Communication Studies
(323) 343-4200

Chey Acuña
Associate Professor of Broadcasting; M.F.A., UCLA
Contact: (323) 343-4208
Chey Acuña focuses on single-camera production and editing. She has produced, directed and edited music videos, public service announcements, industrials and documentaries. Additional specializations are rotoscope and traditional character animation. Her music videos, "Hologram" and "Passion," were distributed both overseas and domestically as part of "Underground USA," a music video compilation program series. Her educational PSA for Cal State L.A., urged young people to stay in school. The industrial she edited for the immigrant rights organization Hermandad Mexicana Nacional was distributed nationally to all its regional offices. She has received the NCB Entertainment Group and Motion Picture Association of America awards.

Mohammad A. Auwal
Associate Professor of Communication Studies; Ph.D., Ohio University
Contact: (323) 343-4262
E-mail: mauwal@calstatela.edu, mauwal@aol.com
Dr. Auwal specializes in communication theory, organizational communication, and international development. He also has done research in intercultural communication. His articles have been published in Communication Theory, Knowledge (now renamed Journal of Science Communication), Communication Monographs, and Journal of Business Communication. He is available to comment about the impact and role of media in Arab countries; government communications and politics; U.S. persuasion and propaganda; and Muslim predicament in the U.S. during a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Fluent in: Bangla.

Kevin Baaske
Professor of Communication Studies, Ph.D., USC
Contact: (323) 343-4203
E-mail: kbaaske@calstatela.edu
Dr. Baaske’s expertise is in argumentation and rhetorical theory (intercollegiate and candidate debating, especially presidential, vice-presidential and gubernatorial debating); criticism and pedagogy (explication and critique of public argument of contemporary issues); debate and forensics (debate theory, practice and evaluation); and campaign rhetoric (analysis and critique of campaign communication strategies). His research interests include public argument, and acts of terror as vehicles of public argument. He is available to address national and international public policy disputes, including media coverage of Hurricane Katrina, public argument over affirmative action, gay marriage, and globalization.

Jon Beaupré
Assistant Professor of Broadcasting; MFA, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Contact: (323) 343-4211
E-mail: jbeaupre@calstatela.edu
Jon Beaupré is a voice and performance consultant for radio and television performers, and teaches in the Communications Department at Cal State L.A. Beaupré, a radio producer and reporter and frequent contributor to local and internationally-syndicated programming from his home in Los Angeles, also conducts workshops and seminars with the Associated Press Radio and Television Association. He has been a fixture on the convention circuit, teaching workshops at a wide range of specialty journalism and broadcast conventions and stations on both coasts of the U.S. He is available to speak on the topic of media in a time of war, including the “blurred line between propaganda and reliable news.”

Beryl Bellman
Professor of Communications Studies; Ph.D., U.C. Irvine
Contact: (323) 343-4262
E-mail: bbellma@calstatela.edu
Dr. Bellman specializes in Enterprise Architecture (the enterprise-wide, integrating framework of business, data/information, application, and technology architecture). He is the cofounder of the FEAC Institute in Washington DC, which provides education and certification in the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework and the Department of Defense Architectural Framework. He is also an expert in organizational culture and communications, distance online education, computer networks, Internet security, computer mediated/interaction, enterprise design and development, and policy-telecommunications. Additionally, he conducted intermittent ethnographic research in Africa, and has written several books on secret societies of Liberia and adjacent countries.

Alan Bloom
Professor of Broadcasting; M.F.A., California College of Arts and Crafts
Contact: (323) 343-4209
E-mail: abloom@calstatela.edu
Alan Bloom has been the program director of the Video Center at the American Film Institute, and has directed more than 200 music videos, documentaries, experimental films, TV programs and spots. He initiated the first music video courses to be taught on a college campus at Cal State L.A. in 1985. His educational music video, All You Can Dream, starring Nia Peeples, was awarded the Silver Angel and Buccaneer awards in 1986, and its Spanish language version, Y Porque No Sonar, became a number one hit video and a number one single in Mexico. He received three Telly awards for spots, including one that encourages people to become teachers. His three PBS specials on computer animation have received several awards, including the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle. His highly acclaimed rap video, Let the Bells Ring, encouraging students to stay in school and go on to college, was produced for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), the California State Universities and Geffen Records. Professor Bloom regularly serves as a consultant on the uses of media to affect public perception of issues and served on a congressional task force on this subject.

