Faculty and Student Area Updates

Professor James E. Katz has been designated to receive the 2009 Fulbright Distinguished Chair award in Twentieth Century History of  Communications at the Università del Piemonte Orientale in Italy. The award is for three months of study and lecturing beginning in late spring 2009. There were only 38 Fulbright Distinguished Chair awards available worldwide across all academic fields for 2008-2009, and this is the only one in the field of communication. According to the Fulbright website, "Awards in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Candidates should be eminent scholars and have a significant publication and teaching record."

Dr. Lilia Pavlovsky, lecturer, was chosen as a recipient of the eCollege Excellence in Online Teaching (eOT) award.  The award is presented to online instructors who demonstrate a significant commitment to quality in online education.

Elizabeth Gough-Gordon presented a paper entitled: “Representations of Gender and the Domestic Sphere in Television Set Ad Campaigns, 1940-Present”, at the 2008 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Philadelphia, PA on March 8, 2008.

Kevin Lerner presented a paper entitled: “A Conversation Model of First Amendment Theory and Its Applicability to College and University Free Speech Rights in Hosty v. Carter”, at AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) Southeast Colloquium, Auburn AL on March 13-15, 2008.

Hiesun Cecilia Suhr presented a paper entitled: “Understanding the Intersection Between Participatory Media and Aesthetics Within Guattari’s Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm”, at AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication), Pittsburgh, PA on March 1, 2008.

Professor Robert Kubey gave a talk on March 12th entitled: "Student use of the Internet: The good, the bad, and the ugly" at the Rutgers' Office of Instructional and Research Technology's third annual symposium, "The Connected World: How technology changes the nature of higher education”.  Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You delivered the keynote.

Dr. Lilia Pavlovsky, lecturer, gave a talk on: "Using Journals and Wikis in e-learning Environments" at the NJEDge annual faculty "best practices" showcase titled "Integrating Technology into Teaching and Learning."

Professor Jana Varlejs conducted the first of four workshops on: "Library User Instruction" for the University of Pennsylvania librarians on March 20th.

Professor Hui-Min Kuo presented a paper: "Collaboration between Faculty and Administrators: An Organizational Culture Approach", and chaired an undergraduate student panel: “Asian American Cultural Identities: Collaboration and Conflict”, at the New Jersey Communication Association Annual Conference, New York, NY on March 22, 2008.

Professor Jenny Mandelbaum presented: “The management and import of concurrent and intervening actions during storytelling in family “ceremonial" dinners”, at the Georgetown University Linguistics Round Table on March 16, 2008.

Professor Mandelbaum presented a “Last Lecture” entitled: ““Why that now?”: Communication foundations of the Civil Society”, at the Summit 2008, Biennial conference of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, Washington, DC on March 25, 2008.

On March 30th, she also presented: “What lay leaders look for in Rabbinic candidates during the Rabbinic Search process” at the Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future.

Professor Nicholas Belkin presented a keynote lecture entitled: "Some(what) Grand  Challenges for Information Retrieval" at the 30th European Conference on Information Retrieval, Glasgow, Scotland on March 31, 2008.

Professor Marie L. Radford was the organizer and chair of a panel: “Creating Collaborative Synergy: Perspectives on Enhancing Productivity” that was presented at the New Jersey Communication Association’s 12th Annual Conference held at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City on March 22, 2008. Professor Radford was elected as the NJCA’s Historian and was presented with a plaque in appreciation for her twelve years of service as Secretary of the organization.

Professor Radford presented a paper with Lynn Silipigni Connaway titled: “Exceeding Expectations: E-Reference Excellence in Collaborative Virtual Reference” at the Public Library Association in Minneapolis, MN on March 28, 2008.

Professor Radford was also the keynote speaker at the Maryland AskUsNow! 5th Anniversary Celebration at Anne Arundel County Public Library, MD on March 19, 2008. Maryland’s AskUsNow! is an acclaimed statewide virtual reference service. She also presented a workshop while there on “Effective E-Reference Encounters: Achieving Service Excellence in the Live Chat Environment”.