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- Category: Campus News
Lincoln University –Murali Balaji, director of the Mass Communications Center of Excellence, will be a scholar-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania’s world-renowned Anneberg School for Communication during the 2011-2012 academic year.
Balaji, considered an emerging scholar in critical media studies, will be researching the cultural production of nationalism and masculinity in countries such as India and Israel. He says his research is based on an award-winning paper he presented at the Eastern Communication Association conference in April. The paper will also be a chapter in a forthcoming anthology by famous communications scholar Ronald L. Jackson.
The Annenberg School offers scholars from around the world an opportunity to conduct research, give talks and take part in the school’s culture of learning, but Balaji says few HBCU faculty members are selected.
“I’m definitely fortunate to be in this position,” he said. “I can’t thank the Annenberg School, particularly Dean Michael X. Delli Carpini, enough for this opportunity. And I am grateful to Lincoln for providing me with the flexibility to undertake this research.”
Balaji will remain as director and will use the position to help Lincoln students acquire research skills. He plans on using up to five mass communications majors as research assistants this year.
“It’s my hope that we can create a pipeline between our program and schools such as Penn,” he said.
Balaji’s new book, Global Masculinities and Manhood, a co-edited anthology with Jackson, will be released next month.
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Lincoln University – founded in 1854 as the nation’s first Historically Black University – combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society. The University enrolls approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
Internationally recognized for preparing learners and producing world-class leaders in their fields, Lincoln has created five academic Centers of Excellence-programs of distinctions. They are: Lincoln-Barnes Visual Arts, Grand Research Educational Awareness and Training (GREAT) for Minority Health, Mass Communications, Teacher Education and Urban Pedagogy and Business and Information Technology.