S & WG candidate statements

Photo (cc) Flickr user Keith Ivey https://www.flickr.com/photos/kcivey/

On this page you will find the statements of candidates for positions as officers of the ten IAMCR Sections and Working Groups holding elections during the 2015 conference in Montreal.

The elections will be managed by the incumbent officers of each section or working group, in accordance with the Rules and practices for the election of Section and Working Group Heads adopted by the International Council in Dublin, June 25th, 2013.

See the election announcements of the sections and working groups. Elections will take place during the business meetings of the sections and working groups in Montreal

Sections and Working Groups holding elections in 2015

Diaspora and the Media Working Group

Candidate for Chair

Dr. Sudeshna Roy, Associate Professor of Communication
Stephen F. Austin State University

I would like to offer my services to the Diaspora and Media Working Group of IAMCR over the next mandate period in the capacity of Chair. Provided the opportunity, I would like to continue in the same vein as my most able and acclaimed predecessors while bringing new ideas and directions that are specific to the demands of the evolving media culture and society today. In the fast, technologically evolving society we live in today diasporic communities are being shaped more and more by the cultural, political, and economic discourses of majority cultures within which they function. These discourses are often constituted by and constitute media representations of diasporas. The complexities of the relationship between diasporic communities and media portrayals in their place and space of residence as well as in their original countries and cultures, require a multi-modal, multi-perspectival research approach. My own research and teaching delves into these issues on a continuous basis. Part of my own identity is a diasporic one. I strive to focus on the specifics of representations of diaspora groups while keeping in view the situatedness of such representations in local and global politics, economics and culture. I am particularly interested in how diasporas of the global south and east are dealing with the geo-politics of today's media representations as well as the changes that such representations are undergoing as a result of the evolution of new forms of media. I have been participating in the group for the past five years and have seen the exciting research papers presented by participants and believe that the group will attract seasoned and new participants in the coming years who will continue the fine work demonstrated by the group over the years. I am currently the Secretary of the Ethnicity and Race in Communication Division of the International Communication Association and the immediate past-Chair of the Peace and Conflict Communication Division of the National Communication Association. If chosen to Chair this Division, I would love to create synergies between this group and the Divisions from the other two Association in order to increase interest and promote the fine work of our Diaspora Working Group. WiI would be privileged to work with the scholars and practitioners who come together as part of this group to discuss these issues and facilitate their discussions and actions.

Candidates for Vice-Chair

Sofia Cavalcanti Zanforlin
Universidade Católica de Brasília

This statement aims to introduce myself as a researcher interested in a vacancy for Deputy Chair of the Diaspora and Media working group. I participated as an exhibitor for the first time in 2011, in Istanbul, and the second time in 2014, in Hyderabad. My desire is to be more closely involved in the group's activities since I identify with its profile and areas of interest. The starting point of my research is the intercultural dialogue, the connection between communication epistemology and contemporary migrations to Brazil. The focus of my work is on sociocultural practices and on how they enable the construction of diversity. The encounter between migrants and Brazilians – having the city as their main scenario and their intercultural exchange as an inevitable result of this process – seem to be the way to mutual enrichment, solidarity displays and, eventually, the elimination of xenophobia.

My current research concentrates on the practices and uses of Informational and Communication Technologies, ICTs, intertwined with the context of globalization. The concepts of transnationality and interculturality establish the theoretical basis of my research since the claim for "intercultural citizenship" is part of the agenda of debate of migrant communities because that demand not only is solely linked to the satisfaction of rights that lead to equality but also to those that relate to difference as an element of democracy. Thus, the combination of the two concepts – transnationality and interculturality –may update the debate on identity and, in turn, relativize the discussion on citizenship tied to the nation-state.

Accordingly, in my studies I highlight migration and its negotiations of belonging with local and global culture, interference in the urban area due to  several flows and transits, the formation of ethno-landscapes and the construction of diversity, expressions and transcultural languages and, finally, the presence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in interpersonal and transnational mediation.

I have been developing my research since my doctoral thesis – Ethnicity, Migration and Communication – Transcultural Ethno-landscapes and Negotiating belongings, defended in 2011 at the School of Communication at The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which will be published this year by  Atlántica de Comunicación collection in a partnership with Editorial UOC (Open University of Catalonia) and the Communication Institute of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​under the heading "ETNO-LANDSCAPES IN BRAZILIAN METROPOLISES: migration, communication and negotiation of belongings". My latest studies are concerned with Media, Migration, Interculturality (2011- 2013) and Migration and Intercultural Communication (2013 - ongoing), both funded by the Brazilian National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) and the Catholic University of Brasilia.

Therefore, I reafirm my desire and availability to get involved in the work of the Diaspora and Media group to strengthen knowledge exchange and learning on topics that interest me directly as a researcher.

Dr. Umi Khattab, Senior Lecturer, Public Relations Program Coordinator
School of Communication & Creative Industries

I am a Diaspora. My parents, husband and sons are Diasporas too. I was born in Malaysia to Sri Lankan parents and my husband was born in Algeria. We have two sons.  We moved to live in Australia in the late 1990s. I have been educated in three different cultural locations – Malaysia, USA and UK and I have worked in four different universities in Malaysia and Australia. I am fluent in three languages – Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia and English. 

