Teaching

Courses Taught

  •  Community-Based Learning Courses — These classes offer advanced training for journalism and strategic communication students to work on public-facing storytelling projects with local nonprofit organizations. The main class for this work, Collaborative Storytelling Skills, runs every two years or so. Partners in the past have included: The UW Odyssey Project, Movin’ Out, Root 2 Rise, Leap2College, Goodman Community Center, Bayview Community Foundation, Centro Hispano, Freedom Inc., Urban Triage, Housing Last, GSafe, Cultural Connections, and many others. We learn not only collaboration skills but also solutions-oriented journalism and strategic content, event organizing and coverage, networking, and working for and with different audience groups. Some of this work can be found on Madison Commons’ site: https://madisoncommons.org/category/community-collaborations/collaborative-storytelling-what-we-did/. If you are considering partnering with the class or taking the class, please visit this page:

  • Reporting Skills Classes — These skills classes teach students the basics of reporting (Intermediate Reporting), narrative-based reporting and writing (Creative NonFiction), and long-form issues-based reporting (InDepth Journalism).

  • Literary Journalism – This undergraduate-level course is primarily a reading-intensive class to learn the genres of literary journalism, or non-fiction narrative. Students follow the trajectory of this kind of writing through time.

  • Journalism Theory Seminar – This doctoral-level seminar introduces students to the classic theories informing the research and study of journalism.

  • Qualitative Research Methods – This doctoral-level course teaches graduate students the philosophy and application of qualitative methods. Students conduct hands-on studies of textual analysis, interviewing, ethnography, historical archive work, and grounded theory. They also train in IRB protocol.

Advising & Mentoring

  • Madison Commons: Sue Robinson as publisher of the Madison Commons hyperlocal news sites mentors the editorial intern and other students interested in developing community-based kinds of journalistic collaborations.

  • The UW Odyssey Project: Sue Robinson volunteers with this program for nontraditional students getting their degrees later in life and struggling with financial resources.

  • Qualitative Research Group – Sue Robinson joins other qualitative-oriented faculty at the School to lead a research group around issues having to do with qualitative studies.

  • The Undergraduate Research Scholars Program — Most semesters Robinson accepts and trains a first- or second-year student with her research team

“Being a participant in SJMC’s class with UW Odyssey Project was one of the most meaningful and rewarding classes I took at Madison. The program created such a unique environment of different perspectives and I learned so much from the peers around me. The program created this room where you were able to connect with an amazing group of people, while also pushing me to think more intentionally about my goals and the path ahead. I would wholeheartedly encourage any senior to apply, it’s a great way to round out your experience with SJMC and to be able to have an experience that stays with you long after the class is over.” 

— Alexandra Malatesta, Associate at LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games & SJMC Class of 2026

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