Department of Psychology and Communication

Study in Germany, Poland, or Colombia for one Semester or one Year

The Department of Psychology and Communication has signed several Memorandums of Understanding with foreign universities to promote student exchanges for one semester or one year.

Adam Mickiewicz and Bielefeld universities offer many courses in English. All Universidad del Norte´s university courses are in Spanish. TAMIU students doing a semester or year-long student exchange in a partner university get an automatic $1,000 grant. Pay TAMIU tuition and study in any of the three universities.

• Spring deadline: Oct. 15
• Fall deadline: April 15

For more information: International Engagement, at 956.326.2282 or studyabroad@tamiu.edu.

Bielefield, Germany

Adam Mickiewicz University

Poznań, Poland

Foreign Visiting Scholars

Every semester renowned scholars from other countries are invited to come to TAMIU to lecture our Psychology or Communication students and to talk to faculty members. Through these visits, the department contributes to the internationalization of students, to the development of agreements of cooperation with the scholars’ prestigious universities and to the recognition of our programs at the international level.

• TAMIU welcomes Psycholinguistics scholar Dr. Jankowiak for future collaborative efforts

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) recently welcomed neuroscientist Dr. Katarzyna Jankowiak to campus. During her visit, Dr. Jankowiak visited the Brain and Cognition Laboratory, a research endeavor under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of Psychology and Communication.

The visit is the first step toward fostering collaborative opportunities between TAMIU and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, where Jankowiak works as an assistant professor at the Faculty of English, and member of the Psychophysiology of Language and Affect Laboratory.

Through a vested interest in bilingualism and language acquisition, Jankowiak’s research primarily focuses on the neuropsychology of bilingualism. “By learning more about bilingual language processing, we can also learn how people process language in a general manner. Because we have different levels of processing, some mechanisms might be more automatic than others,” she explained.

Jankowiak continued, “Being here [in Laredo] is important to me because I can study the two languages that are dominant across the population, and people are very proficient. So, you have no difference, or the difference is very subtle compared to other bilingual populations we have in Europe.”

During her visit, Jankowiak worked alongside university faculty members Dr. Roberto Heredia, Regents Professor of Psychology; Dr. Anna Cieślicka, professor of Psychology, and Dr. Omar García, assistant professor of Psychology.

Jankowiak noted the role played by Drs. Heredia and Cieślicka and their inspiration for her Ph.D. thesis. “My thesis was devoted to figurative language processing and bilingualism – their [Dr. Heredia and Cieślicka’s] co-edited book was so helpful. I’ve always treated them and perceived them as role models in this area of research. For me, it’s a great opportunity to work with them in this research,” observed Jankowiak.

Jankowiak holds a Ph.D. in English Linguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University where she now serves as an assistant professor of Psycholinguistic Studies. She is recipient of the scholarship from the Minister of Education and Science for outstanding young researchers, awarded in 2022. She has published prolifically in several top-tier academic journals, including the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, the International Journal of Bilingualism, Language and Linguistics Compass, Brain and Language, and more.

Heredia has been a TAMIU faculty member since 1998. He holds his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of California-Santa Cruz, and a post-doctoral position as a National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of California-San Diego. He has published in several fields, including bilingualism, evolutionary psychology, and figurative language processing.

Cieślicka joined TAMIU in 2009. She holds a Ph.D. in English Linguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. She is the director of TAMIU’s Master of Science in Psychology graduate program. Her research focuses mainly on the psycholinguistics of second/foreign language acquisition and processing, bilingual lexicon, figurative language, and neuropsychology of bilingualism. She is the recipient of TAMIU’s Teacher of the Year and Scholar of the Year awards and the Alpha Delta Kappa Golden Apple Award for teaching excellence in higher education.

García holds master’s degrees in Counseling Psychology and in Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience from Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the intersection between language and other cognitive phenomena including number processing, moral decision making, and spatial relations.

https://www.tamiu.edu/newsinfo/2023/04/tamiu-scholar-visit.shtml

Dr. Albert Katz - Oct. 3-7, 2016

Professor and Chair of Psychology

Lectured TAMIU Psychology students and met with faculty to discuss possible research projects. Hosted by Ana Cieslicka and Roberto Heredia.
No MOU.

Dr. Jesus Arroyave - Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2016

Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

Lectured TAMIU undergraduate and graduate Communication majors and discussed possible research projects with TAMIU Communication faculty.
MOU in progress.

