Fall 2015 marks the beginning of my academic career in the states. I have begun as an Associate Professor in Political Communication and Social Media at the Communication Department at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Aside from my research I am very excited be teaching a course in Political Communication (syllabus here) and a course in Communication and Mobilization (syllabus here).

For Political Comms I shall be using Graber & Dunaway Mass Media in American Politics. While in Communication and Mobilization I shall be using Goodwin & Jasper The Social Movements Reader. In both courses I also be using Joyce Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change.

These two classes are very exciting to me and I hope that I will be able to transmit my enthusiasm to my students. Don’t we all wish this?

In both courses I am requiring that the students research and write biographies and do documentary film reviews as part of the work. I will let you all know how that works.

Thus far at UMass everyone has been very welcoming and friendly. But wow, the environment is pretty bleak as the buildings are constructed in a form of brick brutalism that would make any dystopian film maker lyrical. All the online pictures are taken from a distance and include the water which does tend to mellow out the architecture.