NIU Today

NIU alum Christopher Birks, a member of the faculty of the Department of Communication Arts at Benedictine University, will speak at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, as part of this fall’s Graduate Colloquium in Communication Studies. Birks, who is representing the area of journalism, will present “Shots Seen Around the World: Contemporary News Photographs that...

Five years ago, two women met on the campus of Northern Illinois University and agreed to join forces — one an accomplished documentary filmmaker, the other a prominent activist on the issue of homelessness. Their plan: to film and produce a documentary on the little-known issue of homeless women and children. Their path would later...

Albert Walker, who joined the NIU Journalism Department in January of 1968 and created its public relations sequence, died Wednesday, June 22, in DeKalb. He was 91. Walker also founded and advised the PRSSA chapter from the late 1960s until his retirement in 1990. He later returned to teach part-time from 1995 to 1998. He held degrees from Case...

The Communication Institute for Online Scholarship has ranked the NIU Department of Communication as a “top 10 research department” in seven research specialties in 2010 and noted “research strengths” in an additional 17 specialties.

NIU Media Studies graduate assistant Matthew Zingale will premier his new documentary film, “Product of Society [the film],” at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at The House Café in downtown DeKalb. “Product of Society [the film]” follows the progress of independent comic book writer Jon Michael Lennon as he struggles with finishing a new publication...

The NIU Department of Communication has announced this year’s Reality Bytes Independent Student Film Festival, which will take place Tuesday, April 5, through Thursday, April 7, on the NIU campus. The 10th annual festival is free and open to the public, and anyone with an interest in film is encouraged to attend. It was originally started...

Northern Illinois University has named Jeffrey Chown, John Hartmann and Gerald Jensen as its 2011 Board of Trustees Professors — an honor that recognizes international prominence in research as well as excellence in all facets of teaching. Chown is a professor and documentary filmmaker in the Department of Communication. Hartmann is a professor in the...

A documentary directed by NIU communication professor Laura Vazquez has taken top honors in the prestigious 2011 Broadcast Education Association’s (BEA) Festival of Media Arts. Vazquez spent four years working with Diane Nilan, a nationally known advocate for the homeless, to tell the stories of seven women and their children struggling to escape homelessness. The one-hour...

Amitabh Pal is managing editor of The Progressive. His talk on "Non-Violence and Islam" will elaborate on the recent people's movements resulting in regime change in Egypt and Tunisia and how those nonviolent protests fit into the historical context of this Islamic tradition.

The video created by Justin Brenneman isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. It is sliced bread, with a creative twist. The NIU communication major from Naperville is a finalist in a video contest sponsored by the Youngstown, Ohio-based Schwebel Baking Company, more commonly known as Schwebel’s. As part of a course last fall teaching...

An informational meeting about study abroad opportunities in Ireland is scheduled for 4 to 5:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, in Watson Hall 323. NIU undergraduate and graduate credit is available in communication and English; undergraduate credit is available in history. Students can study at Dublin City University and examine Ireland’s role in international culture via...

NIU Communication Professor Laura Vazquez will screen her powerful new documentary on homelessness at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, in Wirtz Hall 101. The event is free of charge, and the public is welcome. It will be the first DeKalb screening of “on the edge.” The one-hour documentary focuses on the lives of seven women...