Campus On The Common

Social movements and activism today receive as much coverage in the news cycle as ever. But with the short attention span of the modern media ecosystem, how do activists and organizers today create and promote the meaningful stories behind their work?

Dr. Gino Canella is a researcher, educator, and filmmaker who studies how collaborative media production has the potential to foster meaningful relationships among people fighting for justice. He joins us today to discuss the role of storytelling and collaboration in the success of social movements and share his experiences working alongside community organizers.

Today's media landscape is a digital environment always in motion, presenting new opportunities and challenges for storytellers of all kinds. So what does that mean for broadcast journalism in 2023? And how do young journalists succeed in the industry and tell meaningful stories?

In this episode, Larry Potash—Chicago's longest-serving morning anchor and creator of the docuseries Backstory— provides his insight into the state of broadcast journalism today and what it takes to tell a good story. He will also give advice to the next generation of reporters, news anchors, and documentations on the important skills needed to thrive in modern media production.

The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team has won four FIFA World Cups since its inception, while the men’s team has yet to make it to the finals. So, why do women have less to show for it on payday?

In this episode, Dr. Mary Anne Taylor joins us to discuss the recent settlement between US Women's professional soccer and their players regarding the gender pay gaps in women's soccer. The Communication Studies professor offers actionable advice on how we can support women’s sports in all its forms.

ABOUT OUR GUEST:

An Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Dr. Taylor is a rhetoric and gender scholar with a primary research emphasis on challenging dominant discourses of democracy and civility. Her work is published in the Journal of Women and Language, American Behavioral Scientist, and several edited collections and invited manuscripts, ranging from an essay on exploring false feminism, to gendered journalism in The New York Times.

Currently, Dr. Taylor has a co-authored manuscript in review with Communication Quarterly, which investigates critical rhetorical approaches to health communication. She has also presented her work at national, international, and regional conferences on the rhetoric(s) of gender, race, and sexuality in sports and politics.

Dr. Taylor joined Emerson College from the Department of Management at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to teaching Strategic Communication, she was also contracted with the Texas MBA + Leadership Program and Executive Education & Ethics Center. Dr. Taylor remains affiliated with the McCombs MBA Leadership program and consults on gender and communication in organizational leadership, career management, job placement, storytelling, and networking.

On an interpersonal level, do you communicate in a positive or negative manner? Do you unknowingly project power or weakness, impatience or encouragement? Are your words edgy or empathetic?

In this episode, we speak with Professor Philip Glenn about his research into the field of positive communication. He explains the movement towards non-violent communication and teaches us what role humor, laughter, and levity can play in developing interpersonal connections.

So let’s get serious about laughter, as we learn more about the world of positive communications.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Professor of Communication Studies Phillip Glenn teaches Conflict and Negotiation, Positive Communication, and Professional Communication. He conducts scholarly research analyzing interaction, especially conflict, negotiation, and mediation; employment interviews; and laughter in everyday talk.

Glenn's recent book is the co-edited Studies of Laughter in Interaction (Bloomsbury, 2013). He serves on the editorial board of Research on Language and Social Interaction. He has advanced training in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and in conflict coaching from the Boss Whispering Institute.

He is a volunteer mediator and trainer with Metropolitan Mediation Services in Brookline. Glenn served as Interim Dean of the School of Communication from 2012 to 2016 and served multiple terms as a department chair. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Program on Negotiation in 2008 and held Fulbright Scholar appointments in the Czech Republic (1995) and the Republic of Moldova (2005).

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is an iconic tune, but what can it teach us about the importance of copyright for artists and other creatives?

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Bhamati Viswanathan, a copyright lawyer, and affiliate professor here at Emerson College, about what you need to know to protect your intellectual property.

Whether it’s copyright, patent, or trademark, securing your IP is the only way to make sure that you can make a living while doing what you love. Together, we’ll learn why some amount of legalese is an important part of every artist's vocabulary.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Dr. Bhamati Viswanathan teaches, advises and writes about the intersection of creative economies, arts and culture, and copyright law.

An affiliate faculty member at Emerson Bhamati teaches Business of Creative Enterprise courses on the intersection of intellectual property law and creativity, business fundamentals, the creative economy, creative collaboration and leadership, and cultural appropriation.

