Greenlee School initiates "Research Fridays"
With the increasing number of new faculty members and the higher emphasis
on research productivity from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, assistant
professors Angela Mak and Daniela Dimitrova have initiated "Research Fridays"
in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
According to Mak and Dimitrova, "Research Fridays" will provide
opportunities for Greenlee faculty members and graduate students to encourage
each other about research, get valuable feedback, improve practical research
skills, and help increase publications.
After seeking advice and support from senior faculty members such as Eric Abbott,
Kim Smith and Lulu Rodriguez, as well as gathering initial feedback from Greenlee
employees via email, Mak and Dimitrova then proposed the idea to School Director
Michael Bugeja.
The proposal was approved the next morning.
"This is an exciting development that partners our junior and senior faculty
in collaborative ways," Bugeja said. "Our tenured faculty are mentors
- on top of their other responsibilities - and their participation in this program
as scholars shows their dedication to the School and, most importantly, to our
newer colleagues."
To implement this idea, "Research Fridays" will offer luncheon presentations
and research methodology/analysis workshops on a variety of topics. These informal
gatherings will be held every other week on Fridays during lunch hours as long
as there is no time conflict with other School's activities, such as faculty
meetings and round-table discussions.
Graduate students also are excited about the workshops. Second year graduate
student, Fernando Anton, commented,
"I love the idea! I think it is very important to engage faculty and graduate
students in a combined effort to conduct research and be updated about what
is going on in the field."
Marcia Prior-Miller, associate professor and chair of the Greenlee Curriculum
Committee, wrote in an email: "This is wonderful news! For a number of
years we did something like this…but the program was lost in the shuffle
of the early 2000s. I am delighted to hear the two of you are taking the initiative
to do this! Good job! Something that will benefit everyone!"
"Research Fridays" is yet one more example of a thriving, intellectual
and mindful climate in the Greenlee School.
The luncheon presentations provide ways for Greenlee faculty members and graduate
students to share their research, practice conference presentations, get feedback
on their research proposals, and narrow their research agenda. Also, the workshops
will help colleagues brush up research skills and knowledge in both quantitative
and qualitative research methods as well as statistical analyses.
Professors from Greenlee and other disciplines (e.g. psychology, political science,
and sociology) and experts from the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology
will be invited to be workshop instructors.
Bugeja will provide seed money to get this pilot project off the ground this
semester. Mak and Dimitrova will give an evaluation report to Bugeja in May.
If "Research Fridays" is successful, Bugeja will make it a funding
priority.
"We're a professional school but we also devote ourselves to research,"
Mak observed, noting the importance of the workshops.
Dimitrova added, "The ‘Research Fridays' concept can also
give us more opportunities to do collaborative research with other departments."
The first workshop was held on February 25 at noon. Professor Kim Smith covered
Time Series Analysis and also shared applications. "Kim did a fantastic
job in giving us a clear theoretical background and application on using Time
Series and other related analyses," Mak wrote in an email. "It was
a great start of our RF!"
The first luncheon presentation is tentatively scheduled on March 25. The presentation,
by Mak and associate director Jane Peterson, was to be "International Public
Relations Education in the United States."
Other topics and presenters will be determined based on faculty interests. Some
possible topics include associate professor Lulu Rodriguez's Genetic Modified
Food and Risk Perception grant research project, assistant professor Suman Lee's
National Image Building Model, assistant professor Jay Newell's Media Saturation
Theory, and Greenlee librarian Dru Frykberg's 10 Tips to Better Web Searching.