Dr. Joachim Michael - Feb. 20-25, 2017

Dr. Joachim Michael will lecture to TAMIU undergraduate and graduate Communication majors and will discuss possible research projects with Communication faculty.
MOU in effect.

Dr. Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk - Oct. 26–30, 2015.

Chair, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland.
Psychology Programs.

Dr. Wilfried Raussert - Feb 23-27, 2015

Chair, Professor of North American Literary and Cultural Studies, Bielefeld University.

Dr. Horst Tonn - Nov. 3-5, 2014

Department of American Studies, Tubingen University, Germany.
Communication Programs.

Dr. Salvador Alvídrez - Oct. 30, 2014

Political Communication Lab, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), México.
Communication Programs

International Graduate Classes

• Joint Graduate International Class with Universidad Iberoamericana-Mexico City

From January to May 2015, TAMIU opened a Communication graduate class to 18 Iberoamericana graduate students via videoconference. Dr. J. Carlos Lozano, TAMIU faculty member, and Dr. Maricela Portillo, director of UIA’s Ph.D. in Communication program offered the class. In an effort to promote the internationalization of the newly launched TAMIU MA in Communication, the class shared its lessons via videoconference with 14 graduate students and four doctoral students of the prestigious Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fé in Mexico City (UIA).

• Joint Graduate International Class with Monterrey Tec, Monterrey, Mexico

Six Monterrey Tec graduate students joined the TAMIU class COMM 5310 Media, Culture, and Identity in the US-Mexico border via videoconference during the 16 sessions of the semester and actively participated in it. The class gave master students from TAMIU the opportunity to learn through the interactions between master's and PhD students from Monterrey Tec. 


Instructor: J. Carlos Lozano

MOU in progress.

Study Abroad Opportunities

• Belgium and Germany
  

In order to contribute to the internationalization of TAMIU students, the department periodically offers study abroad programs during the summer sessions.

In the summer of 2014, 2015, and 2016, about 15 students, enrolled on the Belgium and Germany program and interacted with faculty and students from Antwerp University and Ghent University in Belgium, and Tubingen University in Germany. In Tubingen, the students worked in teams with German students in a joint research project on the TV series The Bridge.

Faculty Research

• Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas

September 5, 2016

Participation of J. Carlos Lozano as Keynote Speaker in the international conference organized by UAT “Bienal Iberoamericaa de la Comunicacion”, Tampico, Tamaulipas.

MOU is in effect.

• Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

September 12-18, 2016

Participation of Anna Cieslicka in the 46^th Poznan Linguistic Meeting presenting a series of workshops on how to publish and establishing academic collaborations. Poznan, Poland.

MOU in process.

• Bielefeld University, Germany

October 26-30, 2016

Participation of J. Carlos Lozano as chair of a panel in the conference “Reflecting the Americas as a Space of Entanglement” and in the meeting of the editorial board of the Key Topics in Inter American Studies project as co-editor of a volume. Bielefeld, Germany.

MOU in effect.

• Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas

January 13-14, 2017

Workshop on Contemporary Mass Communication Theories and Research, 18 faculty and doctoral students from UAT campi in Ciudad Victoria and Tampico facilitated by J. Carlos Lozano. Seven students travel to TAMIU, the rest connected via videoconference.

MOU in effect.

Global Media Journal Mexico

• In January 2015, the Master of Arts in Communication of TAMIU started an editorial partnership with Tecnológico de Monterrey, México, co-editing the academic journal Global Media Journal Mexico (GMJM, ISSN 2007-2031). In 2022, the partnership move from the Tecnológico de Monterrey to the Facultad de Trabajo Social at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), where it is now edited.
• Established in 2004, the GMJM is a peer-reviewed, electronic and open access scholarly Journal that has been continuously published semi-annually for the past ten years. Communication scholars from all Latin American countries and Spain submit on a regular basis articles for publication in this refereed international journal.
• The founding editor of Global Media Journal Mexico is TAMIU’s Professor of Communication Dr. J. Carlos Lozano. The current editor of the journal is Edrei Álvarez-Monsiváis, from UANL. TAMIU’s Associate Provost Ariadne A. Gonzalez is member of the Editorial Board.
• The link for Global Media Journal Mexico is https://gmjmexico.uanl.mx/index.php/GMJ_EI

