Visiting Scholars

Dov Shinar, Ph.D., Professor, Grad Studies Coordinator, and Head of the Research Center on War and Peace Coverage, School of Communication, Netanya Academic College, Israel; Academic Director, Public Diplomacy Research Group, S. Neaman Institute, Technion, Israel; Principal Investigator, Peace Journalism Group of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. Shinar's Ph.D. (Hebrew University), and M.A. (University of Pennsylvania) are in Communications, and his B.A. (Hebrew University) is in sociology and political science. He works in Hebrew, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. He was Founding Chair of the Communication Studies Department At ben Guriuon University in Israel, Founding Dean of the School of Media Studies at the College of Management in Tel Aviv; professor at Concordia University, Montreal, and lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; visiting professor and advisor in universities and institutes in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. In the professional and public fields, he was audience research coordinator; head of Acquired Films Dept.; and producer at Israel Television (Channel 1); U.N. observer, Mozambique election of 1994; Founding director, Audiovisual Center for the Aged, Jerusalem; and communications consultant, researcher, and lecturer in Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, The Gambia, Germany, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Lithuania, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Rumania, and the U.S. Shinar's fields of interest include international communications; media in war and peace; socio-cultural dimensions of communication technologies; media and development, emphasizing collective identities, institutional change, media education, and minority/community media.

David Huffaker is a Research Fellow in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. His research interests include computer-mediated communication, social network analysis and computational linguistics. He completed his Ph.D. in the Media, Technology and Society program in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. He also received a M.A. from the Communication, Culture and Technology program at Georgetown University. His current research focuses on leadership and social influence in online discussion groups, expertise and learning in massive multiplayer online games such as Everquest II, and diffusion of innovations in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Publications and additional information are available at http://www.davehuffaker.com