During the second week of April I had the pleasure of joining my colleague Dr Darren Lilleker on a staff exchange visit to the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, information pills Romania. Although I have lectured at NUPSPA (SNSPA) in Romania before, this was the first time in 10 years since I graduated from there that I returned as part of an official partnership and as a lecturer.
The programme of the visit was truly integrative with teaching to undergraduate, postgraduate and staff members and meetings to discuss ongoing and potential research projects.
My lectures included:
- a sample lecture from the Digital Communication Strategies course I teach at BU on “social media competitor analysis“
- a lecture to MA students about Crisis Communication and Contingency Theory where we looked at two online crises (Greenpeace vs Nestle and Amy’s Baking Company and Gordon Ramsey’s US show and how the theory reflects their different approaches to managing their communication crises)
- a lecture to MA and PhD students and staff members on Digital Humanities Research delivered together with Dr Darren Lilleker (see slides below where we identified both tools as well as examples of research where we used digital media for research; interestingly enough Facebook is the default social network and marketing environment in Romania, with Twitter enjoying far less popularity)
- a joint discussion with Dr Darren Lilleker about the research process held with PhD and MA researchers and research active members of staff
The lectures and meetings were well attended and highly interactive. I return to the UK looking forward to the visit of two NUPSPA members of staff as well as looking forward to continue and expand our collaboration.