LECTURERS

KIJAC administration:

Willem Houwen, Head of School

Studied philosophy and mathematics in Amsterdam and Paris (1981-1989). Worked with Perscombinatie NV, marketing and promotion for three national dailies (Volkskrant, Trouw, Het Parool, 1984-1992). Publisher and business director of SKRIEN, professional magazine for film and television. Programme maker in De Balie, National Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Co-founder and director of the PressNow Foundation. Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Media Support in the Balkan Region in Ljubljana, Slovenia, founded by the International Federation of Journalists /IFJ and the World Association of Newspaper Publishers /WAN (1994-1998). Head of Independent Media Support and Senior Media Advisor for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (1999-2003). Elected as chairman of the Press Council in Kosovo (2005-).

KIJAC Research Group:

Kenneth Andresen, Research Fellow in Journalism at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Norway.

He holds an M.A. in Communication from USA and is currently finishing his Ph.D. on the reconstruction of journalism and media in Kosovo at the University of Oslo. He has been Assistant Professor in Journalism for 14 years; and has taught journalism courses in Ethiopia and Kosovo since 2000. He has been a freelance journalist and staff radio journalist at Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation since 1993, and was a Press Officer with KFOR in 1999 in Kosovo . He is a co-author of a radio journalism textbook.

Isuf Berisha, PhD Candidate, University of Zagreb, KIJAC Lecturer

Studied sociology and philosophy in Prishtina and Zagreb. He finished his postgraduate studies in modern philosophy at University of Zagreb. He spent one year studying stay in UK, where he worked as a research fellow with University of Kent on the project “Nationalist Instrumentalisation of History in the Balkans”. Worked as journalist for 15 years; manager/coordinator with Soros Foundation in Prishtina for various programs (like media, research, publishing & journals, civil society, democratic institutions, interethnic relations, etc.). In 2006 he was appointed Temporary Media Commissioner/TMC by SRSG. Following transformation of TMC into Independent Media Commission/IMC he became chairman of IMC Council. Co-author of four publications on interethnic relations and media situation in Kosovo and former Yugoslavia.
Currently he is working on his PhD project “Memory, History, Identity: Processes of Identity Formation in Kosovo After 1999” University of Zagreb.

Naser Miftari, PhD Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, KIJAC Lecturer

Naser Miftari is currently undertaking PhD research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He earned his Master’s Degree in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia (2000-2002). Previously he has held a Journalism Diploma from the University of Tirana (1993-1997).

Dafina Paca, PhD Candidate, Cardiff University (JOMEC), KIJAC Lecturer and Academic Officer

Teachers:

Terry Threadgold, Cardiff University

Terry Threadgold is Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies, and Head, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University. She was formerly Head, Department of English, Director, Graduate School and Dean, Faculty of Arts at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Her funded Australian research included work on women and ageing, risk, communication and injecting drug use, both projects with a strong media element. Her book, Feminist Poetics: Poeisis, Performance, Histories (Routledge 1997), a study of race, nation and identity in Australia, remains a key text in the field of feminist cultural studies and critical discourse analysis. Her most recent publications include: Buchanan, Sara, Grillo-Simpson, Bethan and Terry Threadgold, 2003, What’s The Story? Results from Research into Media Coverage of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK. London: Article 19 and (forthcoming 2005) with Justin Lewis, Rod Brookes, and Nick Mosdell, Shoot First and Ask Questions Later: The Embedding of Journalists in Iraq 2003.

Kåre Melhus, Gimlekollen School of Journalism and communication

Kåre Melhus (MA in journalism) University of Missouri. Melhus has worked as assistant professor in journalism at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Norway since 1999.  Before that worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.  Over a period of 13 years he worked both as a radio reporter, editor and news room manager at both regional, national level and international level.   As a reporter on the foreign newsdesk he traveled extensively in Africa covering stories in Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.  He also filed stories from Bosnia, Croatia and Albania in the mid 90s.
From 1988 to 93 he lived in Kenya and Zimbabwe working as an information officer for a African NGO. Over the last few years he has been involved in establishing a MA program in journalism at the University of Addis Ababa.

