EMU Today

YPSILANTI – Dana Heller, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Eastern Michigan University, has been appointed to the board of jurors for the Peabody Awards, bestowed each year for excellence in television, radio and digital media.

Heller, a professor of cultural studies who came to Eastern in 2018, was appointed to the board last month. The Peabody program is based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Jeffrey Jones, executive director of the Peabody Awards, said the organization is delighted to welcome such a bright mind as Heller’s into the Peabody fold, noting that she is a leader in her field and will offer “valuable insights in selecting stories that matter.”

Dean Heller said, "The Peabody Awards has an enduring history of honoring ‘stories that matter,’ and I’m excited to serve on their Board of Jurors, particularly at a time when we see such innovation and vibrancy in the production of media content."

The College of Arts and Sciences is Eastern’s largest college, with specialties in the humanities, sciences, performance arts and world languages. The college seeks to provide a foundation for creative and critical thinking with a dynamic curriculum that aims to prepare students in an ever-changing world.

Before coming to Eastern, Heller served as an Eminent Scholar and Louis I. Jaffe Professor of English at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She is the author/editor of eight books and numerous articles on topics related to television, popular culture, media, and gender and sexuality studies.

Heller is past chair of the ODU Department of English and served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Letters in 2016-2017. Previous to that, she served for 11 years as director of the Humanities Institute and Graduate Program at ODU.

She was the recipient of Fulbright Fellowships in Russia, Bulgaria, and Belarus, and an exchange fellow in Osaka through the Japanese American Studies Fund. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Goddard College, a master’s degree in creative writing from Columbia University, and a doctorate in American literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. 

The Peabody Board of Jurors is made up of media industry professionals, media scholars, critics and journalists, appointed by the program’s executive director to a renewable three-year term of service. The mix of top-level thought leaders nominates 60 programs across genres and platforms from which The Peabody 30 – the best stories of the year – are selected as representative of the highest standards in media.

For a list of the current board of jurors, see the Peabody Awards website.

About Eastern Michigan University

Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 17,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and, its graduate school. EMU is regularly recognized by national publications for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website.