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Podunavac had an office in the Cox Center during his visit. |
Dean of University of Belgrade Program Returns Home With Impressions of Students
Dr. Milan Podunavac, the dean of the College of Political Science, Public Administration and Journalism at the University of Belgrade, returned home to Serbia after his three-week visit to Georgia in early 2006 with many different impressions of American students.
In classes at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and at Clark Atlanta’s Department of Media Arts, he gave lectures, listened to discussions and was questioned himself about the break-up of Yugoslavia, about Serbia today and about the media in his country.
Dr. Podunavac was the guest of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication for three weeks in January and February of 2006. The visit was organized by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Grady College.
The Department of Mass Media Arts at Clark Atlanta University also is a partner in the project, which involves faculty exchanges as well as a workshop each year.
“I’m optimistic about the future of the Balkan region, though there are still so many issues to be addressed after ten years of isolation,” Dr. Podunavac told the UGA Honor students in Dr. Steven Elliott-Gower’s seminar ‘America and the World.’
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Podunavac had an office in the Cox Center during his visit. |
“There are many scars in Serbia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Croatia, but people have started looking forward again,” the dean said. “There’s hope that the European Union accession process will have a positive impact on the way people are thinking about their future.”
While at the Grady College, Dr. Podunavac had meetings with the dean of the college, Dr. Leonard Reid, with Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Jeffrey Springston, and with Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Alison Alexander. He also met with the heads of the Journalism, Telecommunications, and Advertising and Public Relations departments, and with other faculty members.
He visited the University of Georgia student newspaper, The Red & Black, the Georgia Research Center and the Center for International Trade and Research at the University of Georgia.
In addition to learning about journalism education in the United States, one of the goals of Dr. Podunavac’s program was to observe how diversity issues are addressed in U.S. universities.
“I wanted very much to see what Dr. (Dwight) Brooks teaches in his Media and Diversity class,” the Dean said. “As you know, religious and ethnic intolerance was a major cause of the conflict in Yugoslavia.”
Dr. Podunavac’s visit to Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black academic institution, also focused on diversity issues. Together with CAU Professors James McJunkins and Brenda Wright and with Cox Center Assistant Director Tudor Vlad, the Serbian guest examined the courses offered by the Department of Mass Media Arts at Clark Atlanta University and compared it with the Grady College curriculum.
He also toured the radio studios and met students in the Radio Production class.
“Radio is still a major news medium in Serbia and Montenegro,” Dr. Podunavac said in a meeting with Dr. Lee Becker, the director of the Cox Center. “I was surprised to see that there are no radio courses in the Grady College. I’m glad that our partnership includes Clark Atlanta, because of my faculty’s interest in radio.”
At Grady, Dr. Podunavac visited classes across a wide range of topics, but he paid particular attention to how the basic writing classes were taught in print and broadcast journalism.
He even became the subject matter in one class on basic news writing, taught by Dr. Becker. The students interviewed the dean on his visit and wrote a story at the end of the class on the interview.
In the final meeting with Drs. Becker and Vlad, Dr. Podunavac suggested that the topic of the 2007 workshop in Belgrade should be media and diversity. “If we pick this topic,” he said, “we can incorporate into the program not only journalism faculty, but also political science and public administration educators. I think the future of the international joint projects rests in multi-disciplinary programs.”
Dr. Podunavac’s visit was part of the three-year partnership project funded by a $195,000 grant to the University of Georgia from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Total cost of the three-year project is more than $300,000.
