Profile: Jim Leonhirth
After more than three decades as a writer and teacher of writing, Jim Leonhirth is shifting back toward writing and editing projects. Leonhirth is working on a book about an Italian-American family of visual and performing artists and their adventures through several generations. A brief introduction is available here. An agent is working with Leonhirth to find a publisher for the non-fiction book. Leonhirth also contributes columns to the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro.
He is working to develop other writing and editing projects.
Leonhirth also is offering tutoring services. More information about the services is available here.
Prior to returning to Murfreesboro in 2001, Leonhirth spent nine years in academia, as a doctoral student at the University of Florida, as an assistant professor at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and a visiting assistant professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Texas A&M University in College Station.
He had worked for nearly 20 years as a newspaper reporter and editor in Tennessee and Alabama and edited and published Southern Currents, a science and technology newsletter based near Huntsville, Ala., for five years. This project introduced him to many of the issues that digital and online communication technologies are raising.
He began the doctoral program at the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida in 1992 and his studies and research there centered on the adoption of new communication technologies and examined their history, communication law and policy, and the social effects of new communication technologies.
At Florida, Leonhirth also worked for three years on the development of an online newspaper, Sun.ONE, a joint project of the university's Interactive Media Lab and the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group. Leonhirth earned his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Florida in 1996.
Leonhirth has presented 15 academic papers at regional and national conventions of communication organizations and among his academic publications are "Selling Cable Television in the 1970s and 1980s: Social Dreams and Business Schemes" in American Journalism in 1998, "Does the Sun Shine in Cyberspace? Electronic Access and State Open Meetings Laws," published in the State and Local and Government Review in 1995, and "Wanted...A Metaphor for Jhistory: Using Past Information Systems To Explain Internet Mailing Lists," which he co-authored for The Electronic Journal of Communication in 1997.
He also has written two book chapters, "Racial Minorities and the FCC's 'Public Interest' Mandate: Defining and Redefining Their Role, 1934-1996" in U.S. News Coverage of Racial Minorities: A Sourcebook, 1934 to Present and "William James and the Uncertain Universe " in American Pragmatism and Communication Research published in 2001.
He has published freelance articles in Biophotonics International and Modern Physician. He also served as managing editor of the AIDS Policy and Law newsletter.
More information about Leonhirth's credentials and experience are available in his curriculum vitae.