Keith Bowers, former executive producer BBC

Keith  Bowers has had a varied career in newspaper, radio and television journalism including 20 years at the BBC where he worked as a television producer and programme editor. He was the founding editor of the BBC TV international documentary programme, Correspondent, and a senior executive dealing with a wide range of international output. Keith recently obtained a Masters degree in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and now works primarily in journalist education and training. He is currently leading the television course on the new Masters programme in Journalism and Communication at Addis Ababa University and has also trained journalists in several other countries including Trinidad, Spain, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Rudie van Meurs, author and radio journalist

Rudie van Meurs(1939), was shopkeeper and merchant when he entered journalism in 1960. Started with regional newspapers. Five years later he joined the national newspaper Trouw as reporter and sub-editor, covering news and current affairs in Holland and a wide range of events all over the world. Worked two years as head of the news desk. Joined in 1973 Vrij Nederland, a leading Dutch weekly news paper as editor news and current affairs. Was the first foreigner who entered unknown prisons in Cuba and wrote a serial of reportages about life in the prisons from Cuba, Vietnam and Venezuela. Became a radio-reporter and produced a number of documentaries. Worked five years with the TV-program of the broadcasting association VPRO as senior editor and produced documentaries such as El guerrillero y elgeneral – about the peace process in Guatemala. Wrote a dozen books. Appeared more than ten years as part-time lecturer on journalism at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Worked as consultant and lecturer for several NGO’s and for OSCE, UNDP and the European Union in central-Europe, the Russian Federation, the Balkan and Eastern-Europe.

Anna Di Lellio, journalist and former Temporary Media Commissioner in Kosovo

Anna Di Lellio, PhD, Columbia University, New York, previously lectured in sociology at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, has been a North American Correspondent for various Italian media since 1991. In 1999 she joined the United Nations in the emergencies of Kosovo and East Timor. In 2001 she became the Kosovo Media Commissioner. In 2003 she was a research analyst for the International Organization for Migration on the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) programme of reintegration and the Political Advisor to the UN Kosovo Protection Corps Coordinator. She has produced a documentary on trafficking of women in Kosovo for the Italian Public Television RAI and has written on Kosovo media policy as well as KLA demobilization and reintegration policy. She is currently working on a book on memory and history in post-war Kosovo.

Obrad Savic, Leeds University

Obrad Savic, PhD, lecturing at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. Previously lectured “History of Social Theory” and “Political Philosophy” at the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1979 - 2000). He delivered lectures at many universities in , European Union and former : Columbia University, Cornell University, Bates College, USM, Drexell University, Stamford University, New School for Social Research, Ohio State University, Rochester Institute for Technology, Bergen University, Oslo University, Milano University, Leeds University, London School of Economics, University fo Sarajevo, University of Ljubljana, University of Prishina.

Editor-in-chief of theoretical journals including: Theoria, Philosophical Studies, Text Belgrade Circle Journal, and Parallax (guest editor).  Published and editioned several books and more than hundred texts on various topics: Balkans as a Metaphor, (with Prof. Dusan Bjelic),  MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005; Politics of Human Rights, Verso Press, London, 2002; Richard Bernstein: Responsibility of Philosopher, Belgrade Circle, Belgrade, 2000; The Charles Taylor: Invoking Civil Society, Belgrade Circle, Belgrade, 2000; European Discourse of War, Belgrade Circle, Belgrade, 1995. 

Since 1992 founder member, and after 1998 Acting President of the Belgrade Circle NGO. Presently working at the books: Memory and Pornography of the Past, Centre for Humanistic Studies ‘Gani Bobi’, Prishtina, and  Memory and Media Construction of the Past, Polity Press.

Cynthia Carter, Cardiff University

Dr Cynthia Carter is a senior lecturer in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University. She has published widely, with particular research interests in children and news, feminist media studies, violence and the media and journalism safety. Her books include Critical Readings: Violence and the Media (Open University Press, 2006), Critical Readings:
Media and Gender (Open University Press 2004), Violence and the Media (Open University Press 2003), Environmental Risks and the Media (Routledge 2000) and News, Gender and Power (Routledge 1998). She is Founding Co-Editor of the journal Feminist Media Studies (Routledge) and is editorial board member of Critical Studies in Media Communication (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Children and Media (Routledge), Communication Review (Taylor & Francis), Communication, Culture & Critique (forthcoming, Blackwell), Sociology Compass (forthcoming, Blackwell) and Fifth Estate (online).

Paul Mason, Cardiff University

Dr Paul Mason lectures at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University. He has written extensively in the field of crime and media. His books include Criminal Visions: media representations of crime and justice (ed. 2003), Captured by the Media: Prison Discourse in Media Culture (ed. 2006) and Policing and the Media: Facts, Fictions and Factions (with Frank Leishman, 2003). He runs the Prison Media Montoring Unit (PMMU) which scrutinizes British media coverage of prison and prisoners. Paul also edits [jc2m] Journal for Crime, Conflict and Media Culture and is a member of the prison abolition group, No More Prisons.

