Personal History
I received my Bachelors in Psychology and History from the University of California, Riverside, in 1990. I studied Soviet and American history and developed an interest in comparative political processes.
I received an MA in Social Science, with an emphasis in Political Science, from Humboldt State University in California. There I became interested in how the media affects the political process, human consciousness, and national identity.
I received by PhD in communication from the University of California, San Diego in 2003. I studied the relationship between news media, politics, warfare, and national identity, with a particular interest in visual media and visual studies. My dissertation was focused on the role of satellite and aerial imagery in cultural discourses and political power
Teaching Style and Philosophy
Even before I joined the pICT project, my teaching style was multi-media in format, using all the tools of a multi-media “smart” classroom whenever available. My courses include a mix of lectures and visual material such as imagery, video, or web-based content, using MS Powerpoint as a platform for organization and guided note-taking.
I utilize various forms of on-line coursework and assessment when available, such as on-line discussion groups, course web pages, and on-line surveys, which add an interactive dimension to my courses and create a collaborative learning community. I also favor a close teacher-student dynamic, especially in collaborative writing, editing skills, and production training that remain crucial for careers in the mass media industry such as journalism, magazine and book publishing, public relations, advertising, and television and film production. I always seek to engage students one-on-one when developing writing and editing skills, and I have had rewarding opportunities to supervise senior internships that bring me in close collaboration with students doing advanced work
I feel that in every course I teach it is crucial to establish rapport with students. If I have a student’s trust, I can empower them to seek out and learn just about anything. This is at least as important as teaching style or methodology. Through experience I have found the best way to get students to want to engage with lectures and course material is to not only be fluent and dynamic with the content, but also be outgoing and openly respectful of students. I make myself available and open to students by respecting office hours times, always answering e-mails and requests for meetings, and in general treating undergraduate students as adults with busy and important schedules like my own. I like to find something about a student’s writing or creative work that shines as I advise them on what needs to be polished. Being positive in this way empowers students to give me their best work and makes teaching a very rewarding and productive endeavor.
I find through student feedback that today’s media studies and communication majors are interested in many different careers in the mass media, public relations, and advertising industries, as well as modern forms of journalistic practice that utilize new network and information technologies. This is something I find in common amongst students even at radically divergent institutions like UCSD and San Diego State: in both these programs, students become communication majors for very practical purposes. This feedback has had influence on one important aspect of my teaching philosophy, which is to always ground course topics in the current real world lived experience of students. For instance, a course developed on the History of US Telecommunications is framed by an engagement with new and emerging technologies, while connecting technology to the social and political forces that influenced their development. As an example, instead of approaching telegraphs from the past, as in “the telegraph was the most important communication technology of the 19th century,” my approach is more like “many aspects of the internet are not new: the first digital network was actually the telegraph, which had remarkable similarities to our modern forms of on-line community,” (inspired by Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet). In this way I draw students in and make history and media relevant to their worlds.
The pICT project provides a unique set of tools and practices for the study of media, because media students can have a hands-on experience dealing with the new media technologies that they are studying. Therefore, blended course designs, collaborative learning, and online technologies and applications allow media studies students to have a critical, real-world approach to emerging technologies and how they influence the production of knowledges in society.