In the school year 2021/2022, the Higher School of Social Communication welcomed two international lecturers, within the Fulbright Award in Marketing, Communication & Media Studies.
The scholarships of the Fulbright Program offer, to American lecturers and students, the opportunity to study, teach or do research in Portugal and, to Portuguese students and teachers, the hypothesis of developing the same type of activities in the United States of America (E.U.A.).
Within the framework of a cooperation protocol established between the Polytechnic of Lisbon (IPL) and the Fulbright Commission, ESCS welcomed, between the months of March and May 2022, Brenda Lopez Silva and Patrick Symmes, who shared, with the students of the School, their knowledge in the areas of eXtended Reality and Press Journalism, respectively.
For the school year 2022/2023, the School awaits the arrival of a new docent, who will teach also under the Fulbright Program
Brenda highlights the "strong connection" she has developed with faculty and non-lecturers, while at ESCS. He met, for example, the research work of Prof. Nuno Estanker, lecturer in the disciplines of 3D and Virtual Cenography of the School and Virtual Cenography Coordinator of RTP, about real-time tracking, which is directly linked to the concept of XR. As a result of the "productive conversations" they have had, the School's lecturer will conduct a talk, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the 1. th semester of the school year 2022/2023. Also Prof. th Martina Rando, lecturer in the disciplines of Multimedia Communication and Interface Design and Strategic Designer at Bliss Applications, was invited, by the Fulbright lecturer, to be valentine in her Real Time Interaction class in Chicago. In turn, Brenda will continue to advise some students, in the framework of the final works to obtain the master's degree in Audiovisual and Multimedia. The docent states that its passage through the School "was a great learning experience" and is "looking forward to broadening my relationship with ESCS and IPL, in the future".
Patrick Symmes
Patrick Symmes is writer and independent lecturer, specializing in the history of Latin America, in particular, Cuba. It ran on the Fulbright fellowship with a project titled "Sustainable Models of Media in the 21st Century". At ESCS, he shared his knowledge of the various strands of Journalism, from ethics to the reporting of conflicts, going through the business models. Within the framework of the graduate and master's courses in Journalism, he was invited to conduct the masterclass "The Global War on Truth: Using Violence to Undermine Freedom of Expression and Democracy", in which he addressed the theme of Freedom of Expression as a Public Well.
Finda the experience at ESCS, the lecturer highlights that "the opportunity to study, teach and reconquered with fundamental principles and the latest developments on digital platforms was invaluable". Symmes considers, still, that it has particularly benefited from contact with colleagues who are academic lecturers and with the research work they develop in the field of Journalism. "I believe that it will be reflected in everything I write and teach from here forward, along with my increased knowledge of Portugal and the increase in language skills, which are vital to my reporting work," she concludes.
Text by: ESCS Communication Service
Images provided by: Brenda Silva and ESCS Communication Service