Nick Mosdell, Cardiff University

Nick Mosdell is a lecturer and researcher at the Cardiff School of Journalism Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC) at Cardiff University.
He graduated from Cardiff University in 1990 with a BSc in Applied Psychology and has worked on a variety of applied psychology research projects and completed a research-based MPhil Degree.
At JOMEC he teaches Research Methods to Undergraduate, Masters and PhD students, as well as coordinating the MA in Political Communications.
He joined JOMEC in October 2000 to work on a Broadcasting Standards Commission project concerning the regulation, representation and perception of children on UK television. Other research projects have included the representation of asylum seekers/refugees in UK television news; the reporting of the 2003 Iraq war, and involvement in the recent INSI Global Report into journalists safety.
Recent publications include
Messenger Davies, M. & Mosdell, N. (2006) Practical Research Methods for Media and Cultural Studies: Making People Count. Edinburgh University Press.
Lewis, J., Brookes, R., Mosdell, N. & Threadgold, T. (2006) Shoot First, Ask Questions Later: Media Coverage of the 2003 Iraq War. Peter Lang.

Gjergj Filipaj, KIJAC

Gjergj Filipaj has a Master’s of Arts Degree in Journalism earned at Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication (2005-2007). Filipaj is an alumnus of the Tirana University where he has gained a Diploma in Journalism (1996-2000) 

In September 2008 Gjergj Filipaj joined the team of KIJAC lecturers becoming the first student of KIJAC that has been engaged as a local professor of the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication. 

Gjergj Filipaj has been being teaching several courses at KIJAC, including Introduction to Journalism (JOUR 601), News Writing for Print & Web (JOUR 605), Interview Techniques and a course on Feature and Editorial Writing (JOUR 606). Together with Matthew Brunwasser, he is a co-teacher in the Investigative Journalism course (JOUR 606) here at KIJAC. 

Filipaj’s career in journalism includes eight years in print journalism with occasional engagement in television. Since 1999 he has been working as a journalist, editor with Albanian and Kosovan newspapers. 

In Kosovo he has been working since March 2001 as a reporter for the daily newspaper KOHA Ditore (2001-2004) covering mainly the education beat. He is also the co-founder of Express (2004-2006) an alternative daily newspaper where he has served for a year and a half as national news desk and feature stories editor. 

In Albania he wrote news articles for the arts section of the Tirana daily newspaper Shekulli. He also spent some time working with Vizion+ a Tirana based TV station. Filipaj also worked as contributing reporter for the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) and for Albanian weekly magazines XXL, SPEKTER and MONITOR.

Aisha Labi, an American freelance journalist based in Europe.

She has worked as a staff writer in London for Time magazine, where she wrote about subjects including the arts, business, law and religion. She now covers Europe for the Chronicle of Higher Education ( chronicle.com).
Aisha received a B.A. in History and French from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia.

Scott Winter, University of Nebraska

Scott Winter is a lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Winter specializes in feature writing, page design, graphics and journalism education. He has seven years of newspaper journalism experience and 11 years of secondary journalism education experience. He also teaches summer workshops throughout the U.S., at places such as University of Texas, University of Kansas and University of South Carolina. He has been at UNL for two years.

Jerry Renaud, University of Nebraska

Jerry Renaud is a professor and head of the broadcasting sequence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He received his Master’s degree from UNL in 1989 after a career in radio and television news. Renaud now specializes in documentary, depth reporting and Web journalism. His students have produced documentaries about the U.S. relationship with Cuba, winning third place at the Student Academy Awards in 2001 and the U.S. relationship with France. In addition, he took students to Colombo, Sri Lanka and New Orleans, Louisiana in 2006 to produce a documentary comparing and contrasting the Sri Lanka tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Renaud received the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005, was selected as a Seacrest Fellow in 2004 and was selected a person who inspires students from the UNL Black Masque Chapter of Mortar Board in 1998 and 2004. He has also served as president of the Nebraska Associated Press Broadcasters Association and president of the Northwest Broadcast News Association.

Bernard R. McCoy, University of Nebraska

Bernard “Barney” R. McCoy is an associate professor of broadcasting at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Before arriving at UNL in 2006, he was a fulltime journalist for 27 years. He was a visiting professor at KIJAC in 2006 and 2007 where he lectured and taught
journalism convergence techniques. McCoy's has worked as a television and print news reporter, photographer, producer, and anchor. He has been employed by WIBW-TV, Topeka, KS., KCTV, Kansas City, MO, WKBD-TV, Detroit, MI., WILX-TV, Lansing, MI. and WBNS-TV, Columbus, OH. McCoy also worked as a contributing reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, CBS, CNN and the Ohio News Network. McCoy has been honored with six Emmy awards and several other citations for journalistic excellence. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in telecommunications management from Michigan State University.

