The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) today announced that Journalism Associate Professor John Freeman will be retiring in May after nearly 33 years at the College.

Freeman has headed the photojournalism program at the UFCJC since joining the faculty in 1991. He is a two-time winner of the College’s Teacher of the Year award and was named UFCJC International Senior Faculty Educator of the Year in 2007 and again in 2021.

During Freeman’s tenure, the photojournalism program won two national championships and seven second places in the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition. At least seven students he supervised competed in the championships. Three students mentored by Freeman went on to win Pulitzer Prizes in photography after graduation.

His research interest focuses on successful photojournalists and has been published in Visual Communications Quarterly, including two portfolio cover pieces and two commentaries. Several articles relating to the photojournalism profession were published in News Photographer magazine.

Beginning in summer 2005, Freeman has conducted a two-week study-abroad journalism course in Berlin, where he lived as a high school student. The 2012 course website was awarded a first place “Best of the Web” prize by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication VisCom Division.

His professional experience includes six years as a staff photographer at The Wichita Eagle in Kansas.

Freeman was awarded an American Society of Newspaper Editors fellowship for six weeks of work at The Record in Hackensack, N.J., during summer 2002. In 1996, he was awarded a research fellowship for eight weeks of study at National Geographic magazine.

Freeman is also active in the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and was named NPPA Educator of the Year in 2001. The student chapter he supervised at UF was named national chapter of the year in 2005. The following year he was named Mentor of the Year by NPPA.

Freeman has a master’s in communication from Wichita State University and a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Posted: February 28, 2024
Category: College News
Tagged as: Berlin Study Abroad, John Freeman, Journalism, Photojournalism