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In this Issue
Upcoming Events
(See details on each event at right)
A Midsummer Night's Dream Sept 26-Oct 5
Chinese Drama Students Perform Unique Version of Hamlet Oct 7
Mindgating: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Film Festival Oct 11
Creative Smackdown at GVSU Oct 23
Super 8 Workshop Oct 25 in Conjunction With Home Movie Day
International Animation Day Oct 29th
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Fall 2008
Events
Women Baseball League Players to Speak Sept 18
Three women who were members of the former Grand Rapids Chicks baseball team will speak September 18 at 10 a.m. at the Gerald R. Ford Museum as part of GVSU’s Grand Forum Series. The three women will discuss their role in the league as well as their impact on demonstrating the changing roles of women in American society. The women have been interviewed by Frank Boring (Film/Video) for a documentary he is producing. The event is sponsored by the School of Communications in collaboration with the History Department and the Ford Museum.
Wiese Speaks About Political Communication at Spring Lake Library Sept 22
Danielle Wiese (Communication Studies) will speak at the Spring Lake Library Monday September 22 at 7 p.m. on the topic “Finding the "Real" Candidates in Campaign 2008.” She will address how the media distract people from policy and substance, why the candidates spend so much time on a campaign show, and how people can find out how the candidates really feel about issues that are important to them.
Scholar Lee Thayer to Visit GVSU Oct 1-4
Distinguished scholar Lee Thayer will be at GVSU October 1-4. He will guest lecture in Corey Anton's (Communication Studies) Thursday classes, and then, on Friday, Thayer and Anton, with the help of Frank Boring and students, will shoot a video dialogue, including participation with students and the larger public. For more information on attending the video shoot, contact Professor Anton at 616-331-3321.
A Midsummer Night's Dream Sept 26-Oct 5
Celebrate the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival's 15th season by going "Back to the Forest" to meet up again with Puck, Oberon, Titania, the four young and impetuous lovers, and the beloved Ass Bottom and the other mechanicals. Tickets: General admission, $14; Alumni, faculty, staff and seniors, $12; all students, $6. There is a 15th Season Celebration Reception on opening night, September 26 with special ticket prices of $10 or two for $15. Contact the Box Office, (616) 331-2300, beginning September 5, from 12-5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or visit www.gvsu.edu/shakes
Chinese Drama Students Perform Unique Version of Hamlet Oct 7
Drama students from Shanghai, China will perform their version of Hamlet in "Who Killed the King?--A Chinese Hamlet." October 6 at 7 PM in Loosemore Auditorium, Pew Campus and October 7 at 2:30 p.m. in Cook-Dewitt Center. This FREE performance is in Mandarin, but a knowledge of Chinese is not necessary for enjoying this lively and engrossing performance. The performance is part of an exchange program with East China Normal University, a GVSU partner institution. Sponsored by the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival, Padnos International Center, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. More information: www.gvsu.edu/shakes or (616) 331-3668.
Mindgating: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Film Festival Oct 11
Alumni films and a film looking back at the history of liberal education at GVSU will be featured on Homecoming Weekend in Room 0094 and 2263 in the Kirkhof Center. From 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Professor Barb Roos (Film & Video Production) presents her interactive tribute to the legacy of William James College. Then from 1-4 p.m. 20 Film and Video alumni who graduated between 1975-2006 will present their animations, documentaries, dramatic films, and video art. The featured films include work by Mike Allore, Derk Baartman, Michael Deering, Jonathan Flis, Gretchen Vinnedge, Gregg Bruza, Thomas Hegewald, George Kitson, Joel Potrykus, David Plakke, Angie Mistretta, Mark Ashley Sellers. Melissa Bouwman, and others. Several of these alumni will be in attendance. The event concludes with a reception from 4-6 p.m. The festival is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Film and Video Production Major, School of Communications.
