Thanks for all the work you put into Lantern! I can’t tell you how much easier it has made my film research. I started out going to the Library of Congress Motion Picture Reading Room and slogging through their bound volumes and microfilm reels. The difference in efficientcy between then and now is amazing.

Thanks for your comment. I hope Anne would have thought of me as smart and cool, but I didn’t really get to know her until late-2007. When she spoke to you, she may have been thinking of Heidi Rae Cooley, James Cahill, Renee Bruckner, Genevieve Yue, Brian Jacobson, and some of the other really smart and talented people who she mentored. However, the remarkable thing about Anne was how brightly her charisma and vision glowed — even to students and colleagues who she didn’t directly mentor.

When I met Anne for the first time, I was a prospective PhD student. Sitting in her office, I remember thinking to myself, “We focus on different research areas, and you probably won’t be my dissertation advisor. But if I’m part of a department that you are leading, then I know I’ll do just fine.” I found a wonderful mentor at USC in Ellen Seiter, who helped me grow tremendously and to whom I owe all of my academic success. In reflecting on the award and writing this blog post, though, I’ve come to better appreciate how much I learned from Anne — especially her unique way of looking at the world and what it means to be a leader in academia.

Eric Hoyt