising me. It was an administrative requirement that was strenuous, and she went through the entire process solely to support the one last student who needed her the most. She put together a committee that would not abandon me. My original dissertation proposal committee chaired by Dr. McAdams included Prof. Michael Gurevitch (theory), Prof. Ray Hiebert (internet politics) and Prof. John L. Caughey (cognate-American Studies). All of them were great and supportive colleagues of Dr. McAdams. But sadly in the meantime, Dr. Gurevitch passed away, Dr. Hiebert - who was also the founding dean of our college and was a professor Emeritus himself, had to stay away from the campus on foreign assignments, and Dr. Caughey retired from active campus life. Amidst such a difficult phase, and despite her own precarious health conditions involving multiple surgeries and even trips to the ICU, Dr. McAdams kept her promises to meet with me for as many times required to proceed with the dissertation. She traveled off-campus to meet with Prof. John Cordes in Pennsylvania, so that together they could help me finalize coding of my research work. She approached Prof. Jo Paoletti, Dean Kevin Klose and Prof. Ron Yaros on my behalf to ensure that eventually we prevail over all the obstacles. And I earned a well-deserved Ph.D that I dedicated to her at the Hooding Ceremony itself. For my parents, family and friends, it was a day of celebrations for my accomplishment. For me, it was a time to express infinite gratitude to Professor McAdams for having been there for me, through it all.
And yet, I was not there for her during her last days. I did not even know that there were signs that she would leave us so soon. Dr. Cordes (who I shall finally address as my beloved friend, John) called me yesterday to share the news of her demise. It was the saddest day that I recall in recent decades. John and Kathy were always the best of friends. Apart from Tim McAdams, who survives her now and who himself fought cancer and ill-health so that he could become the support to her all these years - in sufferings and in great humor (as Kathy would describe his sense, as), it was John who always spoke to me about her health and spirits. John and Kathy had both turned 70 this year and they used to joke about each other’s birthdays (John is only 18 days younger than her). Their friendship and the way they cared for each other used to inspire me. To hear from him about her departure was especially heartbreaking.
Dr. McAdams with Dr. John Cordes
I had to share the news last night with my beloved elder brothers who Kathy immensely loved and had also academically supervised before me - Dr. Jared Ball, and Dr. Todd. S. Burroughs. In all my life in the US, if there are two activist-scholars who I am forever indebted to for their radical interpretations of life and society, they are Jared and Todd - and it was thanks to Kathy, that I had first been introduced to them. After all these years, we are all together as a family. Today, she has left us. Both Jared and Todd have written moving tributes on Twitter and in their blogs.
Dr. Svetlana Markova also was Kathy’s doctoral advisee. When Svetlana was embarking upon her trip to the US for the first time, I was entrusted by Dr. McAdams to communicate with Svetlana and to answer any questions she might have. Over the years, Svetlana and I have become friends for a lifetime. She however stayed on in DC Metro area, and was fortunate to meet with Kathy more frequently. Today she wrote to me saying she is in utter disbelief.
Everyone who knew Kathy was well aware of the unique love and dedication her students had towards her. That does not mean everyone treated her justly. Quite the contrary. Like Todd has correctly pointed out, “She had a lot of friends and admirers and the right enemies.” For Kathy McAdams, standing up for principles and social justice was always more important than looking for ways to fit in. Making friends was important, but the foundations of those friendships were more so. Progressive values embedded into her academic ways of life were always more important to her and her friends shall always remember her for that.
Dr. Jared Ball whose dissertation committee was chaired by her, has said, “in an amazing contradiction, it was she and another white southern woman, Maureen Beasley, who most supported me and my comrades, while earning a doctorate as, well, others were, shall we just say, less supportive.”
Kathy McAdams defied conventions in more ways than I can list out here. But suffice it to say, she had challenged both the glass ceilings and the ivory towers - the journey was never an easy one, precisely because of her chosen socio-political orientation. Once she had told me, how excited she was for finally being recognized by the University of North Carolina as an early woman leader at UNC. She went to take part in the installation of the first woman to serve as Chancellor of the 225-year-old institution. She said the university was all men for many years and had not admitted Freshman women until 1966. Then it had taken several years for women to assume leadership roles in student government. That time I had realized that she was a white southern woman but yet one who was out there setting precedents, not following prescripts.
Dr. McAdams with her advisees - Dr. Todd S. Burroughs, Dr. Jared Ball, Dr. Saswat Pattanayak, among others
In fact, it was Kathy who had recommended me to the Office of Human Relations Programs (Office of Diversity and Inclusion). I have always been a staunchly marxist-leninist, but it was she who also enriched my beliefs with the knowledge about intersectionality back in the days when the word had not even gained much coinage. This was not part of any curricula - but she and I used to discuss at length and exchange perspectives that wouldn’t have a place in usual classroom settings. She had great patience absorbing my talks about Lenin, and I, in turn, learnt about social locations from her so much that I soon found OHRP to be the only natural fit for my workplace. Around that time, when the OHRP/ODI was creating a “Diversity Timeline”, Dr. McAdams edited a manuscript for "Meeting the Challenge of Diversity, 1968-1976,” which dealt with University of Maryland’s history of desegregation.
