Christie Kleinmann is a professor of public relations and associate director of the Teaching Center at Belmont University.
How did you become involved with AJHA?
I first learned about AJHA in graduate school through my historical methods class. Attending my first AJHA conference changed everything for me. I was immediately drawn to this remarkable community of storytellers; scholars who were genuinely invested in one another's success. I knew right away that I wanted to be part of that kind of community.
You were recently awarded a Joseph McKerns Research Grant supporting your examination of the public relations strategies for two Civil Rights protests in Nashville. How did you become interested in that project?
It started with a historical marker in Nashville's Centennial Park. I stopped to read it and thought, why have I never heard this story? The event it described had such a strikingly different outcome than the lunch counter sit-ins that occurred just a year earlier, yet it seemed almost forgotten in history. I'd heard about the sit-ins countless times, but this chapter had been quietly overlooked. That's exactly the kind of story I feel compelled to share, and I'm so grateful the McKerns Research Grant is making it possible.
One of your recent courses at Belmont University combined strategic communications with literature to create PR campaigns for literary giants of the 1930s and 1940s. What drew you to fuse PR and literature? How did students respond to the course?
That course was so much fun to teach! I've long loved the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers, and I found a teaching grant supporting the integration of Inklings writers into college classrooms, which honestly felt like a sign. I wanted to do two things at once: introduce my students to these extraordinary authors and then challenge them to introduce the authors to their generation. They became brand ambassadors tasked with translating the timeless wisdom of the Inklings to a Gen Z audience. The students wrestled with how to remain authentic to the Inklings writers while also making them relevant in a very different culture, and they responded with real care and creativity. For me it represented the perfect classroom experience: creativity grounded in wisdom.
What advice or lesson would you offer other faculty looking for new and creative ways to teach PR or advertising?
Lean into what you love, and trust that your students will feel it. My students didn't walk into my Inklings class as fans. When I asked one student if he liked the Tolkien movies, he said that there was just so much walking! But the students responded to my genuine enthusiasm for these writers, and little by little, they found their own appreciation. Passion is contagious in a classroom. When you teach from a place of authentic curiosity, students don't just learn the material, they learn what it looks like to care deeply. That may be the most important lesson any of us can pass on.
What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?
I have what my husband generously calls "too many" rescues—dogs, cats, and horses who I've either found or, more often, who have found me. I'll admit that they create a fair amount of chaos, but the peace of grooming my horse on a quiet morning or settling in with my Great Dane at the end of a long day has carried me through more than I can say. My husband insists the house is full and perhaps I need another hobby, but I feel confident that I can squeeze in one more!