Knut Røe, Norway

Knut Røe (MA in Nordic language, History and Sociology) worked in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 1974 to 1997 as a radio reporter, editor and head of Channel 1. In 1997 he established his own media and communication consultancy in Trondheim, Norway. Since then he has worked both as a senior advisor, managing director, assistant professor in journalism at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Norway and as assistant professor in media and society at The Norwegian School of Management. He is giving lectures in journalism and communication at universities and colleges in Europe and Africa. Knut Røe has been member of the Norwegian Press Complaints Commission. Among his publications are textbooks on radio journalism, interview techniques and press ethics. He has been awarded the Hirschfeldt Prize for journalism creating understanding between people.

David Harrison, Senior Correspondent, The Sunday Telegraph, London.

David is an award-winning correspondent based in London. He covers a wide range of national and international stories and has reported from more than 60 countries. An experienced war correspondent he has covered conflicts in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Colombia, Zimbabwe, the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
In 2006 he won the Paul Foot award for investigative and campaigning journalism for a series of investigations into sex trafficking from eastern Europe. In 1997 he won the Amnesty International Press Award for a series of articles on links between Colombian death squads and the oil giant BP.
Born in Liverpool, England, David is a Modern Languages graduate and MA from Oxford University. He speaks French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
David worked in China in the 1980s and in 1990 he left The Daily Telegraph foreign desk to set up and run an international news operation at The European. He has worked for several other UK national newspapers including The Observer, The Times and The Mail on Sunday and is an occasional television and radio broadcaster.
David has been involved in training journalists throughout his career, taking time out to run courses in many countries including China, Malaysia, Bangladesh,Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mauritius,Syria, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Peru, Colombia and Belize, Central America. His programmes include news reporting, feature writing, investigative reporting, crime reporting, environmental reporting, humans rights reporting and sports reporting.

Franz Krüger, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA

Franz Krüger has been a journalist for over 20 years, working in print and broadcasting in South Africa, Namibia and the United Kingdom.
In the repressive 1980s, he was the founding group editor of East Cape News Agencies, a network of independent news agencies in the Eastern Cape which reported on the region for alternative and mainstream media in South Africa and abroad. From 1994 to 2000, he was national editor of radio news at the SABC - part of the first post-apartheid management team which achieved a significant turnaround in the quality and credibility of SABC radio news.
Since 2001, he has been an independent writer and trainer.
He holds a BA from the University of Cape Town and an MA from City University, London.

Avni Ahmetaj, KIJAC Lecturer – Video journalism

Avni Ahmetaj has earned his Masters Degree in International Journalism from Cardiff University in UK.
Previously has worked as TV Media Advisor for the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) in Pristina (2005-2006). Worked as producer/cameraman/editor for UN Television in Kosovo (2000-2005).
Ahmetaj has also worked during the Kosovo war as a fulltime producer for Sky News in Albania and Kosovo (1999-2000).
Most of the time Avni Ahmetaj has been working as a freelance producer/cameraman/editor covering Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia for BBC World, Front line TV, RAI 2, Euro News, BBC Scotland, EAR (European agency for reconstruction), KIA (General motors), IOM (International Office of Migration), Sirena Productions, Hot Spots productions, ITN, Danish Broadcasting Corporation of News, Finish National TV YLE, New York Times and other clients. 

Luis Peón-Casanova, University of Nebraska

Luis Peón-Casanova graduated from the University of Texas receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communications with an emphasis in filmmaking. He also holds a MA in Education from the University of Nebraska. Peón-Casanova currently teaches in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications (COJMC) in Lincoln-Nebraska. He teaches Visual Literacy, Photography, Photojournalism, Advanced Video Production and Electronic News-gathering. He serves as the Visual Literacy Coordinator representing COJMC in the University-wide Visual Literacy Program of Excellence. Luis has over 20 years of broadcast television production experience in the Unites States (PBS). He has developed and participated in several international productions in Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy, Germany, China, Ireland and Cuba.

Lazar Stojanovic, KIJAC Lecturer

As a journalist, filmmaker and stage director, Lazar Stojanovic has delivered numerous articles, plays, film scripts, documentary and fiction films and a couple of books. He was the editor of several reviews and magazines, radio and TV broadcasts. He lectured at many universities in the U.S.A. and Europe. He studied psychology and film directing in Belgrade. In addition to his professional activities, Stojanovic was actively involved in different political actions and projects against the undemocratic regime in former Yugoslavia, and against the wars which took place there later on. His understanding of the relation between media and democracy has been partly based on his personal practical experience of editing publications and publishing polemical articles starting from late 60s until present. Civil liberties and human rights are among the areas of his primary journalistic and artistic concern and of his overall public engagement. He permanently resides in the U.S.A. and works internationally.