African/African-American Studies at Elon University (AAASE) is pleased to announce that Frances Ward-Johnson, Associate Professor in the School of Communications, and Sandra L. Reid, Lecturer in the Department of Human Services, Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, are the 2006 recipients of the program’s Course Development Grants.
The initiative, which solicits proposals from all full-time faculty for new courses that focus on African, African-American, or Caribbean experiences from specific disciplinary perspectives, is designed to develop and expand the program’s scope in areas not traditionally represented in African/African-American Studies here at Elon, such as the Schools of Business and Communications, and the Departments of Fine Arts, Philosophy, Foreign Languages, Religious Studies, Human Services, Psychology, and the sciences. Read on for more details . . . .
Dr. Frances Ward-Johnson
Associate Professor
School of Communications
Dr. Frances Ward-Johnson receives one of the 2006 AAASE Course Development grants for “African Americans and the Mass Media,” which will be offered for the first time in Spring 2008, and again in either Fall 2008 or Spring 2009. The course will be designed to introduce students to some of the complexities of the relationships between race, culture, popular culture and mass media, and students will acquire some of the basic tools and techniques for evaluating, analyzing, and understanding these relationships.
Dr. Ward Johnson brings more than 10 years of academic, scholarly, and research interest and experience on minorities in the mass media, including print, public relations, film and television. She has studied the issues of people of color in media through qualitative and quantitative research. She is currently developing her work, “Through the Looking Glass: Reflections of the Reality of the Workplace from African American Women Practitioners,” published by the Public Relations Society of America, to include interviews with other people of color, including Hispanic and Asian men and women. Her work sheds light on the growing need for diversity in mass media and has revealed reasons why ethnic groups remain under-represented in the media and related fields.
In addition to this expanded study, Dr. Ward-Johnson is developing a book manuscript, African Americans in the Media, which will highlight the contributions of blacks in print, public relations, film and television. Prior to entering academia, she spent 12 years as a journalist for several newspapers, including the Greensboro News and Record and the Associated Press wire service. For 5 years prior, she worked as a public relations manager for the Center for Creative Leadership, an international, educational institution.
Sandra L. Reid
Lecturer
Dept. of Human Services
Sandra L. Reid receives the second 2006 AAASE Course Development Grant for her course, “The African American Family,” which will be offered during the winter semesters of 2008 and 2009. The course will focus on the cultural and social dynamics of the African American family from a historical and current perspective, and will introduce students to the supports and stresses that affect this unit as well as the social and political issues important to its well being.
Sandra Reid has spent the last 21 years working as a professional in the juvenile justice system. This work with African-American families fueled her scholarly and research interest and led her to Elon.
Congratulations to both the 2006 recipients.
Proposals and applications for the 2007 AAASE Course Development grants will be accepted through Friday, December 7, 2007. Visit the AAASE website at www.elon.edu/aaase for more details or contact the program coordinator, Dr. Prudence Layne at playne@elon.edu for more details.