Using my own lived experience, I have researched and published in the area of Diaspora and Media focusing on the Asian region.  I am currently writing a book proposal for Routledge on ‘Media and Race’ and this book will use Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Australia as case studies to discuss the notions of race, culture, identities and their mediatisation.  Together with two colleagues, we are just about to win an Oxford University Press contract for a path-breaking book on Public Relations. This book has three chapters that engage with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and includes discussions on indigenous and cultural rights as well as tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims. I have supervised to successful completion Chandrika De Alwis’ PhD project on ‘Conflict Transformative Journalism in Sri Lanka’ and Yangzi Sima’s on ‘Power and Counter Power in a Global Network Society: Public Relation and New Technology in China’. I am currently supervising Saira Ali’s PhD project on the working title of ‘Muslims, Terrorism and Storytelling in a Mediatised Globalising World’. I have supervised numerous honours and HDR research projects as principal and/or associate that have, in the main, used Malaysia and Singapore as case studies.

I served in the Audience and Reception Section of the IAMCR as co-chair with Tony Wilson about 10 years ago, in the early years of my career in Australia. I am currently a member of the National Education Committee of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA).

I am keen to work for the IAMCR in the Diaspora and Media Working Group.  I am able to offer my time and expertise towards advancing interdisciplinary and transcontinental research in this important field in changing and challenging times. Given the opportunity, I would like to work in the Diaspora and Media group to develop proposals for research monographs and books and explore cultures and communities that have been under-researched and under-represented.  As an inclusive association, IAMCR offers the space for the advancement of ideas from the margins and for de-construction of West-centric theories.

It is always rewarding to engage and network with international colleagues and work in partnership with researchers and emerging scholars from around the globe.

Ethics of Society and Ethics of Communication

Candidate for Chair

María Teresa Nicolás,  Co-dean of the Communication School
Universidad Panamericana, México City Campus

I am member of the National System of Researchers from the National Council of Science and Technology, CONACYT. I have been publishing several articles, chapters of books in the field of Intercultural Communication, Ethics of Communication and Peace Journalism. I been visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel. I teach courses -undergraduate and graduate- of Ethics for Journalist, for Film-makers, and Organizational Communications. I have been working like a Co-Chair in the last four year, it was a great experience, I learned a lot from my predecessor and from my colleagues, I did my best effort but I think that now I will do better, as a Chair, based in knowledge acquired. I think there is room for a great deal of creativity in conceptualizing, organizing, and populating sessions; engaging in substantive and programmatic collaborations with other sections; stimulating collaborative research; working with emerging scholars; and so on. Therefore I want to work with the two vice-chairs to improve our Working Group because Ethics -in communication and in society- it is more necessary than ever for the World.

Candidates for Vice-Chair

Yanick Farmer, Ph.D., assistant professor Department of social and public communication
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

I am currently assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication of the Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada. My area of specialization within my department is communication ethics. As a teacher, I teach many courses (undergraduate and graduate) of communication ethics in public relations, communication-marketing, and psychosociology. As a researcher, I am the principal investigator on many well-funded research projects in my country. By standing as Vice-Chair in the Ethics of Society and Ethics of Communication Working Group, I would like to bring enthusiasm, new ideas, and modestly contribute to the evolution of the WG. Being a team player, I will be more than happy to collaborate with the Chair, the other Vice-Chair, and the members of the WG in order to stir up IAMCR members’ interest for ethics.

Elvira García de Torres, Aggregate Professor. Department of Communication and Journalism.
CEU Cardenal Herrera University

I am honoured to be nominated for the role of vice-chair of IAMCR´s Ethics of Society & Ethics of Communication Working Group.  I have been an active member in the past years and I am grateful to serve this IAMCR community of researchers. My motivation as candidate is to support the Chair in the tasks of conceptualizing, organizing, and populating sessions, engaging in substantive and programmatic collaborations with other sections and stimulating collaborative research and working with emerging scholars. Also, to raise awareness within and outside IAMCR of the role the WG can play in the debate of core issues that demand growing attention from scholars, specially as media and corporations, as well as society, embrace the digital transformation. 

Fernando Oliveira Paulino, professor, University of Brasilia, Brazil

Fernando Oliveira Paulino is standing for a vice-chair position in the Ethics of Society & Ethics of Communication IAMCR Working Group. He is professor at the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Director of International Affairs, Board Member and Chair of Ethics, Right to Communicate, and Freedom of Expression Working Group in the Latin American Communication Researchers Association (ALAIC). Paulino have been coordinating summer school on Latin American Communication Research and agreements involving UnB and universities from countries like United States, China, Portugal and Spain.

Paulino has researched and published papers and books on Ethics, Communication and Society since 1996. He also had experience as member of Ethics Commission in the Journalists Union of Federal District (between 2001 and 2009), collaborating with the update of Brazilian Journalistic Ethics Code (2007), and was ombudsman in Brazilian public radios (2008-2012). Paulino was one of founders of National Network of Brazilian Press watchers (2005) and participates continuously the Ethics of Society & Ethics of Communication IAMCR Working Group since 2010.

As main proposals to the next period of Ethics of Society & Ethics of Communication IAMCR Working Group, Paulino suggests:

  1. to contribute that the Section members work together not only at the IAMCR Conference period, but also they be stimulated to develop common actions in other moments during the year. For that, it is possible more interchange, for example, through email and by video conference or social network tools like Skype and Youtube.
  2. establish more dialogue between our section and Working groups on Media Ethics from regional and national communication researchers´ associations, building and publishing common books and journals every year. 
  3. as member of southern country, to stimulate more interchange between North and South perspectives and scientific production. 
  4. to promote more collaboration of Working Groups members to evaluate the submitted abstracts in Spanish, French and English,
  5. to stimulate more panel proposals and try to ask the IAMCR board to put Ethics and Ethics of Communication issues in the IAMCR sessions during the Conferences,
  6. make public the Working Groups results using IAMCR channels like website and newsletter,
  7. to work and stimulate the participation of emerging scholars and graduate students in the Ethics of Society & Ethics of Communication IAMCR Working Group,
  8. to pay attention continuously the proposals of Working Groups members analysing and answering the suggestions,
  9. to send regular messages with call for papers and events.
  10. organize or co-organizing preconferences direct or indirectly on Ethics, Communication and Society next IAMCR Conferences

Gender and Communication Section

Candidates for Vice-Chair

Wajiha Raza Rizvi (Dr.) Founder/Director Film Museum Society Lahore (Nonprofit since 2007) Consultant to set up School of Digital & Cinematic Arts at University of Culture & Art Lahore Pakistan    (Commencement planned for 2015) Visiting Faculty University of the Punjab / Kinnaird College University for Women / COMSATS University / Superior, University Lahore Pakistan since 2009 Vice President.

