Here's what I've been up to at San Jose State University and beyond:
DUBAI JOURNALISM ACADEMY: In Dubai this summer, we hosted a extremely successful academy for Afghan professors from our partner universities: Herat and Balkh, as well as professors from Nangarhar, Khost and Kabul. We spent two weeks with 25 Afghan professors and journalists, as well as ten professors from the US: Ball State, the University of Arizona and the University of Nebraska, Omaha. The UAE offers a safer, more predictable environment than Afghanistan. Besides being horribly hot in the summer, it's convenient and easy to reach from Afghanistan. We plan on returning the next two years. Now we're looking forward to hosting our partners from Balkh and Herat Universitites in San Jose for 11 weeks this fall and next winter. Here's a blog from the SJSU Website.
WHY AFGHANISTAN?
We are working on modernizing journalism education in Afghanistan, carrying out two, $1 million grants from the US Embassy, Kabul. I took a third trip to Afghanistan in April, 2012, on behalf of San Jose State University, visiting professors in Herat, Balkh and Kabul, and squeezing in a meeting with members of the Rotary Club of Kabul.
SALZBURG PROGRAM:
All "Salzburg Fellows" are required to work on a project to globalize SJSU. After returning from the Salzburg Seminar in Austria in 2011, I began organizing an Afghan Ambassador Program between San Jose educators, students, graduates and members of Rotary of San Jose. Read more about the Salzburg Program.
EQUAL TIME: Outside of Afghanistan, this show is my main responsibility at SJSU right now. It's a news-magazine television series where SJSU student reporters examine issues in depth. Equal Time airs at 2 p.m., Saturday afternoons on KQED-Plus. Click here to see archived shows.
A CLASSIC EXPERIMENT: Together with the University of South Carolina, I am helping to explore the most effective adaptations for multimedia news stories online. Our study was presented to the Broadcast Education Association in April, 2012 and has been accepted for publication.
