Ms. Dinc an assistant professor in the TV and digital film production major.  Her documentary tells the story of a 12-year-old Turkish girl, Elif, learning the basics of her religion, Mevlevism. Mevlevis are also known as Whirling Dervishes in the Western World and they are a part of a heterodox tradition of Islam.  The film follows Elif through the course of a year, witnessing her learning how to do the Sema (whirling), learning how to wear the tennure (white robe that Mevlevis wear during the religious ceremony), learning about the position of women in this religion, performing at the centuries old Galata Mevlevi Temple for the first time and learning the teachings of Mevlana, the founder of Mevlevism.

Three Faculty Members Present at National Communication Association

Linda Brigance, Joe Chilberg, and Tracy Marafiote presented their research at the 93rd convention of the National Communication Association in Chicago in November 2007. 

Schwalbe Appointed to International Learning Position

Communication Department Chair Ted Schwalbe has been appointed coordinator of international learning at SUNY Fredonia.  The primary goals of the position are to increase the study of international issues across the curriculum and to increase faculty opportunities to gain international experience. Schwalbe has a long history of involvement with international studies.  He is the recipient of four Fulbright awards, which aim to diffuse knowledge between different parts of the world by sending professors to teach and learn abroad. 

As a Fulbright Scholar, he has spent time at the American University in Bulgaria and the University of Pecs in Hungary.  As a Fulbright Senior Specialist, he has worked with  the University of Swaziland and the Polytechnic of Namibia.  He also has served as faculty advisor to the press corps at Eurosim, a European Union role-playing simulation exercise, when the conference was held in Fredonia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

He recently returned form China, where he attended a conference on higher education sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.  With a population of 1.3 billion people and with an increased emphasis on higher education for more students, China is looking to send more of its students to study in U.S. universities.

Department Welcomes Two New Faculty Members

The public relations faculty has expanded with the hiring of Gang (Kevin) Han.  Dr. Han's teaching area covers public relations, public opinion, research methods and various mass communication courses.  His main research interests include public relations, news framing and framing effects in electoral or non-electoral civic engagement, online public opinion, opinion polls in elections, Internet-based media sociology and mediated health communication.  Dr. Han holds a doctorate in mass communications from the S.I.Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. 

Tracy Marafiote teaches in the communication studies area, including intercultural communication, interpersonal communication, organizational communication, and public speaking.  Dr. Marafiote received her doctorate from the University of Utah, where her teaching background included communication criticism and negotiation/interviewing, as well as a variety of courses in the school’s gender studies program and David Eccles School of Business.  Motivated to bridge her environmental activism and academic work, her current research focuses on the impact of cultural forces and identities on social change in general and, specifically, on the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964.