Thank you so much for offering us to participate and learn how to organize the Gender and Communication Section by assisting both of you in future. I did my bachelors in Graphic Design (Advertising) from National College of Arts Lahore Pakistan, masters in Television Documentary from Goldsmiths’ University of London UK, and PhD in Communication Studies from University of the Punjab Lahore Pakistan. My PhD dissertation: The censorship of visual pleasure in Pakistani films focuses on female representation in films in the pre-and-post-1979 eras. It includes a quantitative and two qualitative studies of the films and their censor certificates to examine the excisions of female representations by Central Board of Film Censorship Pakistan in the two eras in the light of the Motion Picture Ordinance (1979) issued by then Martial Law Government. I believe the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan will publish this dissertation online in near future. As there is no trend to publish PhD dissertations in Pakistan, I will publish it in book form myself.  

My IAMCR-2012 and IMACR-2014 participations reflect a focus on gender in film and media. I have published on race, region and gender issues in American Indian Literature and Australian Media. Prof. Dr. Naren Chitty published my first ever paper BeDevil: Colonialism and Children of Miscegenation in Journal of International Communication in Spring 2013 after its presentation at IAMCR-2012 Durban Conference in summer. It was also my first with the IAMCR. The two realizations of the presentation and publication of the paper show that IAMCR is a great academic platform to present on media and communication issues and to publish if researchers have the commitment. The IAMCR takes care of its participants’ academic and professional needs and provides them a sense of direction to excel in the academic world, and be acknowledged. I have published 15. My IAMCR experience is my contribution to Pakistan’s academic research pool. The IAMCR has connected me to world’s best academic pool of people who work together for academic excellence, cooperation, collaboration, and mutual understanding. I believe many more researchers from Pakistan and the rest of the world can work together to achieve a common goal. The IAMCR brings together the world academicians and commits them to excellence and delivery in a systematic manner. I hope I can extend our shared IAMCR hand to many in Pakistan and abroad and learn from all who are committed to analyzing and reducing the othering.  

I wish to work with you to learn how to organize the section, and participate in the IAMCR activities and be more productive. It would enhance my academic and professional experience, as all of us rise together above many differences.

Ana Cristina Vélez López
Coodinadora Especialización en Comunicación Política Profesora Asociada Departamento de Humanidades

Since 2004, I am working at the Universidad EAFIT in Medellín, Colombia.  Right now I am the Head of one of our graduated programs: Political Communication.  Also I attend two courses, Public Opinion, and Media and Politics.  My research fields are gender and media analysis, discourse analysis and public opinion.

The gender studies are a recent field in my curriculum but I have done at least four researchers in that area:   My first research was about Friendship and women, its focus was philosophy and psychoanalysis trying to find why the philosophers said "friendship between women does not exist".  After that I was working in the relations between literature and journalism in two Colombian writers:  Laura Restrepo and Piedad Bonnett, looking for their speech about women. Another gender research was about relations between intimacy and art in one of the most important painters in my country, Dora Ramirez, looking for the statement "Personal is Politics".  My last work is in media analysis: Women talking about women - the paper for IAMCR 2015-    

How you can see it is not my first time in the gender studies and I am getting experienced in the field.  Also this year I began my PhD in Humanities and my project is about how artists women (plastic or writers) talk, feel and show women. This is the first time I will participate in IAMCR and I think is a great or, better, the greatest opportunity to meet people like you, exchange experiences and make academic agreements.

Mehita Iqani

I am Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. I received my PhD in Media and Communications from the LSE in 2009, after which I spent almost two years as a post-doc at Kings College London before returning to South Africa to take up a tenured post.  

In my intellectual work, I am motivated by big questions about the relationships between media and consumer culture. My research is aimed at explicating the relationship between consumer culture(s) and media forms and thinking through how the public is constituted in and through consumer media, how consumer media construct relationships of power, and how consumer media construct class gender and race identities in the context of globalized neoliberalism. I have been working on these questions since 2006, and have contributed significantly to scholarship on both consumer culture and consumption-oriented media studies since then. In 2012, I published a monograph called Consumer Culture and the Media: Magazines in the Public Eye, and my second book is due out this year, titled Consumption, Media and the Global South: Aspiration Contested. In both works, as well as a number of journal articles which I’ve published, gender forms a significant framework through which I engage with questions of the public, identity and power. I have written about the ways in which women and cars are represented on magazine covers, the aesthetics of celebrity, the ways in which Winnie Mandela’s conspicuous consumption was represented in media forms and more. As well as my own work, I have some experience in supervising graduate students who have worked on gender related issues: a PhD examining pornography consumption in South Africa, an MA by research on amateur models’ self-representation in FHM-Online social media platforms, and a current project on the motivation behind young women who post selfies online.  

I also have some experience in administration, having served as Head of Department for just over two years (that term is soon coming to an end) and as co-founder of the Critical Research in Consumer Culture network in South Africa, which has organized a number of workshops, symposia and seminars over the past three years. As such I believe I could contribute some organizational skill to the co-management of the section.  

I am attracted the position of Vice-Chair as I would like to get more closely involved in the work of the IAMCR. Although I have presented in various sections over the years, I have always felt most “at home” in the Gender and Communication section. I would relish the opportunity to get to know feminist colleagues from around the world, especially the global south, and to contribute to creating a forum in which they can present and develop their work. I would be delighted to serve the academic community in this way, and to forge closer working relationships with colleagues in the section. 

Health Communication and Change Working Group

Candidates for Chair/Vice-Chair

Dr. SubbaRao M Gavaravarapu, PhD (Health Communication)
Scientist 'D' (Communication) - Asst. Director, Extension & Training Division, National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India

With this statement, I would like to evince my interest in chairing the Health Communication & Change Working Group over the next mandate period, preferably as the vice-chair.

I have been associated with IAMCR and this Working Group since the 2010 Conference in Portugal. The group has witnessed a surge in the number of participants and members in the recent past. This steady growth in the cult reflects the interest of the scholarship in harnessing the potential of communication for promoting health and to engage in the debates on dominant understandings of health and health communication frameworks in the changing media context and communication for social change scholarship. The working group in the recent past has provided a platform not only for academics but also for practitioners (like me), researchers and budding scholars of health communication. 

I was awarded the IAMCR travel grant during Portugal and Dublin Conferences in 2010 and 2013. During my years of association with the Working group, I have always gotten opportunity to voice my opinion and contribute to the critical thinking. I have also had the opportunity to Chair a few technical sessions in a couple of conferences. I have been on the international review committee for reviewing the conference abstracts for the group since 2013. In all the responsibilities entrusted to me by the members, I have been responsible, inclusive, fair and committed to uphold the interest of the group 

If elected, my priorities will be:
- To continue the good work that the previous chairs have been doing
- To bring together theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives with the aim of encouraging scholarly discussions across various sub-fields within health communication
- To explore possibilities of collaboration with the risk communication group, as health risk communication needs to evolve further especially in the context of emerging and re-emerging health scares
- To encourage inter and intra group interaction and knowledge sharing both during and outside the conference
- To build consensus for establishing a virtual platform for discussion, knowledge sharing and translation.

Yolanda Paul
Project Manager
UWI HARP (the University of the West Indies HIV and AIDS response programme)
The University of the West Indies Mona campus

My background is in communication ( media and communication with a specialization in social marketing) and communication for social and behavior change. Through my work experiences at UWI HARP I have been able to get involved in health communication and behavior change activities (e.g. HIV Prevention activities including Education awareness, interventions( also SRH related) both on and off campus), and research projects (e.g. Exploring risk perception of Men who have sex with Men, vulnerabilities of migrant workers in Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda).

I serve as a member of varying technical working groups, on a national level (e.g. HIV prevention and enabling environment and human rights working groups, member of the steering committee for the Stigma Index Research Project (also assisted in much of the field work with HIV positive persons) and I am involved in assisting civil society organizations by providing technical assistance in their varying projects ( presently chair of the Programmes and Communication Group for the Jamaica Network of Sero positives, member of the steering committee for the group Colour Pink- a group that helps the homeless MSM in Kingston Jamaica). I am also a part time lecturer/tutor at CARIMAC (Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication) where I do courses in: social marketing, communication analysis and planning, understanding the media and research methods.

As a young academic I am always keen on growth and maximizing on experiences with which I am presented. This is my second year attending IAMCR and I have been quite excited by the work I have seen from varying colleagues in different areas and this has motivated me to be much more involved in the health and communication and change working group. I believe that being a Vice Chair will allow me to become more integrated into the workings of IAMCR and strengthen me as a professional in the field. I am committed, driven and always willing to branch out and explore new territory!

Law Section

Candidate for Chair

Loreto Corredoira
Dep. of Constitutional Law Section of Communication Law, Facultad de Ciencias de la Información, Complutense University, Madrid, España

My profile as a Full Professor of Information Law since 1994, a member of IAMCR since 2005 and my experience as professor and researches in European universities (Madrid, Manchester and Navarre), Latin American (Chile and Peru) and the United States (Berkeley, UCLA) has given me a wide vision that will let me unify and head this Section for the following four years.  

I have a clear goal in mind: to foster the network of consolidated and young scholars that study information law, freedom of expression and of the press and fundamental rights protection systems in democratic and transitional states. From the Law Section we can contribute to consolidate the legal doctrine defend at the United Nations in 1948, and work to protect the rights of journalists and the people.  

My candidacy has the backing of the Departments of Information Law at the Communications and Journalism School and the Law School of Complutense University. Many of the faculty members are also members of IAMCR and we share the same goals. Our background comes from constitutional law, but many of us have also a background in civil law and the historical aspects of rights and freedoms.  

We believe it is necessary to achieve greater union and coordination between Europe, the United States and Latin America and together we can reach out to other countries in Africa, the Middle East and the rest of Asia and help in the efforts to create stronger democracies and new constitutions that guarantee the people’s rights of freedom of expression, the press and access to information and a legal framework that protects journalists’ freedoms and lives. 

In the following four years we also seek to increase collaboration with other Sections and Working Groups and strengthen multidisciplinary scholarly activity. We specially look forward to work more closely with the Ethics WG as well as the Communication Policy & Technology Section and take upon topics such as access to governmental information, privacy, big data and commerce; always paying attention to human rights, citizen participation and the rights of migrants around this interconnected, always moving world of ours.

Candidate for Vice-Chair

Dr. Slavka Antonova, Associate Professor, Graduate Director 
Communication Program, University of North Dakota

Following my election to the position of Vice-Chair of the Law Section in 2010, at the IAMCR conference in Braga, Portugal, I have been actively involved in the process of soliciting quality research papers for the annual conferences, processing the conference paper abstracts, evaluating the quality and suitability of a large number of abstracts, and communicating with the authors and reviewers. In addition, I have provided constructive input for the writing of the Law Section calls for papers and for the conference section session programs. 

In the circumstances of the current multicultural leadership makeup of the section, I have contributed to the collegial exchange of opinions, aspiring to the values of a high quality of research presented at the Law Section sessions and encouraging collaboration among researchers in the field of Communication Law around the world. At the IAMCR conference in Durban, South Africa (2012), I presented my research paper at a Law Section session and conducted the Business Meeting, together with the other Vice-Chair, Mohammed Ullah. 

With my continuing both active research program in global Internet Governance and teaching of Communication Law and Ethics at the University of North Dakota, I am particularly well-positioned in relation to the contemporary problematic issues in those fields and the most active research programs around the world. In addition, as one of the early members of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), and a former Member of its Executive Committee, and Chair of the Outreach and Partnerships Committee, I have generated a great number of professional contacts, which could benefit the Law Section in the future. 

If reelected, I would like to work towards strengthening the appreciation of the Law Section by its members, in terms of creating online, between the annual conferences, forums on sharing strategies of teaching Communication Law courses, collaborating in research and publishing projects, and discussing legal issues in communication with global significance, with the goal of creating ad-hoc committees to produce expert opinion documents. 

In conclusion, my five-year-long proven, dedicated service to the IAMCR Law Section has demonstrated my capabilities to be part of the leadership of the section, and I will appreciate the opportunity to serve in the same capacity in the next four years.

Sara Bannerman, B.Mus., MA, PhD Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia,  McMaster University

I wish to stand for election for the position of Chair or Vice-Chair of the Law Section of IAMCR.

I am an Assistant Professor (Associate July 1 2015) in the Communication Studies and Multimedia Department at McMaster University.  My research areas are intellectual property, communications law and policy, the international governance of communications, and communications law history.  I have published two books, International Copyright and Access to Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and The Struggle for Canadian Copyright: Imperialism to Internationalism, 1886-1971 (UBC Press, 2004), and various journal articles and chapters. At McMaster, I teach courses on Communication Policy and Law, Intellectual Property, Media and Social Activism, Political Economy of Communications, and others.

I have previously served as Co-Chair of the Emerging Scholars’ Network (ESN) of the IAMCR from 2008 to 2012. In that position, my Co-Chair and I expanded the section, advocated lower conference fees for students and postdoctoral researchers, ran the ESN mentorship program matching emerging scholars with senior mentors, and held annual socials and workshops for emerging scholars.  We also organized the regular ESN paper sessions, often with senior scholars as discussants. 

It would be my goal to continue the excellent work of Sandra Braman in organizing the section, ensuring that discussants are assigned where appropriate to comment on panels and papers, organizing high-level panels on topics of current importance, seeking out opportunities for section publications, and representing the section’s interests.

Dr. Rodrigo Cetina Presuel,
City University of New York - Queensborough Community College Foreign Languages Department, Lecturer

As it can be read in my profile, I am still an emerging scholar and I am new member of IAMCR, Montreal 2015 will be my first conference. This should be seen as strength. As a new member of IAMCR I will have a fresh perspective on the needs of the institution and I have the drive that can be expected from a person that is still in the building stage of his career. If elected, I will certainly use that energy to the benefit of the Law Section for the following four years.

I may be relatively young but I do have solid research and teaching experience and a good record of publications. For the last six years I have been working very closely with Dr. Loreto Corredoira, candidate for the Chair of this Law section. We have often collaborated conducting research and authoring papers and have worked alongside private institutions and research centers in both Spain and the United States. We have also organized conferences and symposiums, the latest being the 11th International Conference on Information Law and Ethics (CIEDI), this year, an official pre-Conference of IAMCR itself. Other editions of this Conference have been organized alongside Prof. Lorenzo Cotino of the University of Valencia and Prof. Ignacio Bel, also from Complutense in both Spain and Latin American countries such as Mexico and Chile. Our ability to consistently and successfully work together as a team is an asset we can bring to the Section’s leadership, and as a group.

We have a clear objective in fostering a wide network of both consolidated and emerging scholars focusing on information law, freedom of expression and of the press. During the following four years we will seek collaboration with other sections and working groups, particularly ethics and journalism, as we seek to tackle issues such as access to governmental information, national security, privacy, big data and its effects on both people and institutions, paying special information to international access to information and citizen participation.

As candidates for the Law Section it is our goal to find ways to achieve a greater union between scholars from every continent. CIEDI has allowed us to have close working relationships with scholars and institutions in both Europe and Latin America and we plan to seek greater collaboration among institutions in both sides of the Atlantic such as ECREA, Ibercom and ALAIC.

I believe I can be that necessary bridge between experienced and emerging researchers from around the world. I currently live and work in New York (the City University of New York), which gives me the opportunity to frequently network with academics both working and visiting the city. Despite my short career, besides the US, I have had the opportunity to also work in Mexico and Spain and I have professional contacts in those and other countries. Those relations can be put to the service of the Law Section.

Media and Sport Section

Candidates for Chair

Anthony Moretti, Ph.D. Director,
Center for Innovative Teaching and Directed Engaged Learning Associate Professor, Department of Communications Robert Morris University, Moon Township, PA, USA

My name is Anthony Moretti, and I thank-you for taking time to examine why I’d like to be the next head of IAMCR’s Media and Sport Section (MSS). Currently I am the director of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Directed Engaged Learning at Robert Morris University, where I also am an associate professor in communications.

My goals for the MSS include exploring new publishing opportunities for our researchers, expanding our membership, and creating lecture exchanges in which interested instructors would via video conference swap classes with a colleague at another institution for at least one day.

