Dr. Carrie Teresa Isard named inaugural recipient of Klein-Carnell Rising Scholar Award

Dr. Carrie Teresa Isard, chair and associate professor of communication studies at Niagara University, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Klein-Carnell Rising Scholar Award. The new honor recognizes a graduate of Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication whose scholarly achievements within the first seven years since graduation indicate promise of a major research career in any field relevant to communication or media.

The award will be presented during a virtual award ceremony on March 19.

Teresa Isard’s research focuses on the cultural meanings embedded within American news narratives, both past and present. She is especially interested in the institutional development of the African American newspaper industry, as well as journalism’s role in the struggle for freedom.

She is the author of “Looking at the Stars: Black Celebrity Journalism in Jim Crow America,” and has published research on Black press coverage of Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight champion, in American journalism. She also received the American Journalism Historians Association J. William Snodgrass Award for Research on Minority Topics for her co-authored article, “Narrative Analysis of the Central Park Jogger Story in the New York Amsterdam News.”

At Niagara, Teresa Isard has taught courses including media theory and history, stereotyping in media, and communicating for social justice. She also developed a special topics course that explores the relationship between history and public memory in news and popular culture, and serves on NU’s women’s studies committee.

Teresa Isard received her Ph.D. from Temple University’s media and communication program in 2014, where her dissertation focused on celebrity journalism in the early 20th century Black press. She also holds an M.L.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Villanova University.