Thirteen NFL players participated in the BGSU NFL Journalism and Radio Boot Camp April 14-17. Faculty participants included Dr. Jim Foust, Dr. Terry Rentner and Kelly Taylor from the Department of Journalism and Public Relations; Dr. Lori Liggett and Stephen Merrill from the Department of Media Production and Studies; and Dr. Nancy Spencer from the Sport Management Department. The event is part of the NFL Player Engagement Program.
Dr. Laura Stafford, director of the Bowling Green State University School of Media and Communication was recognized with the 2016 Faculty Senate Leadership as a Chair/School Director Award on April 14.
Stafford, who received $1,000 and a commemorative plaque, has been instrumental in her two years as director, leading curricular revisions in the school’s three undergraduate departments with the goal of boosting enrollment and retaining majors.
She also has facilitated the creation of three new graduate certificate programs, an applied master’s degree in Media and Communication for adult learners, and a pathway for undergraduate students to matriculate smoothly into graduate courses as part of the 4+1 program.
As if Stafford’s professional accomplishments don’t stand out on their own, Dr. Alberto Gonzalez, professor and chair of the communication department, said her personality traits also make her a deserving recipient.
“The most remarkable qualities that Dr. Stafford brings are an abundance of optimism and realism,” said Gonzalez, who nominated Stafford for the award. “Her optimism fuels our forward progress while her realism guides the use of our time for maximum efficiency. She seems to have an innate balance between what we would like to get done and what we can get done.
“Dr. Stafford is always of good cheer through victories and setbacks. She is transparent in her decision-making, even-handed in balancing the interests of the three departments and always a fierce advocate for the instructional and research needs of students and faculty in SMC.”
Many faculty members cite Stafford’s calm and fair demeanor as well as her preparation and strong advocacy for the department’s programs as key to being a role model for teaching, research and service.
“Laura Stafford is a true professional in every way, but it is the personal care and attention she gives all of us that truly bonds us together as a department,” a contributor wrote in a letter composed by a selection committee.
Another nominator pointed out that Stafford’s leadership has been invaluable to the telecommunications department during the transformation of South Hall into a state-of-the-art media and communications center.
“I believe that Dr. Stafford’s leadership style embodies the core values at BGSU,” Gonzalez said. “She treats faculty with respect, she meets opportunities and challenges with creativity and innovation, and her energy, scholarly productivity and administrative attention to detail model her pursuit of excellence.”
Stafford arrived as a professor at BGSU in 2013 after stints at the University of Kentucky, where she was chair, and Ohio State University. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985.
Link to BGSU News:
LEADERSHIP, ATTITUDE HALLMARKS OF STAFFORD’S EXCELLENCE
http://www.bgsu.edu/news/2016/04/leadership-attitude-hallmarks-of-staffords-excellence.html
Dr. Arthur Bochner’s GCA keynote presentation about “the rise of autoethnography: stretching boundaries, fashioning identities, healing wounds” is now on YouTube.
http://www.bgsu.edu/news/2016/05/newly-named-michael-and-sara-kuhlin-center.html
http://www.bgsu.edu/news/2016/04/south-hall-construction-update.html
https://blogs.bgsu.edu/scsblog/2014/10/17/smc-academic-spotlight-video/
https://youtu.be/sjxw4J08QkI
Students from the senior capstone public relations campaigns class in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations participated in a rally against heroin sponsored by Team Recovery. The rally took place on Sunday, Feb. 21 at the Zepf Center in Toledo. The students in Dr. Terry Rentner’s class are working this semester with the Wood Co. Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Board (ADAMHS) to create a campaign to address the stigmas of heroin addiction, provide help for those with heroin and prescription drug addictions, provide support for their families and friends, and reduce the heroin epidemic in Northwest Ohio.
Message from Dr. Faulkner:
Dear Colleagues,
I have a multi-media piece in the latest issue of Liminalities. It is an ethnography of my FIL in Germany. I think you all will enjoy it.
Postkarten aus Deutschland: A chapbook of ethnographic poetry
http://liminalities.net/12-1/postkarten.html
Cheers,
Sandra
Message from Dr. Faulkner
I am pleased to share the news that the special issue of the Journal of Family Communication, Critical Approaches to Family Communication Research: Representation, Critique, and Praxis, I coedited with Beth Suter is now published. http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hjfc20/current
I have an editorial in the issue. The fun is that the editorial is in the footnotes of the creative nonfiction piece. If you can’t download it, message me for a copy.
You will find groundbreaking pieces by Keith Berry and Tony Adams, Caryn Medved, Kristina Sharp and Lindsey Thomas, Dan Strasser, Erika L. Kirby, Sarah E. Riforgiate, Isolde K. Anderson, Mary P. Lahman & Alison M. Lietzenmayer.
This issue is terrific!
Writing the Personal: Getting Your Stories onto the Page (Sense Publishers, 2016)
Sandra L. Faulkner and Sheila Squillante
Here’s the inaugural book in the new Teaching Writing series. This series publishes user-friendly writing guides penned by authors with publishing records in their subject matter. Through detailed exercises, exemplars, and a breakdown of the key elements and considerations of personal writing, Faulkner and Squillante provide a lively introduction and guide for writers to the art and craft of personal writing. Their conversational tone about audience, point of view, form, structure, ethics, research, and finding and making time for writing practice is a not-to-miss primer and reference. This book is appropriate for classes focused on poetry, creative nonfiction, ethnography, qualitative research, memoir, narrative inquiry, and other types of life writing, as well as individual writers honing their craft. Writing the Personal invites us all to find our stories and instructs us how to shape them for an audience and for ourselves.
SMC Research Colloquium
December 4, 2015, Friday, 3:30-4:45 PM,121 West Hall
Space, Place, and Method
Presenters: Drs. Josh Atkinson & Clayton Rosati, Associate Professors, School of Media and Communication
This presentation explicates different methods and approaches to the study of space, place, and material environments. Drawing on past research and their own research experiences, the presenters illustrate the ways in which scholars can utilize interviews, focus groups, and textual analysis to explore these important topics. Before this presentation, the first 15 minutes of the colloquium will be devoted to a SMC graduate student Dinah’s NCA research paper, “The Breast Cancer Fanfare: Embracing Opportunities of Feminist Scholarship for Women’s Health in Ghana.”
