Center promotes religious diversity awareness March 14, 2004
Feb. 2004
Edmund Lambeth Named RPP Director
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Dr. Edmund B. Lambeth, professor emeritus and former associate dean of the Missouri School of Journalism, has been appointed director of the university’s Center for Religion, the Professions, and the Public. Lambeth assumed the leadership post February 1, 2004.
The Center, established in April 2003 by a $1.4-million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, examines issues surrounding the intersection of religious and cultural diversity, spirituality, ethics, and the professions. Through research, curricular development, and outreach initiatives, the Center aims to expand the scholarly knowledge about these issues and to strengthen relationships between professionals and the diverse populations they serve.
Faculty and fellows from business, engineering, health professions, journalism, law, medicine, nursing, religious studies, and social work are collaborating on the Center’s initiatives. “It’s an honor to be working with colleagues from such important disciplines and with a project that offers such significant opportunities for Mizzou and the state of Missouri,” Lambeth said.
Dr. Jill Raitt, founding chair of MU’s Department of Religious Studies and the Center’s interim director, continues with the Center as senior research fellow. Raitt also was instrumental in organizing Colloquia 2000: Religion, the Professions, and the Public, a lecture series on religion in the practice of law, medicine, and journalism, and in securing the grant that established the Center at MU.
After spending 12 years as a reporter, the last six years as a Washington correspondent for the Gannett News Service, Lambeth originated the Washington Reporting Program for the Missouri School of Journalism and directed it from 1968 to 1978. He then served as a professor at Indiana University and as director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism before returning to Missouri as associate dean for graduate studies and research from 1987 to 1990.
Lambeth is a former president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, a group of journalism administrators. His books, Committed Journalism: An Ethic for the Profession and Assessing Public Journalism (edited with Phil Meyer and Esther Thorson) reflect his interest in public affairs reporting, ethics, media criticism and the history of journalism. A Congressional Fellow and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Lambeth also was presented MU’s Thomas Jefferson Award (1995) and the University of Missouri Press Best Book Award (1998) by the University of Missouri Curators. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel and Hungary.
At MU, Lambeth created courses in Journalism and Democracy, Critical Analysis of Mass Media, International Issues Reporting, and Religion Reporting and Writing. He originated and directed for 20 years (1984-2003) the National Workshop on the Teaching of Ethics in Journalism.
Lambeth holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in political science from American University.