So of course I shared the news with my former boss at OHRP and my dearest friend, Prof. Gloria J. Bouis. Like Kathy, Gloria too had to navigate through many bureaucratic and often hostile hassles at the big university settings despite doing amazingly progressive works to raise consciousness among students. Gloria was devastated and wrote to me these words I shall always treasure and try to live upto: “She’s a great person. She may be gone but her legacy will live on and you and your voice are one of them.”
Sure enough, her legacy will live on. For outstanding teachers, the greatest tributes come in the form of their students who live to share what they have learnt. In the years of anti-establishment researches and struggles that many of us are engaged in today, it is only proper that the due credit goes to the professor who spoilt us all, through her generous dose of progressivism, conscientiousness, and tireless devotion to intellectual pursuits.
In these times of quick fixes to academic problems, Dr. McAdams was a shining exception. I remember a chapter by her titled, “Ideological Manipulation - Moscow Coup” in the book Global Dynamics of News, in which she (and Li-Ning Huang) had made the effort to incorporate Stuart Hall, Gramsci, Gitlin, Chomsky, Hermann, Gerbner, McQuail, Schramm, Shoemaker, Carey, and Viswanath together. She had cited Gerbner calling the New York Times a capitalist American Daily which was "consistent with the market-oriented ideology of a capitalist system in which conflict, tension, arousal, and sensationalism constitute the news.”
McAdams and Huang had concluded that, “The media play an essential role in manipulating public support for government interests. The news media generally accept official definitions of those who are America’s friends and enemies and describe them accordingly. From this perspective, the mass media influence not only what we think, but also how we think about foreign issues in order to maintain social and political order.”
Dr. McAdams with Prof. Gloria J. Bouis
Her astute observations on and theorizations of mass media continue to remain relevant while many acclaimed experts today try to thrive on a false binary. To investigate further, she and I had conducted research into not just how media as an industry operates to sustain the status quo, but more importantly, how journalists themselves engage in their identity-building exercises that lead to the normalization of hegemony.
Dr. McAdams was also particularly interested in international communication. She would invite me to give talks to freshman College Park Scholars about effects of blogging vis-a-vis international communication. Internationalism, multiculturalism and diversity were what she always emphasized on. Not in words alone, but through her actions. Apart from welcoming and supporting international doctoral candidates, she was uniquely supportive of Jared Ball and Todd S. Burroughs. Dr. Burroughs has tweeted - “Dr. Ball and I are the first - and still the only two - Black men to graduate UMCP’s Journalism school’s Ph.D program. I’m sure you have no idea why”.
Respect for differences alone is a tool to thwart insular monolithic notions of cultural purities. The significance of lessons from such an understanding can never be overstated, especially in these times that we live in.
As Todd texted me immediately upon hearing the news of her demise, “A humble and serious spirit is not with us, while evil stalks the land!!!”
When Trump first appeared in the political landscape, for Dr. McAdams and I, it was almost a necessity to conduct an intellectual investigation into what might have led to such a culmination of him being even considered a nominee. Were the media complicit in the process? Were journalists themselves using the language that Trump was using? My main focus was precisely to understand the deterioration in the quality of journalism that permitted a certain sense of normalization of this new kind of political discourse. That was four years ago. Today when we witness Biden and Trump producing the worst ever (un)presidential debate, I would have loved to know what Dr. McAdams thought about it. Of course she was studiously aware of the permitted pattern, the predictable direction, and the ongoing normalization of the discourse. And I had thought I would soon visit her to discuss the far-reaching consequences of our past research works, once this pandemic phase is over. But that was not meant to be.
After all, this is 2020 - even as it remains a pure coincidence that most of us are facing unprecedented and unpredictable crisis of some sort or another. Tragedies which simply do not make sense anymore.
“If you are the dealer
I’m out of the game
If you are the healer
I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame….”
I am going to now listen to the words of Leonard Cohen - whose audio CD I had once gifted to Dr. McAdams, back in January 2004. And, she had written the following to me:
“Leonard Cohen is such an insightful choice for a “child of the 1960s." We played it constantly in college and I still know almost every word. How did you know? Leonard Cohen is perfect -- he became popular when I was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina in the late 1960s. My suitemate had a new and very expensive stereo system, and we would play Leonard Cohen over and over. It brings back wonderful memories and is still as good as ever. His poetry and music have lasted well -- better than most of his fans from the ‘60s!”
And I am going to finally share this news with my father, whose admiration for Dr. McAdams was only matched by her appreciation for him. As blessed as I am for having my parents, I am everyday counting my blessings equally, for having had Dr. Kathy McAdams as my teacher and advisor.
Further Readings -
Tribute by Dr. Todd S. Burroughs: Thank You, Katherine McAdams
College Park Scholars Mourns Loss of Katherine McAdams
Facebook Post from College Park Scholars
Philip Merrill College of Journalism Mourns Dr. McAdams
Related Readings -
Remembering Michael Gurevitch
Doctoral Hooding Ceremony, Spring 2017 (Video)
Dinner with Prof. McAdams (2012 August)
Video from March 2012 -
Some photos from the yesteryears -