Research Stays by Foreign Graduate Students

Periodically, graduate students from other universities come to TAMIU to work for brief stays with Psychology and Communication faculty or take advantage of our labs and location on the U.S.-Mexico border. This is the list of recent students:

• Diana Gamboa MS in Communication student at Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fe, Mexico City. Research stay: February 18-March 18, 2015. Supervisor in TAMIU: Dr. J. Carlos Lozano.
• Gonzalo del Moral. MS in Communication student at Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fe, Mexico City. Research stay: July 5-30, 2014.Supervisor in TAMIU: Dr. J. Carlos Lozano.
• Ana Elizabeth Maruri. MS in Communication student at Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fe, Mexico City. Research stay: July 5-30, 2014. Supervisor in TAMIU: Dr. J. Carlos Lozano.

Study Abroad Programs

In order to contribute to the internationalization of TAMIU students, the faculty of the department periodically offers study abroad programs during the summer sessions. In addition to accrediting the courses, the TAMIU students experience a different culture and interact with students and faculty from the receiving universities.

Belgium and Germany:

Every Summer Session 1, from 2014 up to now, the Department of Psychology and Communication has offered a Study Abroad in Belgium and Germany in which TAMIU students from different majors interact with faculty and students from Bielefeld University and Tubingen University in Germany, and Antwerp University and Ghent University in Belgium. In addition to German students joining the TAMIU classes and Belgian and German faculty or graduate students participating in the lectures, the students do multiple excursions to different cities and places (museums, castles, etc.) in the two countries like Berlin, Cologne, Brugge, and sometimes even to cities in nearby countries like The Netherlands and France. Instructor: Dr. Jose-Carlos Lozano.

Italy:

8 students enrolled in this program and went to Rome and Florence photographing the people and culture of Italy and learning about Italian Cinema.

Instructor: Marcela Moran.
Dates: July 10-August 10, 2014.

International Teaching/Academic Activities

The faculty of the Department of Psychology and Communication periodically conducts research stays in foreign countries and open their courses to foreign students.

2015

• Type of International Activity: Research and Graduate Teaching
• Title of Project/Activity: The Frontiers Project: Building Research Partnerships Between Brazilian and International Media Researchers
• TAMIU Role: Faculty stay abroad
• TAMIU faculty/personnel involved: Stuart Davis
• Countries Involved: Brazil
• Dates: August 1 -October 1, 2015

Description: As part of an attempt to internationalize the research being done in its graduate universities, the Brazilian government has allocated substantial funding through competitive scholarships from CAPES (the Brazilian equivalent to the American Institute for International Education (IIE)) and CPNq (equivalent to the NSF) for universities who sponsor foreign researchers to conduct research and work with graduate students. This particular grant was awarded by a consortium of communication research universities led by the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) but also including the University of São Paulo, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) in Porto Alegre, and the Federal University of Pará in Belém.

Stuart Davis stay combined graduate teaching and mentorship with research planning for collaborative projects with faculty from within the consortium. He co-taught Audience Research in Latin America with Professor Joe Straubhaar as well as offering another course on Digital Literacy and Participatory Media specifically aimed at PhD students. He served as an outside reader on the MA and PhD committees of several students defending during the period of his stay (one MA defense and one PhD proposal defense).

• Type of Activity: Joint Graduate International Class with Universidad Iberoamericana-Mexico City
• Title of Project/Activity: Media, Culture and Identity in the U.S.-México Border
• TAMIU Role: Opening a Communication graduate class to 18 Iberoamericana graduate students via videoconference.
• TAMIU faculty/personnel involved: J. Carlos Lozano
• Country Involved: Mexico
• Dates: January-May 2015

Description: In an effort to promote the internationalization of the newly launched TAMIU MA in Communication students, the “Media, Culture and Identity in the U.S.-México Border” class shared its lessons via videoconference with 14 graduate students and four doctoral students of the prestigious Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fé in Mexico City (UIA).

Dr. J. Carlos Lozano, TAMIU faculty member, and Dr. Maricela Portillo, director of UIA’s Ph.D. in Communication program offered the class simultaneously so that students could interact with one another, sharing experiences and opinions about culture, identity and media of the border region.

The UIA students joined via BlueJeans all 15 sessions of the face-to-face TAMIU graduate class.

The class was offered under the “Border and Latin American Media Studies” concentration of the MA in Communication program.

