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Roya Akhavan

Dr. Roya Akhavan is currently Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Mass Communications. She is an award-winning professor whose honors include recognitions as “Teacher of the Year,” “Outstanding Graduate Professor,” “Outstanding Achievement as V.P. for International Marketing,” and “Outstanding College Leadership.” Dr. Akhavan’s areas of teaching and research focus on theory and methodology, media management and policy, and international communication. Her research has been published in a wide range of refereed national and international journals, including Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Telecommunications Policy, Newspaper Research Journal, Current Politics and Economics of Japan, Journal of Consumer Research in Advertising, and Gazette: International Journal for Communication Studies. She is a reviewer for several refereed journals.

Professor Akhavan has lived and worked in four different cultures, Persian, Japanese, American, and Chinese. Dr. Akhavan’s book entitled Peace for Our Planet: A New Approach (Kinseido Publishers, Tokyo, 1992) was a bestseller in its own genre in Japan, and was widely used as a textbook in Japanese universities. Her internationally-known article, “Mass Media Reform in China: Toward a New Analytical Framework,” published in the Gazette (2004), was a product of field research while living and working in China.

Professor Akhavan maintains an active role in community and professional service. She is a frequent speaker at academic and community forums and radio and television broadcasts on global issues, including eliminating the root causes of war, gender equality, and spirituality in the 21st century.

Her most recent work includes:

• Roya Akhavan, “Framing and Ideology in China Media Research: Toward an Empirical Analytical Framework.” Manuscript in progress based on the earlier 2012 AEJMC paper. Expected submission: July 2013.
• Roya Akhavan, “Freedom vs. Control: Framing and Ideology in Contemporary Research on Chinese Media,” presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC), Chicago, 2012.
• Roya Akhavan, “Ideal Leadership Characteristics: A Feminine Profile,” presented at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Conference on Shared Governance, Washington, D.C., 2012.
• Roya Akhavan, “Commercialization of Scholarship: How Can We Stop Journals and Their Corporate Allies From Privatizing and Selling Our Intellectual Property?” presented at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Conference on Shared Governance, Washington, D.C., 2011
• Roya Akhavan, “The Role of Individual Faculty Initiative in Aligning Higher Administration Decision-making with Reality,” presented at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Conference on Shared Governance, Washington, D.C., 2010.
• Featured speaker in four 20-minute Noveen TV programs on a variety of diversity-related topics, including root causes of war (racial, national, and religious prejudice), and historical contributions of women. 2011-2012
• Created and teaches a new course, “Spirituality: An Integrated Perspective,” at the Maple Grove Community Center. Jan. 9-Feb. 27, 2011; Sept. 10- Oct. 22, 2012; and Apr. 1-May 13, 2013 (Mondays, 6:30-8:30 pm).