Lena Chao
Assistant Professor of Speech Communication; Ph.D., USC
Contact: (323) 343-4264
E-mail: lchaoyo@calstatela.edu
Dr. Chao is an expert in interpersonal and intercultural communication; public relations; and conflict resolution. She coauthored Racism, Sexism, and the Media: How the Media Continues to Construct American Identities (SAGE Publications, 3rd edition, 2003). In this text, she provides insight into the media experiences of Asians, Pacific Islanders, and women of color. She was recognized as one of Cal State L.A.'s 2004 Distinguished Women.

Ivan Cury
Professor of Communication Studies-Broadcasting; M.F.A., Boston University
Contact: (323) 343-4260
E-mail: icury@calstatela.edu
Ivan Cury has considerable experience behind the camera as well as in front of it. He has worked as a producer/director for commercials for The Men's Warehouse, and on productions such as Infatuation, with Bob Eubanks. Professor Cury has also worked as a director and producer for CBS and for NET. For his efforts as a director, Professor Cury has received recognition through many regional and national Emmy Awards. He was also the director of many regional Clio award-winning commercials.

Kelly Madison
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies; Ph.D., USC, Annenberg School
Contact: (323) 343-5344
E-mail: kmadiso@calstatela.edu
Dr. Madison specializes in the study of racism, capitalism and sexism, specifically U.S. cultural politics and media. With an expertise in socio-political construction of "whiteness" and "blackness" in U.S. culture, Dr. Madison also specializes in the study of violence as it relates to U.S. mass media and culture in general. She is also an expert on Proposition 54, also known as the Racial Privacy Initiative.

Bridget Murnane
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies-Television, Film & Media Studies; M.F.A., UCLA
Contact: (323) 343-4256
E-mail: bmurnan@calstatela.edu
Bridget Murnane is known for her creative treatments of dance film and video. Her work has been screened in more than 60 international festivals and received numerous awards including two CINE Eagles. Her first feature film, Odile and Yvette at the Edge of The World, premiered at the prestigious Edinburgh Film Festival and received special recognition from the Film Advisory Board and Brussels Diamond Film Festival. The PBS series, New Television and The Territory, have presented her work, as well as the cable channel, Classic Arts Showcase. Murnane’s latest endeavor is her podcast, Dance Vids, the first dance video for the camera show on iTunes.

John Ramirez
Professor of Television, Film & Media Studies; Ph.D., UCLA
Contact: (323) 343-4207
E-mail: jramire4@calstatela.edu
Dr. Ramirez is qualified to speak on documentary history, theory and criticism; Chicano Cinema; independent U.S. film/video; critical media literacy and pedagogy; queer, post-colonial, and feminist theory and criticism; cultural studies; and film/video curating and programming. Chair of the University’s Communication Studies department, Ramirez teaches courses in film/television criticism; independent U.S. film/video; cross-cultural film/video; and documentary history, theory and criticism. In 2004, with colleague Richard Rodriguez of Cal State L.A.’s Chicano Studies department, Ramirez co-founded the first U.S. Latino Film/Video Festival – now called “Reel Rasquache” – the only festival of its kind and scope in the Southern California area dedicated to film and video depictions of the Latino experience in the United States.

Robert Vianello
Professor of Communication Studies; Ph.D., UCLA
Contact: (323) 343-4213
E-mail: rvianel@calstatela.edu
Dr. Vianello’s field of expertise is in American television. His graduate seminars and undergraduate courses deal with how television represents gender, ethnicity and class, television advertising, the economics of television programming, the impact of television on American politics, television and religion, and media law. He is currently writing a book on the history of television with an emphasis on commercial television as propaganda.
Fluent in: French.

TOP | Cal State L.A. | Public Affairs Main Page | Campus Directory
Back to: Services for Journalists | Guide to the Experts