Many people dream of being able to do what they love for a living. Dr. Mark Shevy, an Associate Professor of mass communication and media production in the Department of Communication and Performance Studies, says he isn’t entirely there, yet, but he is finding a good balance between his professional and personal goals. The former Air Force nuclear missile combat crew commander is engaged with activities ranging from psychological experiments to feeding the hungry to dance fitness.
“I like to say that I became a professor of mass communication because I enjoyed watching TV and listening to music,” jokes Shevy. “I end up being so busy, I barely get time to do either, anymore.”
The psychological effects of media, particularly music, are the main focus of Shevy’s research. In recent years, he has published two chapters in an Oxford University Press book titled, “The Psychology of Music in Multimedia.” One chapter details how research and theory in mass communication and music psychology can be integrated. The other chapter, with co-author Kineta Hung at Hong Kong Baptist University, explores the psychological effects of music in television advertising and other persuasive media.
In the summer of 2015, Shevy organized a symposium on music in multimedia for the Society of Music Perception and Cognition conference in Nashville. At the conference, he also presented findings from experiments he has conducted on listeners’ perception of non-diatonic music, a research project he is leading with colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While in Nashville, Shevy was able to sit in on an all day session at a professional music recording studio. “It was incredible to see how quickly these players could adapt to a song they had never heard before and play it with such confidence and skill,” he said. Shevy also had a chance to watch engineer John Nicholson control the soundboard and ProTools audio software. “Studio musicians in Nashville speak a musical language that few
people outside their fraternity would understand, but John was on the same page with them on all nine songs they recorded that day, and the results were amazing,” said Shevy.
In the year prior, Shevy spent three weeks in Nashville working on a professional movie set, and he traveled to Costa Rica to produce an informational documentary for Strong Missions, an organization founded 10 years ago by a missionary named Charlie Strong to feed children and support poor communities in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
“Although I enjoy working with media, it would be an empty experience if it were only for the sake of self-indulgence,” says Shevy. “Communication is powerful, and it can have an impact on people and society. I want to use it to improve people’s lives.”
Shevy’s service to others extends beyond media production. He is the faculty adviser for the NMU student group, “Marquette Ending Hunger,” which raised thousands of dollars during the 2014-15 academic year for local people in need. The group won NMU’s Program of the Year award in 2015, and Shevy was nominated for student group adviser of the year.
“Marquette Ending Hunger was a natural fit,” says Shevy. “Hunger has been a top concern of mine for a long time, so when Lauren Larsen, the president of the group at that time, said they needed an adviser, I got my family on board and committed. I’m so glad that I did. The students in this group are compassionate, driven, and well organized. They led the way, and I had a front row seat for seeing how far they could go.”
One of the biggest challenges for Shevy is finding enough time to conduct research, produce media, serve the community, and spend time with his wife and three sons. “I’m trying to choose activities that we can all do together, like working with Marquette Ending Hunger.” If an activity can satisfy multiple needs at once, Shevy is more likely to do it. This has led to a surprising path for him in the past few years. Shevy recognized the need for physical fitness and for spending more time with his wife, so they started going to the gym together. There, they saw a dance fitness class called “Zumba.” Although Shevy’s love for music drew him toward the class, his fear of dancing in public kept him away.
“I knew that confronting my fears and stretching my social constraints would be good for me, so when the Zumba instructor invited me to class, I dared myself to go. I was too scared to go alone, so I made Cheri, my wife go with me,” laughs Shevy.
One dare led to the next, and Shevy became a licensed Zumba instructor in December 2014. He taught for a semester at NMU’s PEIF and had students say it was the most fun they’ve had on campus. Currently, he teaches with the group “Z-Dance Fitness” at Dawn Dott Dance Studios.
“Zumba, or other dance fitness classes, can improve physical strength, balance, coordination, and reflexes, but it has a strong emotional effect, too. We drag ourselves into the studio and by the time we leave, we’re smiling and laughing, despite the fact that we’re drenched with sweat,” says Shevy.
Shevy says that teaching Zumba helps him stay healthy, serves people in the community, and provides a unique perspective that ties into his music interests. It’s also an activity that his family can join. Although, he hasn’t been able to persuade his teenage boys, yet.
“I’m thinking less of separating life into work, family, and personal components. I’m looking at it more as just ‘life,’” says Shevy. “I want to find enjoyment in meeting the needs of those around me, and if I can do that by overlapping multiple areas, as long as I am really meeting those needs, I think that’s a life I want to have.”
Editor’s Note: This is the first in what we hope will be a series of articles focusing on NMU faculty members. We will attempt to highlight their passion for what they do on campus as well as what they do off campus. If you know a faculty member who should be featured as one of our passionate professionals, contact Dwight Brady at dbrady@nmu.edu.