Women's History Month: Saluting UW-Stevens Point faculty and staff
Kelly Wilz - School of Design and Communication
A professor and area coordinator for Media Studies at UW-Stevens Point, Kelly Wilz knew she had found her profession when her own college professor inspired her to care deeply about a subject and work harder than she had for any other teacher. She remembers turning in a paper and him saying to her, 'I know you're capable of more than this.'
"That was the first time any instructor had ever really believed in my abilities," she said. "I knew then I wanted to pass that experience forward – to inspire my students the way he inspired me. He'd always say, 'You're smarter than you think you are,' and that will always stay with me."
Studying media and communication in that class and others strengthened Wilz's belief in the power of language and its ability to make our world a more just and equitable place for all.
"Language shapes reality," she said. "Knowing that is extremely powerful. If you know how language works to frame ideas, you can reframe and deconstruct many of our dominant ideologies that we simply take for granted as 'normal, natural and right.'"
Wilz hopes to inspire her students to grasp that power.
While at UWSP, and previously as an associate professor at UWSP at Marshfield, Wilz's teachings and research explore the intersections of education, media literacy, gender, critical race theory, politics, democracy and popular culture. She uses readings, articles, chapters, podcasts, social media and documentaries that raise students' consciousness that have them digging deeper into topics they may have never studied or even heard of before.
"I get excited when my students get excited," she said. "I love being able to tailor assignments to what they're interested in and making each class as personally relevant to them as possible."
She is also excited that social media, through ever changing technologies, allows for us to engage with a wider variety of perspectives, she said. "We're seeing entire movements and conversations becoming mainstream through historically marginalized voices having access to large public platforms."
A degree in media studies provides greater awareness of discussions around informational literacy and cultural competency. Students majoring in media studies are also building bridges between the campus and community through their work at The Pointer, SPTV, 90FM and various internships. Many students stay in the area because of these connections, she said.
"But we also see our graduates doing incredibly innovative work all over the country and internationally, and seeing their progress is so fun to watch."
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