Arkansas hires biz journalist Wells to teach

The University of Arkansas has hired business journalist Rob Wells to teach in the Lemke Department of Journalism in Fayetteville as an assistant professor.

Wells will teach data journalism and develop some new courses for the department. This fall, he is tentatively scheduled to teach a new data journalism course that he is creating as well as a master’s level journalism theory course.

“I hope to offer my business journalism class at some point in the future, as well as a new course on statistics for journalists,” said Wells in an email to Talking Biz News. “This is a great position in a very collegial and supportive department. An old Associated Press colleague, Gina Shelton, teaches journalism there and was a major force in recruiting me to Fayetteville.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”aY6I1Mj12QNjhoLHcffkmNWR68bRyiwz”]The tenure-track job will support his ongoing research in business journalism. Wells is scheduled to defend his dissertation, “`A Reporter’s Paper’: The National Thrift News, Journalistic Autonomy and the Savings and Loan Crisis,” on May 19 at the University of Maryland’s Merrill College of Journalism. He plans to develop a book from the dissertation and as well as numerous journal articles.

“I have had a fantastic time at the University of Maryland and am deeply indebted to Merrill College Dean Lucy Dalglish for supporting my doctoral studies and allowing me to teach business journalism courses each semester,” said Wells. “The chair of my dissertation committee, Dr. Sarah Oates,  has been a tireless champion of my work.”

Prior to his academic career, Wells was deputy bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires in Washington, D.C.; he has also reported for Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and newspapers in California.

Wells was a 2012 Reynolds Visiting Business Journalism Professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He has conducted training sessions for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Association of Area Business Publishers, and the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism