Department News

3/07/2008

Search for Visiting Assistant Professors

The Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago invites applicants for 2 Visiting Assitant Professor positions.

Located in the heart of Chicago, UIC is a Carnegie Research/Extensive University with 16,000 undergraduates, 6,500 graduate students, and 3,000 professional students. The Department of Communication has 11 full-time faculty, approximately 100 undergraduate majors, 25 M.A. students, and 6 Ph.D. students in a doctoral program focused on the relationship between technology and communication.

See the Faculty Search page for more information.

2/11/08

5th annual University of Illinois Communication Collaboration Conference

When? 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 11, 2008
Where? Chicago at UIC
What else? See the 2008 UICC web site for the initial call for papers.

11/15/2007

Zachary Benjamin's Paper Wins Award

First year PhD student Zachary Benjamin presented his paper "Storming the Gates at the House of Confucius: Academic Pressure, Social Mobility, and the Preservation of an Empire" on November 15 at the Indiana University-Northwest Arts and Sciences Conference in Gary, IN. The paper won the conference's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Student Research.

9/25/2007

Andrew Rojecki testimony to House Sub-committee

At the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Hearing: From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images, for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Professor Rojecki spoke about Hip-Hop and Unconscious Racism. Download Professor Rojecki's statement to the Sub-committee.

8/29/2007

APSA Pre-conference

On Wednesday, Aug. 29, the Department co-hosted a one-day event, "Machine Politics/Politics of the Machine: New Technology in Political Communication Research and Teaching," at UIC. The event, an official pre-conference short course of the American Political Science Association convention, included guided tours of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (which developed the Virtual Reality Cave) and the brain imaging facilities at the UIC Medical Center. Sixty-seven participants joined in small, interactive sessions on topics such as digital content analysis, psycho-physiological testing, games and wiki technology, and web graphing led by technologically hip scholars of all ages. A closing reception served famous Chicago food and beverages. Andrew Rojecki and Kevin Barnhurst, Department of Communication, and Doris Graber, Department of Political Science, were the event organizers.

6/8/2007

New Department of Communication Web Site

Richard Doherty, the Academic Technology Resource Coordinator mounted the new Department of Communication web site, today! The site retains the feel of the old site but is comprehensive, accessible and streamlined. Feedback is welcome. Contact Richard.

5/14/2007

John Cruickshank

of the Sun-Times finished up a successful semester (Sp07) co-teaching a course as a volunteer Returning Community Scholar. John worked tirelessly leading discussions, brainstorming activities, and grading assignments for the joy of working with 12 undergraduate majors and 4 M.A. students. The students appreciated the chance to get John's insights into the fate of the news media, as well as access to resources not generally available to UIC students. He invited every one of them to sit in on one of the daily editorial meetings of the Sun-Times. They've also done field work in community, alternative, ethnic, and activist media outlets, quite a contrast to the mainstream Sun-Times. The LAS Community Scholar initiative is an excellent way to build bridges to the wider community. John agreed to sit on the executive committee of our departmental advisory board, a group we're forming to support the new Ph.D. in Communication. The experience of working with John has enriched the environment of the Communication Department.

4/14/2007

Dr. Volodymyr Manakin

of Ukraine, will be hosted by the Department as a Fulbright Scholar next year, October 2007 – June 2008. Hui-Ching Chang will act as the academic host.

Kevin G. Barnhurst

was named to the editorial board of the new ICA journal, Communication, Culture & Critique.

Barnhurst is also co-PI on a NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) proposal, “Renewable Fuels: Technical, Political, Economic, Environmental, and Communication Aspects,” (with K. Brezinsky and S. K. Aggarwal, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, H. BassiriRad, Biological Sciences, and J. Linn, Economics), to provide up to $3.2 million for Ph.D. student education over 5 years, supporting about 5 new Ph.D. students each year each for a period of two years at $30,000, one of them in the Communication Department each year.

3/14/2007

Ming Zhang

2006 M.A. graduate, working at Monroe Mendelsohn Research, New York City, as a marketing and media research project director for clients such as Bayer and Dove.

Patricia Harkin

will receive an inaugural Graduate Mentoring Award for 2007 at the Graduate Faculty Annual Meeting, April 25, 1 p.m., 613 SCE. The citation calls her “an outstanding and dedicated mentor to masters students in Communication, assuring their successful transition to advanced study.”

Jim Sosnoski

Was invited as a group organizer to Second Life virtual reality, Linden Lab.

Kevin Barnhurst

was nominated for the C. Peter Magrath Engagement Award, from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. His 2005 HUD-funded project with the North Lawndale Community News could win up to about $30,000 for use in expanding outreach in the qualitative methods course.

Jim Danowski

Participation Stipend, 2007 Online Conference for Teaching and Learning, Illinois Online Network (ION), February 14-16, 2007. Completed Master Online Teacher Certification, Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality (MVCR) Program, ION. Filed a Report of Research Discovery, “Software tools for word co-occurrence network analysis of large textual corpora” (Tech. ID No. DA070), with the UIC Office of Technology Management on January 25, 2007. Co-PI (with Julia Gluesing, Katherine W. McCain, and Kenneth R. Riopelle) on a $750,000 NSF proposal submitted on Feb. 21, on “Mapping Perceptual, Semantic, and Citation Networks Associated with Generation of Scientific Innovations in NanoTechnology, Microbiology, and Biotechnology.” Extensive excerpt of his 1993 book chapter, “Network Analysis of Message Content,” forthcoming in a Content Analysis anthology by Klaus Krippendorff of the U. of Pennsylvania.

Steve Jones

co-PI (with Jason Leigh, Andrew E. Johnson, Luc Renambot, Thomas A. DeFanti), won a NSF grant of $497,372 over 3 years to fund the project, "Collaborative Research: Towards Life-like Computer Interfaces that Learn" (Award No. CNS-0703916). He appeared on WLUP (97.9 FM) Jonathan Brandmeier Show, Feb. 28, to discuss technology, popular culture, privacy and the Internet.

1/3/2007

Steve Jones

UIC professor of communication, was interviewed about online friendships and interaction for a NBC news segment that was recently broadcast during the newscasts of over 40 NBC stations across the country. Video and text of the segment are available online here.

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Department of Communication
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago

1007 W Harrison Street, Behavioral Sciences Building 1140, MC132
Chicago IL 60607 | Phone: 312-996-3187 | Fax: 312-413-2125

Contact the Department for general information.

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