I’ve sought meaningful leadership opportunities throughout my 14 years in higher education, and I see the MSS head as one of them. I was introduced to IAMCR and Media and Sport (when it was a group) in 2001. The passion that Dr. Alina Bernstein has brought to this position has served all of us very well. I promise to bring that same dedication, should I be chosen by you to lead it.

In the year I served as head of AEJMC’s news division (now called the electronic news division) I led the effort to get our journal, Electronic News, started. That journal is now 10 years old, and I’m proud to have been its co-editor for the previous five years. I’ve encouraged researchers to move their conference presentations into peer-reviewed publications; I’ll work with MSS members to either create a journal related to media and sport or to ally our division with a current peer-reviewed publication. Together, we’ll strengthen our commitment to research.

As the BEA conference programming chair, I instituted a new research program. Called Rapid-Fire Research, multiple scholars presented highlights of their work in approximately five minutes and then robust discussion about all the papers followed. These sessions allowed for more qualified research to be presented and in a format that was audience- and scholar-friendly. The effort led to increased attendance at the conference, and drove up overall membership. I’d be interested in exploring IAMCR’s interest in this research strategy.

Of course, we also are instructors, and expanding our reach into classrooms in other countries is an honorable pursuit. I’ve been a guest lecturer at Moscow State University and Liverpool John Moores University in the past two years. One of my initiatives as MSS head is to encourage our members to in essence trade their classes for at least one day. This program would introduce our teaching and research to other students, and foster a greater sense of collegiality among us.

Though I cannot be at the IAMCR conference this year, please know that I’m eager to again make it part of my annual professional development plan and to expand the MSS’s prominence within the Association as its head.

Dr Deirdre Hynes, Senior Lecturer Digital Media & Programme Leader for Digital Media & Communication 
Manchester Metropolitan University

I wish to be considered for the position of Section Head of the Media and Sport Section.I have been vice chair of the Media and Sport section since 2013.

I have attended IAMCR conferences since Barcelona 2002, Cairo 2006, Braga 2010, Istanbul 2011, Dublin 2013 when funding and life permitted (illness, parenthood, early career research, new employment and lack of travel funding impeded my attendance on a number of occasions).

I have actively supported the incumbent chair, Alina Bernstein, in my role as vice-chair. The nature of this work included promotion of the conference and the section, helping to review the abstracts received, working closely on the construction of the programme, ensuring fair process and wide spread of proposals. Each year we received extremely positive and encouraging feedback from attendees and presenters about the conduct of the sessions and the intellectual rigour of the Media and Sport section.

Each year, we conducted the business meeting to continue and support the development of the section, to help and assist the construction of a strong and active community of fellow researchers. The aim of this initiative was to construct a shared social space to promote and support collaborative funding bids and essentially to grow the Media and Sport section. To facilitate this, I set up the Facebook group during the IAMCR conference in Dublin to maintain a network of conference attendees and a forum for sharing news regarding jobs, information on new publications, call for papers, proposals, abstracts, help with research etc. The Facebook page currently has 58 members and continues to grow.

To support my bid to become the Head of the Media and Sport Section, I draw on my experience as a co-director of the Centre for Study of Football and its Communities, a research group in Manchester Metropolitan University and an active research career in the field of football and fandom in the digital age. The future promises to be an exciting one with new research and new themes emerging constantly.

I hereby submit my application to become Section Head of the Media and Sport section in the International Association For Media and Communication Research.

Media Education Research Section

Candidates for Chair

Sirkku Kotilainen, PhD,
ProfessorSchool of Communication, Media and Theatre & School of Education, University of Tampere

My name is Sirkku Kotilainen, acting as professor in media education at the University of Tampere, School of Communication, Media and Theatre and School of Education, Finland. I am a member of the scientific committee for the Media Education Research Section of IAMCR and a media education researcher since 1995. I have a master’s degree in media studies 1995 and a doctorate degree in education 2001 from the University of Tampere, Finland.

Currently my research is focusing on the international perspectives on youth media participation and, media education of children including media in teacher education as well. As professor, I am also in charge of the academic media education:  the International Master’s Degree Programme in Media Education 120 ECTS is starting in August 2015 at the University of Tampere with students from different continents of the world, see more:  https://fi-fi.facebook.com/utamediaeducation

My first attendance to the IAMCR conference with a paper was 1997. In becoming years, I have the possibility of attending the IAMCR conferences and contributing my best to MER sessions. The current co-chairs have been active in renewing the practices into a well working research section. Together with my colleague Prof. Manisha Pathak-Shelat we will continue in line with this development and, work for the broadening of participants also from resource-starved institutions.

Candidate for Vice-Chair

Manisha Pathak-Shelat,
Ph.D.Associate ProfessorChair, Communication Area
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Social Change Leadership, MICA, India

I am Manisha Pathak-Shelat, Associate Professor and Chair, Communication Area at MICA, India. I am a candidate for the position of vice-chair for the MER section.

I am a current member of the scientific committee for the Media Education Research Section of IAMCR and a media education researcher-teacher-practitioner since 1994. I have a doctorate degree in education from the M.S. University of Baroda, India and another in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. I have lived and worked in India, Thailand, and the U.S. and have also collaborated with colleagues in Canada, Finland, Egypt, and Argentina on media education research. My current work focuses on media and digital literacy for engaged citizenship and understanding diversity. At MICA, I am an affiliate faculty with our newly launched Center for Social Change Leadership where media and digital literacy is valued as an important approach to social change.

My vision of the field is directed by the interconnectedness of research, pedagogy, and policy. This will reflect in my contribution to MER section. In my position as the vice-chair of the MER section I would work with the chair towards expanding diversity and disciplinary scope in the presentations and facilitating collaborations and transnational exchange among members.

