Crispin Thurlow from UW; Rodney Jones from City University, Hong Kong; and alumna Giorgia Aiello, an assistant professor at the Department of Communication Studies in Colorado State University gathered in Seattle for the third in a series of conferences organized around the role of the media in relation to the representation, construction and/or production of language.

faculty news

Faculty Awards & Achievements

Lisa Coutu was promoted to principal lecturer. Dr. Coutu specializes in the study of communication and culture, the ethnography of communication, and discourse analysis. She teaches undergraduate courses in language, culture, and communication, intercultural communication, and interviewing, as well as the department's survey course of the field of communication. She is a 2003 recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

David Domke recently received the Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association Division of Political Communication, for The God Strategy: How Religion Became A Political Weapon in America, (2008, Oxford University Press, with University of Arizona Assistant Professor and UW alum Kevin Coe). Dr. Domke's areas of expertise are: political leadership and news coverage, cultural values, and social change, with particular interest in post-9/11 America. He is a 2002 recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

David Domke delivered the keynote address at Journalism Day, 2009. The annual event brings together local high school journalism students with media professionals sharing their expertise and insights. Journalism Day is developed by the Washington Journalism Education Association and sponsored by the UW Department of Communication for UW campus access.

Hanson Hosein participated in a conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds. Hosein was the first guest on KUOW’s Fireside Chat series, which began mid-August. Hosein discussed the rapidly changing environment for business and media because of changes brought on by digital media and considers questions such as, "Will Twitter abide? What’s the future of social networking? What’s the future of news?" Hosein is director of the UW Master of Communication in Digital Media in the Department of Communication. Reynolds is a student in the program.

Patricia Moy was promoted to a full professor. Dr. Moy holds the Christy Cressey Professor of Communication professorship and is an adjunct faculty in Political Science. Dr. Moy's research focuses on communication and citizenship, addressing the political and social effects of mass and interpersonal communication. Her work examines the process by which communication influences perceptions, bears upon ways of thinking and talking about issues, shapes public opinion, and enhances political engagement.

MCDM’s Associate Director Scott Macklin participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Diversity Conference – Breaking Boundaries, Embracing Differences in South Africa last August. Featured in the week of events included a screening of his film, Masizakhe: Building Each Other and follow up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming.

Masizakhe: Building Each Other, directed by Scott and Angelica Macklin, is a feature-length documentary that focuses on the role that a new generation of activists are playing in shaping the future of South African society. Much of this work revolves around building community through art, music, hip-hop, and spoken word. The Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth is home to a group of dynamic young artists dedicated to the upliftment of their community through cultural activism. The film explores the collective identity of these activists through their diverse initiatives.

Derrick Swartz, Vice-Chancellor & CEO of NMMU, had this to say about the film:

What a breath of fresh air! Scott and Angelica Macklin’s remarkable film strips off the perilously thin veneer of the so-called post-apartheid ‘miracle’ to reveal not only immense social degradation of black townships, in many ways untouched by shifts in political power since 1994; but it also shows a new generation of courageous young voices fighting back against the ‘internalization of hopelessness’, reclaiming social spaces and indeed memory, in telling their own stories of hope, solidarity, and social emancipation with such breathtaking eloquence. It would be hard not to be both moved and disturbed by this film.’

Check out the introductory comments and post-screening: http://www.vimeo.com/6487087
Also, check out the Sondella Sessions: http://www.vimeo.com/6682519

Scott Macklin received the 2009 U.S. State Department of Education Exchanges Connect Award for outstanding contribution to the goals of bridging cultures and promoting international understanding for his video emotions.

Professor Roger Simpson participated in a panel discussion for the UW Insight series and discussed the media response to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus (commonly referred to as the swine flu). Hear Professor Simpson’s discussion on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR-h0BaPMQw

Crispin Thurlow’s third book, Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility (with A. Jaworski) is in press and due in 2010. Dr. Thurlow is an associate professor with the Department and an adjunct professor in the Department of Linguistics and in Interdisciplinary Arts & Science at UW Bothell. His research focuses the representation and organization of social inequality and cultural diversity in everyday linguistic and visual communication. He is a 2007 recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

Crispin Thurlow, along with UW Communication graduate students Kristine Mroczek and Jamie Moshin, represented the Department as hosts of the Language in (New) Media: Technologies and Ideologies conference, the third in a series of international conferences organized around the role of the media in relation to the representation, construction and/or production of language. The keynote speakers were Naomi Baron from American University, United states; Jannis Androutsopoulos from Kings College in London, England; Rodney Jones from City University of Hong Kong and Theo van Leeuwen from University of Technology Sydney.