Creative Smackdown at GVSU Oct 23
The School of Communications at Grand Valley State University will host this year’s Creative Smackdown in the Loosemore Auditorium on the DeVos Center campus in downtown Grand Rapids on Thursday evening, October 23. Award-winning area professionals will judge student work in a variety of creative categories. More info at: http://www.creativesmackdownusa.com/
Super 8 Workshop Oct 25 in Conjunction With Home Movie Day
Visiting professors in Film/Video Jennifer Proctor and Margo Greenlaw will present a workshop for students on shooting and processing Super 8, in conjunction with Home Movie Day events taking place in October. The workshop takes place October 25th from 1-5pm in Kirkhof Center Room 94. Proctor and Greenlaw, along with several area filmmakers and artists, will also be co-hosting West Michigan's Home Movie Day on October 18th at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids. Home Movie Day is an international celebration of 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm home movies that invites area residents to showcase their films for the public as a collective sharing of memories. More information on the Grand Rapids event is available at http://www.viget.org/Home_Movie_Day.
International Animation Day Oct 29th
The Film and Video Program, ASIFA/Central (local chapter of an international animation association) and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center are sponsoring a free showing of contemporary animation film shorts from around the globe on October 29. This screening is part of International Animation Day, a world-wide celebration that marks the beginning of animated film. The event is 7 p.m., Wealthy Theater Annex, 1110 Wealthy SE, Grand Rapids.
Faculty News
Thompson Becomes Director of School of Communications
Tony Thompson (Photography) is the new director of the School of Communications. He replaces Alex Nesterenko (Communication Studies), who was director for 24 years. Following a fall 2008 research sabbatical, Nesterenko will return to the faculty to teach courses in Communication Studies and Health Communications.
New Faculty Join the School of Communications in the Fall of 2008
Eight new faculty members joined the School of Communications this semester. They are:
- Andrus-Henry, Samantha, Visiting Professor, Communication Studies
- Blossom, Frank, Visiting Professor, Advertising/Public Relations
- Cole, Benjamin, Visiting Professor, Theatre
- Greenlaw, Margo, Visiting Professor, Film/Video Production
- Mahlmann, Chris, Theatre Technology Director
- Smith, Stafford, Assistant Professor, Photography
- Yang, Eric,. Visiting Professor, Film/Video Production
- Zhang, Peter, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
See www.gvsu.edu/soc for profiles and photos of faculty.
Wiese Provides Election Insights on WZZM TV 13
Danielle Wiese (Communication Studies) is blogging and providing on-air insights about the 2008 presidential election for local ABC affiliate WZZM TV 13. Follow her thoughts online.
Communication Studies Faculty Active in Media Ecology Association
GVSU professors Corey Anton and Valerie Peterson (Communication Studies) both presented papers this past June at the Media Ecology Association convention in Santa Clara, Calif. Anton presented two papers at the conference: one on clocks, synchronization, and the fate of leisure and the other on phenomenology as a methodology relevant to media ecology research. Peterson presented two papers: one on rhetorical figures of speech as method for media ecology research and the other on sex, power, journalism, and the recent political efforts of Hillary Clinton. Anton is also the editor of the Media Ecology Association’s quarterly academic journal: Explorations in Media Ecology (EME), and on the Board of Directors of the association. Peterson is the managing editor of EME. Learn more about the MEA online: www.media-ecology.org
Work Underway on School of Communications’ First Nature Documentary
John Schmit (Film/Video) is directing a documentary about the dramatic changes occurring in Lake Huron's fisheries. This is the first nature documentary produced within the Film & Video Production major. The production crew is made up entirely by GVSU Film & Video and Biology students. Primary shooting took place during spring 2008 as part of a new course titled “Nature Documentary Production.” Students will continue to work on the project from production through post-production. The finished documentary will be premiered in spring 2009.
Morse Selected Artist-in-Residence in the Porcupine Mountains
Deanna Morse (Film & Video Production) was among 12 artists to be selected in May by the Department of Natural Resources for an Artist-in-Residence program. Morse will have access to a rustic cabin to experience the rugged backcountry of the Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Morse, a film animation artist, will share her experience and resulting artistic production with the public in the future.
Libman Wins National Theatre Education Award
Karen Libman (Theatre) was honored July 26 with the 2008 Lin Wright Special Recognition Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education at the annual conference in Atlanta, Ga. Read more.
Morse Film Wins Numerous Awards
The film, "Forced Perspective:Odessa," produced by Deanna Morse (Film & Video Production) is doing well on the festival circuit. In September, it was selected for screening at four festivals that span the country: from Florida's coast to Illinois, Colorado, and the coast of Washington state. The hybrid film is being programmed in various categories: it recently received an award for Best Documentary, and another in the Experimental/Narrative Film category.