I first became member of IAMCR in 1994 but it was a challenge for me to personally attend the conferences even with accepted papers and panels because of lack of resources as a young faculty from the global South and then as a Ph.D. student. I am happy to share that my current position at MICA has removed that constraint because of supportive institutional policy. I am confident of attending future IAMCR conferences and contributing my best to MER sessions. I fully understand the constraints of participation for resource-starved institutions. My colleague Prof. Sirkku Kotilainen and I are committed to find ways to encourage more participation from such institutions.

Popular Culture Working Group

Candidate for Chair

Dr. Tonny Krijnen
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Department of Media and Communication

As an assistant professor Media Studies, my research focuses on all aspects of popular television and their relations to moral reasoning. The moral messages popular TV actually provides us with formed the starting point of my investigations. The next stop were audiences, what they perceive as moral messages in TV, and how they appropriate them in their own everyday life moral decision making. Currently, I am moving towards production of morality in a transnational TV industry. Throughout my research, gender functions as an important theoretical lens. My most recent publication, co-authored with dr. Sofie Van Bauwel, is Gender and the Media - Representing, Producing, Consuming that will appear with Routledge in July 2015.

As my interests cover many elements of popular TV, my work is truly interdisciplinary. Next to cultural studies perspectives, cultural sociology, literary studies, and gender studies are important contributors to my theoretical understanding of popular culture in general. Therefore, I think I would be a good candidate to chair IAMCR’s Popular Culture Working Group. Popular Culture as an academic field is interdisciplinary by origin and, in my opinion, interdisciplinarity is also the strength of the field. Combining insights from different academic disciplines including their methods, seems a fruitful way to understand what popular culture means in contemporary, globalized, societies. During the IAMCR conferences, I always perceived the Working Group’s sessions to present an interesting mix of insights in the fields of both humanities as social sciences. This, in my view, is an important task for the Working Group: safeguarding the inclusivity of the field of popular culture; not only in terms of academic disciplines, but also in terms of member-diversity.

In the past, I functioned as a vice-chair (4 years) and chair (2 years) of the Gender and Communication Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). During those years, I had the opportunity to learn about the fun of international collaboration and about the politics of an academic organization. Together with the other members of the management team, I put a lot of effort in organizing interesting conference programs, section publications, and inclusivity for the section. These experiences add to my suitability as a chair for the Working Group.

Religion, Communication and Culture Working Group

Candidate for Chair

Yoel Cohen
Faculty of The School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel (school chairman 2009-11).

Having completed four years as a co-chair of the Religion, Communication & Culture working group, I seek re-election for a second term.

Over the last couple of years, the Religion, Communication & Culture (RCC) working group has advanced in a number of directions. The working group attracts more attendances today. For example, in the forthcoming Montreal conference, the RCC has 25 scheduled  lectures. But the significance of the RCC is that it is an international forum where a variety of faith traditions and approaches are discussed - reflecting the international cosmopolitan  character of the IAMCR itself. It contrasts with other fora where the focus is upon the Western monotheistic faiths and where much of the qualitative research concerns the USA. The group's title became `Religion, Communication and Culture' from `Media, Religion, & Culture '. While the latter is identified with the culturalist tradition in media and religion research, the working group seeks to be a forum of a broad range of research traditions.  In addition, the working group initiated an on-line `noticeboard' - a clearing-house for information  about media and religion  including upcoming events like conferences, new publications and research, and related developments within the media or religious institutions.

My book, God, Jews & the media: Religion & Israel's media was published by Routledge Publishers in 2012.  It discusses various aspects about the interface of media and religion in the Israeli Jewish context - from religion coverage in the secular Israeli media, and religious media; to ethical theological questions about media behaviour; to the use of Internet among religious communities; advertising trends in the religious sector; the role of the media in the Jewish diaspora; and foreign media coverage of the Holyland.

I graduated in International Relations from London University, and wrote my doctorate examining the role of the news media in British foreign policy, under the supervision of Professor Jeremy Tunstall of City University London - which evolved into Media Diplomacy: the Foreign Office in the mass communications age (Frank Cass Publishers). This was followed by  Whistleblowers and the Bomb: Vanunu, Israel & Nuclear Secrecy (Pluto Press) about Mordechai Vanunu's disclosure of nuclear secrets to the London Sunday Times. The book appeared in five different book imprints including English, Hebrew & German.

Over the last fifteen years my research has focused upon different aspects of media and religion, and has been published in the Journal of Media and Religion; Encyclopaedia of Religion, Communication & Media; The Handbook of Media & Mass Communication Theory etc. I am editing a book on media and religion news reporting worldwide.

In seeking re-election as co-convenor, among goals which I wish to advance include publication of our conference proceedings; and that as the RCC grows that its working group status move to a fully-fledged section.

Visual Culture Working Group

Candidates for Co-Chair

Dr, Deborah Tudor
Associate Dean, Graduate StudiesCollege of Mass Communication and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University

I have been active in the Visual Culture Working Group for several years.  I have presented papers at the Istanbul and Dublin conferences. I was accepted for the Hyderabad conference last year but had to cancel due to surgery. I have been active in the management of the VCWG, attending business meetings, and offering ideas to expand the group.  I established and maintain a VCWG Facebook page, I have reviewed papers for the Group and have chaired panels in addition to making my own presentations.

I am interested in the position of co-chair because I feel that the VCWG is an integral part of IAMCR due to its emphasis on interdisciplinary study of global visual culture. Visual culture plays a central role in the lives of global citizens, and our group is well-positioned to provide leadership in this field.  I wish to assist in that effort.

