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Dr. Vlad, director of the Cox Center, meets with representatives from Arizona State University, Phoenix, University of South Carolina, and Babes-Bolyai University. |
Partnerships And Grant Applications Discussed In Phoenix
Following an invitation from the Office of the Provost at Arizona State University, Dr. Tudor Vlad, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, participated in a roundtable discussion in Phoenix, Arizona, in late November.
“Our universities already have been involved in bilateral partnerships in recent years,” said Dr. Stefanie Lindquist, ASU deputy provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “Now that we know what our interests and strengths are, I think it is the right time to think about a consortium and about bigger projects.”
Dr. Tom Reichert, dean, and Professor Randy Covington, director of special projects of the College of Information and Communications at theUniversity of South Carolina, presented their school and suggested monitoring and combatting anti-Western propaganda in emerging democracies as a topic for future joint research. They said that Global Engagements Funds might be available soon for such initiatives and that the group should get ready to apply.
“I think we can go beyond an academic partnership,” said Dr. Calin Hintea, dean of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. “Our universities have good ties with the business communities in our regions, and I’m sure there are many opportunities for collaboration in the economic area that we can initiate or strengthen through our partnership.”
“In my opinion, the time for narrowly focused international collaborative work is gone,” said Dr. Vlad, director of the Cox International Center. “We need to identify multidisciplinary initiatives that serve our students, our communities, and our countries. In a world that seems to be guided more and more by centrifugal forces, we have an obligation to stimulate academic, economic and political dialog.”
The Cox Center is the international outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
Dr. Keith Brown, director of the Melikian Center and Professor of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University, said that Arizona State University, University of Georgia and University of South Carolina should work together on an application for a 2019 Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars Grant (SUSI). Both the representatives of the University of Georgia and University of South Carolina agreed. Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars (SUSIs) are intensive post-graduate level academic programs with integrated study tours whose purpose is to provide foreign university faculty and other scholars the opportunity to deepen their understanding of U.S. society, culture, values, and institutions. The ultimate goal of the Institutes is to strengthen curricula and to enhance the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad.
If funding through the SUSI grant becomes available, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, through its Cox International Center, will create and operate the Institute on Journalism and Media that would provide a multinational group of 18 experienced and highly motivated foreign journalism instructors and other related specialists with a deeper understanding of the roles that journalism and the media play in U.S. society.
