Brian P. McDermott
Senior Lecturer II
Visual Journalism
M.A., University of Montana
Biography
Brian McDermott joined the journalism faculty full-time in 2009. He began his career as a photojournalist, working at a newspaper in Pennsylvania before heading west to Missoula, Montana, where he went to graduate school and took a new media path. He published photography, multimedia and writing in outlets like the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Associated Press, Bon Appétit, and many others. Currently, he is at work on a documentary photography project about language learning around the world.
His academic research has appeared in Social Media + Society, Journalism Practice, and the Journal of Media Ethics, with the 2019 Journalism Practice article “Closing the Gap Between Photojournalist Research and Photojournalism Practice: Exploring the Motivations of the Subjects of Sensitive Photo Essays” nominated for that year’s top paper award.
He was awarded the 2014 SBS College Outstanding Teaching Award and served as the Journalism Department Chair from September 2017 to May 2023.