Award-winning Bellisario doctoral student credits zombies for teaching success

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After five years working as a videographer, a group of high school students, a film project and zombies greatly altered Matt Cikovic’s life story. That twist would set him on a course to become something he never expected — an award-winning teacher and researcher.

Cikovic earned the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award from Penn State, one of 10 given each year by the University. He is a doctoral student and an instructor of record in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

“Being recognized is overwhelming,” Cikovic said. “I’m very appreciative and honored.”

Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, Cikovic always had an interest in movies and film production. He is a freelance videographer and has been since 2004.

As a video production student at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in 2009, he was paired with a group of local high school students making a zombie movie. Working with creative young minds and helping them achieve their vision, in a way, infected Cikovic with the teaching bug. That experience provided the foundation for how he teaches.

“My teaching philosophy is centered on getting students to understand their taste and … through critique … helping them articulate it,” he said. “I tell students, ‘You might not think that you’re experienced, but your taste is probably great. You do have something valuable to share.’”

Cikovic has taught five courses in the Bellisario College. His favorites — COMM 280 Telecommunications Technology Lab and COMM 282 TV/Field Production — are the classes that get equipment in students’ hands and gets them in the field and into the studio. He said that at every step his courses encourage collaboration and creativity.

“By the end of the day, I'm exhausted,” Cikovic said. “I'm moving so fast. I'm trying to get out there. I want to be on the camera with them. I want to be out there working with them. I want to make television with them and make videos with them. Sometimes students have told me, ‘Man, you want to sit?’”

Thanks to the new Bellisario Media Center, which opened in 2021, students have a resource for equipment and support at the center of campus. Before the center was built, equipment used to be a 20-minute bus ride away. Cikovic said the media center has allowed him to challenge his students to produce higher-quality projects than ever before.

“Our students are so happy to have the space in the heart of campus,” he said. “I can expect more from their work because of all these opportunities they now have.”

Cikovic arrived at Penn State in 2019 with his wife, Jenny Ham, who had accepted a job with Penn State Law as a professor focused on legal research. Thanks to his established track of record of teaching — both at Pellissippi State and the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his master’s degree — he joined the Bellisario College.

Not long after that, he began working toward a doctorate. For his dissertation, Cikovic is studying the relationship between fan filmmakers and media owners. It’s an industry that has changed tremendously since the days when children made “Star Wars” movies on VHS camcorders, Cikovic said.

New technology has not only improved the quality of fan-made films, but it has also made it easy to share the films with millions of people. Cikovic said the owners of the intellectual property (IP), the media companies, are “just not cool with it.” They have been slow to react and adapt.

“They [the companies] have a product they have to defend, right?” he said. “So, I'm interviewing fan filmmakers, and I'm asking them how they feel about media IP owners and all this technology change. How do they work with them? Do they work for them or against them?”

Fans have figured out how to monetize the IP, however, and the companies often default to legal action. IP media owners are trying to figure out how to work with the fans without turning them off to their product.

“The best example is a “Star Trek” film that raised millions of dollars to make an original fan film,” Cikovic said. “Obviously, Paramount had a problem with that.”

Cikovic will defend his dissertation this semester. He accepted a position at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and will start work in the fall. While he loves teaching and researching media, he hopes to get behind a camera again soon.

“Every now again, I look at my camera on the shelf and think, ‘I used to make films. I went to film festivals and did media circuits. What happened to that guy?” Cikovic said. “I hope to get back to it, but teaching will always be a focus of mine like it has been ever since that zombie movie in 2009.”