She has recently written a book entitled Cultivating Copyright: How Creative Industries Can Harness Intellectual Property to Survive the Digital Age (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Press: 2019). Her next book will examine intellectual property law, arts and culture, and philosophy in the age of artificial intelligence.

Bhamati holds a Doctorate of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) and a Masters in Law (LL.M.) from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She also holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Michigan Law School. She received her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree, cum laude, from Williams College.

Bhamati is Trustee and Chair of the New England Chapter of the Copyright Society of the USA. She is Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Section: Emerging Technologies Committee. She is a Faculty Advisor of the Copyright Alliance Academic Advisory Board. She is Education Advisor to the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts/Massachusetts Arts and Business Council. Bhamati is also Trustee of the Williams College Asian and Asian American Alumni Network.

Bhamati is a competitive figure skater, violinist, and published poet/translator. She resides in Boston.

How can you bring an unknown brand out of obscurity? How do you bring awareness to a cause that needs our attention? In this episode, it’s all about small budgets and big impacts as we dive into "guerilla public relations."

We're sitting down with David Richard, who is the CEO of his own PR firm and a faculty member here at Emerson College, to learn why this public relations strategy makes sense as well as how to use it.

We’ll discuss what guerilla PR is, where it fits in the broader scheme of public relations, and how you can devise a successful guerilla PR campaign of your own.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

David Gerzof Richard is an entrepreneur and public relations executive and senior affiliated professor at Emerson College.

At Emerson, David develops programs that connect the College's Communication Studies Department with brands and innovators outside the school. He regularly experiments with, and explores a variety of communication strategies, mediums, tools and technologies as they relate to brands, campaigns, and society. David teaches courses in guerilla public relations, sports PR, political communication, speech writing, thought leadership and global public relations. Under David's supervision, his "real-world" course work has seen the development and execution of student run PR campaigns for innovative brands like: RunKeeper, TaskRabbit, Art Lifting and Pill Pack. In 2007, David established the social media marketing Course at Emerson College, a first-of-its-kind class, which was profiled in the Wall Street Journal. His sports communication courses are known to have drop-in lecturers who include the likes of Chad OchoCinco, Rob Gronkowski, and Julian Edleman.

Outside of Emerson College, David is the Founder and CEO of the Boston tech PR firm, BIGfish PR, an award-winning tech PR agency headquartered on Newbury Street, which represents publicly traded companies, sovereign nations, professional athletes and white-hot start-ups, including Amazon's Ring video door bell, MIT Technology Review and the nation of Iceland.

In addition to running BIGfish, he is a limited partner at GreatPoint Ventures, a lecturer at Harvard University, a mentor at TechStars and a curator for Summit Series in Boston.

President Jimmy Carter’s wife Rosalynn famously said, “Don’t worry about the polls. But if you do, don't admit it.”

Unfortunately, in today's heated political landscape and 24-hour news cycle, the former First Lady’s advice simply doesn't hold water. So in this episode, we welcome Isabel Hollaway ’19, the assistant director at Emerson Polling, to help us pull back the curtain on the study of public opinon — to understand what it is, how it works, and why it’s important.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Isabel Holloway is the program assistant for Emerson College Polling, where she previously worked as a student staffer before graduating from Emerson College with a B.S. in Political Communication in 2019. In this role, Holloway has contributed to Emerson Polling's growing recognition as one of the must trusted public opinion research organizations in the U.S., according to FiveThirtyEight, and earning citations in media outlets across the country. Holloway has coordinated projects with clients including Nexstar Media, the Association of Marshall Scholars, and All In Together, as well as participated in survey design and data analysis of Emerson surveys. In her research efforts at Emerson, Holloway is currently studying the impact of mode of data collection between IVR, online, and SMS surveys in Emerson’s 2020 electoral polling.

How can academic researchers convey insight and meaning about the world of child adoption?

Auto-ethnography, focus groups, and photo-voice (a combination of images and recorded narratives) are qualitative research tools that can provide meaningful context and insight into personal experiences.

In this episode, Dr. Robin Danzak, discusses how she combines these tools in order to explore the spectrum of adoption from the perspective of those whose lives it has touched.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

As a member of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Robin teaches courses in language and literacy. Her research focuses on bilingual writing of adolescents and adults, examining connections between language, culture, and identity. Currently, she is also investigating the impact of global/local service learning on student learning and intercultural competence, and co-writing an autoethnography of adoption. Robin taught Spanish in Florida public schools for several years. Prior to that, she lived in Chile for five years. In 2014, she spent a semester in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar.