Proctor Wins Awards for Films
Jennifer Proctor, a new visiting professor in Film & Video Production, won several awards for her work this past summer. Her experimental documentary "Testing the Undertow" took First Runner-up at the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. In addition, the film screened at ArtsFest (Pennsylvania), New Kingston Film Festival (New York), Antimatter Underground Film Festival (British Columbia, Canada), Washougal International Film Festival (Washington), and Poppy Jasper Film Festival (California). Her commissioned work, "A License to Write: The Iowa Workshop Experience," produced with writer Jennifer New, won an Honorable Mention at the Interrobang Film Festival in Des Moines, Iowa.
Roos Video on Green Practices to Be Shown Across State
Barbara Roos (Film/Video) and her partner Girbe Eefsting's premiered their new DVD, "Green Suppliers Network: A Community of Practice" September 8 to representatives of small- to medium-size Michigan manufacturers interested in learning how to "green" their practices. Produced for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the DVD will now be distributed throughout the state for viewing in a variety of settings.
Recent and Upcoming Faculty Publications and Presentations
Corey Anton (Communication Studies) published two articles. “Agency and Efficacy in Interpersonal Communication: Particularity as Once-Occurrence and Non-Interchangeability” is in the Summer 2008 issue of The Atlantic Journal of Communication. His article “Learning about Education Metaphors: Study as a way of life” was published in the Winter 2008 issue of Grand Valley Review: A Journal of Grand Valley State University.
Frank Boring (Film/Video) spoke about the GVSU Veterans History Project August 12 at the Library of Congress Veterans History Project in Washington D.C. On the 14th he was invited back to discuss how the GVSU program could be used as a model for the VHP nationwide.
Vandana Pednekar-Magal (Journalism) presented at an Invited Teaching Panel at AEJMC ( Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) conference in Chicago, August 2008. The panel was titled: “The Middle East in the International Communication Class.”
Tim Penning’s (Advertising/Public Relations) article “PR’s Essential Role in Democracy” was published in the September 2008 issue of Public Relations Tactics. His article “First Impressions: Media Portrayals of PR in the 1920s” has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Communication Management.
Toni Perrine, Jen Proctor and John Schmit (Film & Video Production) participated in a panel at the University Film and Video Association Conference in Colorado Springs in August. The panel, called “From Blocked to Brilliant: Teaching Concept Development,” presented strategies aimed at improving the content of student projects in video production classes. Each GVSU faculty member also presented their own scholarly or creative work and served as respondent to the work of colleagues at other institutions.
Valerie Peterson (Communication Studies) wrote the lead article "The Sex of Joy: A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking Rhetoric" in the January-March issue of Popular Communication. Her essay "Beyond Dichotomy: The Sophists' Understanding of Antithetical Thought" is the lead essay in “Advances in the History of Rhetoric: The First Six Years,” edited by Richard Leo Enos and David E. Beard.
Barbara Roos (Film/Video) will participate in a symposium on "Developing a Shared Vision for the Future of Progressive Education" at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, October 23-26. She will share segments of two of her documentaries--“An Unfinished Conversation” (1984) and “The Conversation Continues” (2007)--as triggers for a discussion about the key role of integrating liberal and professional education, still a central issue in all of higher education today, "progressive" and otherwise. She will also lead a discussion on "Using the History of PE to Inform the Present." Both documentaries will be shown full-length at the symposium as "late nite movies."
John Schmit (Film/Video) screened his documentary, "Lindsay's Rotation," at the University Film & Video Association Conference in August.
Robert Swieringa (Communication Studies) presented the paper "Making progress: Constituting identity via interaction” at the 17th biennial Sociolinguistics Symposium, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 3-5 April, 2008. He also presented the paper "'Reporting’ the lab: Collective discursive practice as organizing and manifesting community” at the conference "What is an Organization? Materiality, Agency, and Discourse" held at the University of Montreal, Québec, Canada, 21-22 May, 2008, a "pre-conference" to the International Communication Association's conference. Swieringa is currently writing two entries to the forthcoming "Encyclopedia of Communication Theory" (Sage), one on "communities of practice" and the other for "conversation analysis."
