Hello there!

Nice to blog you. Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Heidi Khaled. I am a doctoral student finishing up my first year here at Annenberg. I received my B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine in 2006, and moved to the East Coast shortly thereafter to begin my exploration into graduate programs. I must say that my experience at ASC and in Philadelphia has been wonderfully enriching and-- dare I say-- a lot of fun.

My research interests currently lie at the intersection between political communication and cultural studies, with a focus on civic engagement among youth via entertainment and music media. Thanks to ASC, I will embark on some heady travails this summer that are guaranteed to be nothing short of amazing.

In exactly a week I will travel to Budapest for a two-week course co-sponsored by our own Center for Global Communication Studies on Media, Democratization, and Civil Society. The course is part of the Summer University series at the Central European University, and I will be staying at their student housing facilities. Aside from myself, Angela Lee, another soon-to-be-second-year colleague of mine, will be there, along with Dr. Monroe Price, Director of CGCS and faculty emeritus at ASC, and Dr. Delli Carpini, the Dean of Annenberg. I am very pleased to be in great company, and of course very excited to see Budapest and enjoy some tourist time there.

Later in August I will fly to Denver and Minneapolis to cover the respective Democratic and Republican National Conventions! We have yet to receive our field assignments, but I will most likely be working for the DNC or RNC, a non-profit organization or media outlet. This is also a great opportunity afforded me by the school, and I feel very fortunate to be a first-hand witness to such momentous events. I also feel that my experiences there will inspire some ideas for interesting research on partisan political behavior and ideology.

In the meanwhile, I will be finishing up some research here in Philadelphia.

I look forward to documenting my adventures for myself as well as for my peers and colleagues, and anyone else interested. More to come once I'm in Budapest!