September 01, 2016
Media scholars from Pakistan, Slovenia to visit SIU
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s College of Mass Communication and Media Arts and the Global Media Research Center will host three visiting scholars this month.
Sammer Rizwan and Sheezah Taimouri of the Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore, Pakistan, will be on campus Sept. 6-15. Their presentation, “Interpretive Reporting in Pakistan,” will be at 4 p.m., Sept. 14, in the Communications Building, Room 1032.
Ilija Tomanic-Trivundza of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia will be on campus Sept. 12-23. His lecture, “Tyranny of the empty frame: Online news, symbolic images, and the hollowing out of visual journalism,” is at 4 p.m., Sept. 20, also in Communications Building, Room 1032.
The lectures are free and open to the public.
Jay F. Needham, professor and center interim director, said the visits, which will include speaking in classrooms, are an opportunity for faculty, students and the public to hear unique perspectives on global media. The visiting scholars will also have an opportunity to discuss research and learn more about how the university delivers its curriculum, he said.
“We are hoping to learn a great deal from them and their unique perspectives on the media that range from today’s global practices in photojournalism to how representations of gender are taught in media programs in South Asia.”
Rizwan is head of the Media Studies Department at Kinnaird College for Women, a position she has held since September 2010. She has worked on various media projects that examine how a person can improve their life by recognizing their own potential and using it as a catalyst for positive change, Needham said.
Taimouri, a lecturer in the department, has been teaching photography, videography, media culture and society, magazine production, and development communication.
Tomanic-Trivundza is an assistant professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. His primary research spans across the field of visual communication with a special focus on the social and political role of photography in contemporary culture.
Established in 2004, the Global Media Research Center’s mission includes assembling a core group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to research global media issues, establish national and international partnerships to promote research, and play host to visiting scholars and artists as it seeks to develop new courses addressing global media issues.