David Weinstock (Journalism) signed a book contract with Marquette Book Publishing Company of Spokane, Washington. The book, to be co-authored with Rick Pluta of Michigan Public Radio and Curt Harler, a freelance writer from Cleveland, Ohio,.is a public affairs reporting textbook and is scheduled for a Fall 2009 launch. Weinstock also served on an invited panel at the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication's (AEJMC) annual meeting in Chicago in August. The panel was about how to prepare students to work in the trade press. Weinstock was elected Professional Freedom and Responsibility chair of the AEJMC's Small Program Interest Group.
Student News
Advertising/Public Relations Student Wins National Recognition
Karina Moy (2008, Advertising/PR) was named one of the nation’s 50 Most Promising Minority Students of 2008 by the American Advertising Federation. Professor Roy Winegar accompanied Moy to New York City in February to receive the award and participate in three days of programs at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan, filled with professional development seminars and recruiting sessions with some of the country’s leading advertising agencies.
[Photo caption: Professor Roy Winegar with Advertising/Public Relations student Karina Moy in New York City]
Advertising Students Place Well in National Competition
Advertising students took fifth place in the National Student Advertising Competition in the District 6 Regional competition in Southfield on April 25. Students and team advisor Professor Roy Winegar were pleased, considering it was the first time for GVSU to have a team in the competition and they finished three places ahead of the University of Michigan. In addition, 11 students from the team of 27 have since landed jobs with national advertising agencies.
PR Students Start Firm
Members of the Grand Valley chapter of PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) have begun a student-run firm, called Grand PR. They already have a half dozen clients and will be opening an office in Lake Superior Hall this semester. Learn more.
First Feature-Length Student Film Meets Success
The first feature-length film produced by the summer film program enjoyed a variety of screenings this past summer, and continues to meet approval from audiences. The film played at Studio 28 Grand Rapids in June, Ionia Theatre in July, Holland 7 in August, and Grand Haven 9 in September. Its film festival debut is September 21 at the Illinois International Film Festival outside Chicago. Learn more.
Alumni News
Tom Dean (1984, Theatre) is senior director of marketing at Zondervan, where he has been working on the Bible Experience (www.zondervan.com/tbe), a dramatic audio recording of the Bible using a cast of more than 400 African American celebrities. He found himself last February in the green room of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, with actress Angela Bassett, who is one of the readers on the Bible Experience project. She was making an appearance for MLK Day. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would find myself with a GVSC Theatre degree rubbing elbows with Hollywood greats on an audio Bible project,” Dean said. [Photo caption: Tom Dean, left, with Angela Basset]
John Kowalski (1992, Advertising/Public Relations) opened a consulting business, Babacita, which focuses on business efficiencies, specifically around sales, marketing and branding.
Benjamin Hunter (Communication Studies; MS in Communication) is editor-in-chief of Wide Eyed magazine.
Other alumni also work on the magazine, and Professor Corey Anton has been writing columns for the magazine since April 2008.
Heather Gaden (2007, Communication Studies) was hired as assistant to the AV director for Carnival Cruises.
Aris Lazdins (2006, Advertising/Public Relations) works for a Washington, D.C. public relations agency and found himself rubbing elbows with Jon Stewart at a fundraising event for the USO.
Adam Zobl (2007, Advertising/Public Relations) designs graphics and animations for lawyers to use in trial for a company called TrialGraphix (www.trialgraphix.com) in Los Angeles.
Jorri Heil (2008, Advertising/Public Relations; Professional Writing) was hired as communication specialist at Shape Corporation in Grand Haven, Mich.
Mary Epps (2006, Advertising/Public Relations) is DTV Project Assistant for the Michigan Association of Broadcasters in Lansing. Her work involves helping to ensure the public is informed about the transition to digital television in 2009.
Have news?
We'd like to hear from GVSU School of Communications alumni for future issues of dotCOM. If you have an update about a job change, accomplishment or other news, please let us know. You can email information—including the year you graduated and your major--to Professor Tim Penning (Advertising/Public Relations), editor of dotCOM, at penningt@gvsu.edu
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