In teaching, Robin is passionate about community-engaged and project-based learning. At her previous university, she led global health programs and recently coordinated a collaborative student exchange with a university in Guatemala. Outside of work, Robin spends her time trail running, hiking, and attempting to experience all the cultural-historical sites of Boston.

A member of Emerson's faculty since 2019, Robin earned her B.A. from New College of Florida, an M.A. from Chile's Universidad de Concepción, and her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida.

The Latinx community is a complex, diverse group of people who have had a massive, unquestionable influence on North American culture and society.

Whether it is music, art, sports, or politics, you can’t tell the story of U.S. history without Latinx history. Yet, for far too long in this country, they have felt oppressed, forgotten, and treated as a monolith.

So, in a moment where many social movements have enveloped the nation, how can one tell the intricate story of the Latinx experience in America? How can those stories be used to bridge communities and create significant, lasting change?

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Lina Maria Giraldo is a Colombian-born, Boston-based artist focusing on interactive storytelling towards social change, with a diverse background ranging from digital educational tools, public art, screen based installations and computer-generated work. She explores the questions of identity as an immigrant, the impact of Mankind on our surroundings, and is constantly experimenting different ways of collective storytelling. As she explains, "For over 15 years my work has been focused on creating messages where I depict the fragility of our environment, immigration concerns and community equality."

She has exhibited her work in galleries, shows, and public spaces throughout Massachusetts, New York, and her native Colombia. Her work has been covered in media including The Boston Globe, ABC News, The Artery, Artlink, WBUR, WGBH just to name a few. She's produced large-format online content for the Marquee at the Convention Center and was selected by the Mayor's office for the Fenway 30 second cinema as well as displaying work at IAC's 120 feet screen in NYC. Her notable achievements include being selected as one of the artists in Boston AIR 2.0 Residency for the City of Boston; recipient of the Creative City Grant; being part of the team that created the award winning educational website JFK50.org, while working as an interaction designer at ESI Design; recipient of a Hispanic Scholarship Foundation Grant for the creation of workshops for middle school children in conjunction with the Santa Fe Art Institute and the creation of an interactive video installation addressing the issues of undocumented immigrants and their dreams; production of videos of Madeleine Albright, Stephen King, Harry Belafonte and Nancy Pelosi for the JFK Library.

Injustice, discrimination and hate are issues that we face here in the US as well as throughout the world. While 2020 was a year that clearly reflected how much work still needs to be done. Affecting meaningful change is easier said than done.

Emerging from all this hostility we are now seeing a new generation of activists that have heard the call to action in the fight against Hate. So who are these young leaders of social change? What are they doing to promote this global movement to bring about tolerance, equality, and justice?

Team Harmony Foundation, is an organization “committed to educating, inspiring and engaging youth in the battle against hate in all its forms”.

In today’s episode, we’ll talk about Team Harmony with three members of the Emerson community that have been instrumental in expanding Team Harmony’s connection to young change agents throughout the world

Today’s guests include Emerson College Department of Communication studies Chairman Dr. Gregory Payne, Khary Higgins an Emerson College Senior, and Professor Cathryn Edelstein the director of the Non-profit Management Communication Minor.

ABOUT TEAM HARMONY...

The Team Harmony Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) committed to educating, inspiring and engaging youth in the battle against hate in all its forms.

The primary goal of the Foundation will be to support year-round engagement, coalition building, and organizing efforts of students as they work to develop diverse coalitions and encourage collaboration across differences. We believe supporting coalition building amongst youth of all races, ethnicities, religions, socio-economic statuses, orientations, legal status will serve to build bridges and further enhance student efforts to organize and fight against injustice and discrimination. This effort can result in the establishment of a new majority, one committed to altering our civic discourse for a better and more just future!

To best achieve this critical objective, The Foundation will organize and conduct a series of youth-based activities estimated to engage thousands of youth worldwide.

Team Harmony has established an international Youth Advisory Council with students from throughout the United States and countries in five continents. These youth leaders are already at work organizing and planning content for the coming school year and beyond!

The Foundation is also partnering with a diverse set of civil rights, community and educational organizations to provide networking, ongoing educational updates and capacity building training to youth groups throughout the year (see The Team Harmony Coalition in the Program Elements section for more detail on participating organizations).