Luíza Beatriz A. M. Alvim

My name is Luíza Beatriz Amorim Melo Alvim and I would like to be a candidate for the co-chair or vice-chair positions of the Visual Culture Working Group. I am Temporary Lecturer at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Brazil), I have already a PhD in Communication and Culture (UFRJ, Brazil) and I am PhD student in Music at Federal University of State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO, Brazil), as the domain of my research is the relationship between Cinema and Music in Modern Cinema.

In Montreal, I will be presenting a paper for the second time in the Visual Culture Working Group. Though being a recent member of the group, at last IAMCR in Hyderabad I have participated in all the WG´s sessions as well as in the business meeting. I intend to do the same again and I am very interested in searching ways of extending the activities of the groups beyond the annual IAMCR conference, trying to connect  members  in  online  forums,  stimulating  collaborative  research  and  making efforts to achieve the publication of members´ works in a book.

In Brazil I am for the second consecutive year co-chair of the Section “Sound Aesthetics and Sound Theories in Audiovisual” of the Brazilian Society of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies (SOCINE). I am also a member of the Counsel of that Society. As co-chair of the Section, I am responsible for the paper selection process and for the organization and coordination of the section´s sessions. As a Counsel member of SOCINE, I participate in regular meetings to discuss the rules of the society and the organization of its conferences.

I would be very glad to bring that experience to the Visual Culture WorkingGroup as well as to promote our Working Group within IAMCR.

Luiza Lusvarghi
Research fellow in the Department of Communication and Arts at the University of São Paulo, Brazil

My name is Luiza Lusvarghi, and I am now a research fellow in the Department of Communication and Arts at the University of São Paulo (ECA USP), Brazil. I hold BA degrees in Journalism, Brazilian and English Literature, and MA and Doctorate Degrees in Communication Sciences from University of São Paulo. My research interests lie in the area of audiovisual communication, film and television studies. I have written books (3), chapters (3) and articles (27) about MTV in Brazil, “City of God” and other essays emphasizing Latin-American cinema and audiovisual culture.

My current postdoctoral work, supported by the Capes program (Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), examines contemporary Latin American crime TV series. My research project is entitled “Transmediaton, Transnationalism and Interculturalism: Law, Crime and New Order in Latin American TV Fiction Series.” As a first result, I have organized and lectured in two disciplines, the first as part of a cultural extension program open to the university campus and the second in the post-graduate program. I am preparing the launch of a book at the beginning of 2016.

Since 2014, I am a research member of Obitel (Ibero-American Observatory of Television Fiction), with headquarters in Brazil (USP) and Mexico (University of Guadalajara), formed by 12 countries. The Obitel Yearbooks are published simultaneously in three languages. The print edition is available only Portuguese, but the digital edition is available in Portuguese, Spanish and English. This work is developed in partnership with Globo Group, and the collaboration of IBOPE (The Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics) and their international affiliates;  CAEM, GfK and Marktest, Barlovento Comunicación/Kantar Media, Nielsen Media Research, AGB Nielsen Media Research.

I am a member of ABRACCINE (Brazilian Association of Cinema Critics), taking part of the juries of important local film festivals, such as Mostra Internacional de São Paulo (São Paulo International Film Festival), but also the following academic institutions: ASAECA (Argentinian Association of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies), LASA (Latin American Studies Association), SOCINE (Brazilian Association of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies), ALAIC (Latin American Association of Communication Research) and INTERCOM (Brazilian Society for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication). I have also contributed as editor, reviewer and member of editorial and scientific committees of such academic journals as “Matrizes” (ECA-USP), NAU (Intercom), Rebeca (Socine), Extra-Prensa (ECA-USP).

As the new vice-chair of the Visual Culture Working Group, I will commit to continuing the work of my predecessor, Myonghae Kim, collaborating with the current chair, Sunny Yoon, in the organization of the works throughout the year and during the conference. I will also reinforce collective efforts to become our WG into a new section of the IAMCR. Once our main theme has an impact in the debates around Cultural Capital and Immaterial Labor concepts, playing an essential role in the creative industries, I would like to suggest the launch of a quadrennial online bulletin, and the addition of an annual publication on themes that would be voted for by all the members in the group.

Denize Araujo

My name is Denize Araujo. I have attended the Visual Culture Working Group for the past 8 years, presenting papers, chairing sessions and evaluating texts as part of the blind review process.  

I have a PhD in Cinema and Visual Arts from the University of California, Riverside, USA, having lived in the Unites States for 10 years, to study and to teach. I have just finished my Post Doctorate research in the University of Algarve, Portugal, having as theme the memory of dictatorships through images in films.  I am the Coordinator of the Research Group “Communication, Image and Contemporaneity” since 2001, at the Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, where I have coordinated the Post Graduate Course in Cinema since 1997. I am also a Professor and Advisor of the Master´s and Doctorate Program at the same university, having coordinated the Program for 6 years, from 2004 to 2010.  I have written books and chapters, and also organized several books and e-books related to images, films and visual culture. At the moment, I am the Curator of the International Film Festival of the Art Bienal of Curitiba, which will be held in October 2015.   

Since 2001, I have presented papers regularly at the Compós- Brazilian Association of Post Graduate Programs in Communication, which is the most important association for scholars with research in communication and media in Brazil. I was the Executive Secretary of Compós from 2007 to 2009. At IAMCR, I am a member of the International Council, the Publishing Committee and the Scholarly Review Committee.    

I believe the VCWG is relevant for our Association, especially nowadays when visual studies are emphasized.  As Vice-Chair, I intend to make a commitment in helping the Chair in order to turn the WG into a Section and to promote online activities with other international research groups that work with related themes, encouraging participants of the VCWG to share their experiences, having a continued exchange of information and research through a blog or a site.