Research Projects and Publications

2015

• Type of Activity: International Academic Electronic Journal
• Title of Project: Global Media Journal-Mexico
• TAMIU Role: Co-editing and sponsoring
• TAMIU faculty/personnel involved: J. Carlos Lozano, Stuart Davis, Rogelio Hinojosa
• Countries Involved: Mexico (with contributors and reviewers from all over Latin America
• Dates: February 2015-To present

Description: Global Media Journal Mexico (ISSN 2007-2031) was established in 2004 by Dr. J. Carlos Lozano when he was at the Monterrey Tech (ITESM). It is a peer-reviewed, electronic and open access scholarly journal. It has been continuously published semi-annually for the past ten years. The link for Global Media Journal Mexico is https://journals.tdl.org/gmjei/index.php/GMJ_EI. Communication scholars from all Latin American countries and Spain submit articles for publication in this refereed international journal. The journal was transferred from Monterrey to TAMIU’s Texas Digital Library platform, and is now being published here while maintaining an editorial partnership with the Monterrey Tech, thus making this an international endeavor in line with the University’s vision. The editor of Global Media Journal Mexico in TAMIU is J. Carlos Lozano, and Rogelio Hinojosa acts as Associate Editor. Stuart Davis is a member of the Editorial Board.

2013

• Type of Activity: International Publication
• Title of Project: Key Topics in Media and Visual Culture
• TAMIU Role: Co-Editor of Volume 5
• TAMIU faculty/personnel involved: J. Carlos Lozano.
• Countries Involved: Germany, Canada, USA, Mexico and several South American countries
• Dates: September 2013-To present

Description: The Inter-American Key Topics Series Rethinking the Americas, edited by the Center for InterAmerican Studies (CIAS) at Bielefeld University in Germany, is under contract to be published by Ashgate Publishing in 2017. This five-volume publication will chart the field of Inter-American Studies, focusing on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions and interconnections of social, cultural and political dynamics in the Americas historically and at present. The project seeks to systematize and generate knowledge about the Americas and to highlight the ways in which issues that are commonly dealt with in a national framework in fact have a myriad of hemispheric interconnections and impacts. In order to create a standard reference work for Inter-American Studies the series will gather essays on about 150 key topics to be discussed critically through a transnational and meta-reflexive lens. Cultural and Postcolonial Studies form a common, interdisciplinary foundation for this publication project, which is divided into five thematic volumes:

• Vol. I: “ Rethinking the Americas: Key Topics in Histories and Societies to 1900”
• Vol. II: “ Rethinking the Americas: Key Topics in Histories and Societies 20^th– 21^st Century”
• Vol. III: “ Rethinking the Americas: Key Topics in Political Economy and Governance”
• Vol. IV: “ Rethinking the Americas: Key Topics in Literature and Music”
• Vol. V: “ Rethinking the Americas: Key Topics in Media and Visual Cultures”

In addition to J. Carlos Lozano, the other two co-editors of volume five are Sebastian Thies (Tubingen University, Germany) and Sarah Corona (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico).

2012

• Type of Activity: International Research Project
• Title of Project: Screen Culture in Mexico, Colombia and Spain
• TAMIU Role: Co-Principal Researcher, General Coordinator
• TAMIU faculty/personnel involved: J. Carlos Lozano
• Countries Involved: Belgium, Mexico, Colombia, Spain
• Universities involved: TAMIU (USA), University of Antwerp (Belgium), Ghent University, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco (Mexico), Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain).
• Dates: September 2012-To present

Description: Along with Philippe Meers (Antwerp University) and Daniel Biltereyst (Ghent University) from Belgium, J. Carlos Lozano, Chair of the Department of Psychology and Communication and Professor of Communication, acts as Principal Investigator and General Coordinator of an international comparative project on the history of movie houses, film exhibition and movie going in four Mexican, one Spanish and one Colombian cities. There are teams of researchers working in the project in Barcelona (Spain), Barranquilla (Colombia), Mexico City, Monterrey, Torreon, and Tampico (Mexico). Laredo, Texas is also part of the project and Dr. Lozano and a team of undergraduate Communication students, have already conducted 45 in-depth interviews with senior Laredo residents about their memories of going to the movies when they were children and youngsters, and have prepared a database of all the cinema houses that have existed in Laredo since 1900 and another database with the list of movie titles exhibited on them from 1922-1972 (one year for each decade).