BY: Justin Hicks
AUM is blessed to have such a great team of professors that enhance the learning experience for all students who step into their classrooms. Dr. Hilary Gamble and Dr. Eunyoung Kim are professors in the Communication and Theatre Department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. These professors show a dedication to not only their students but also to research outside the classroom. Let’s get to know them a little more.
Dr. Hilary Gamble
Dr. Hilary Gamble received her undergraduate degree in communications with a plan to move to a Top 10 news market to get a job behind the scenes as a director
She decided that life wasn’t for her and after some consideration decided to go back to school. Dr. Gamble’s primary question during her master’s education was whether or not the romantic ideals on television and in movies teach young men and women what to expect from their relationships.
After her masters, Gamble pursued a PhD. She focused on the topic of sex because she found that seemed to be an area in which young people were most susceptible to the media’s influence.
Gamble has many goals, and they change from year to year, but this year her goals are to adequately prepare for tenure, publish more research, and be better about showing her students genuine care and concern.
Five years from now, she would like to have set up a good group of local journalism professionals who can advise both her and her students about trends in the field and hopefully offer students more opportunities to experience what a career in journalism is like before they graduate. She would also like to have the AUM TV station running a weekly TV news show that is broadcasted around campus and the community.
Gamble has been a professor at AUM for four years as of the start of the Fall 2020 semester. Her favorite part of being a professor is the students. Due to the small class sizes at AUM, she says she can get to know each of her students.
Gamble stated that the most challenging thing she is facing right now as a professor is the switch to all online classes due to CoViD-19. Also, she said she fears that education will become more of a business than a learning experience in the future.
Outside of teaching, Gamble likes doing anything and everything she can to stay active and continue learning, which helps her stay young at heart. If she was not a professor, Gamble said she would become a sex therapist. She thinks the culture in this country sets people up to have a lot of sexual hang-ups and loves talking about that kind of stuff with people, so she feels like this would be a natural career choice.
Dr. Eunyoung Kim
Dr. Eunyoung Kim earned Ph.D. in communication from the University of Alabama in 2016 with a specialization in public relations and sports communication. Before that, she earned a master’s degree from Texas State University. She also has a master’s degree that she earned from Koomin University in South Korea before coming to the United States.
Before teaching at AUM, Dr.Kim was an adjunct instructor at UA. In addition to that, she taught Korean language and literature to middle schoolers and high schoolers for several years when she was in South Korea.
Kim says she does not have any specific goal for her career. However, she always thinks about the balance between teaching and research. She stated that she would like to be a good teacher who has a few strong courses, as well as a researcher who keeps doing research in her specialty.
Dr. Kim has been a professor at AUM for almost three years. Her favorite part about being a professor at AUM is the right size of the classes and communicating with students. She said, “When I try to deliver knowledge, I can see how students grow.”
Kim says the hardest challenge she faces as a professor is finding a good balance between being a strict teacher and an understanding adviser. All students are different, so she has to find a way to be a different type of teacher for each student.
Outside of the classroom, Kim loves to do jigsaw puzzles. She says that if she was not a professor, then she would pursue her dream job as a journalist. After all, her first master’s degree is in journalism.