Brian Southwell, journalism and mass communication

Home > Meet the Faculty > Faculty Awards & Honors > Brian Southwell

Winner of the Arthur "Red" Motley Teaching Award

With his amazing ability to make every student feel welcome, Brian Southwell is not just a favorite professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He's one of the most popular professors in the College of Liberal Arts.

Brian Southwell

An overwhelming number of student nominations combined with his consistently positive teaching evaluations earned Southwell this year's Arthur “Red” and Helene B. Motley Outstanding Teaching Award.

Many of his students praise him as highly encouraging and very approachable. “Professor Southwell makes his courses interesting and relevant for students. He goes out of his way to meet his students, know them by name, learn their interests and connect them with opportunities,” says a former student.

Southwell understands well how to help his students learn. “At least three factors appear to facilitate learning: existing knowledge, confidence and motivation. Almost everything I do as a teacher is intended to increase one of those,” he says. Journalism students enjoy his classes and his teaching style so much they often continue to take several classes with him, from his 1001 Introduction to Mass Communication lecture course to his 5000-level graduate courses.

Part of Southwell's ability to intrigue students is that he also manages to juggle fascinating, timely research on top of his teaching and advising schedule. He uses this research and his past experiences—like working for the Centers for Disease Control—to contribute to the discussion about science and health communication.

His good intentions overflow from the classroom. Since 2003, he has supervised over 30 undergraduate students as they have worked on directed studies projects, internships and honors theses.

“I was inspired by Professor Southwell to do a research project. When he noticed I was very interested in a subject from his class, he suggested I look at doing a directed studies project. Now, because of that project and his guidance, I'm considering applying to graduate schools,” says an admiring student.

Southwell came to the College of Liberal Arts in 2002 from the East Coast, where he received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.