My teaching philosophy reflects my interests in collaborative research. I believe that students bring an important perspective to class discussions, research, and the understanding of different migration and integration contexts. I favor class dynamics that cultivate an interactive environment in which students can express themselves freely while learning to engage with the contents in meaningful ways. I emphasize critical thinking and the need to consider migration and media within it’s larger socio-political, historical, economic and cultural contexts. This means that in both compulsory and optional courses I teach, I have students engage in small group work in which they not only talk and think together but write together. Students find interaction and discussion more interesting.
Teaching activities (key courses)
- 2018 – present: Coordination, design, and teaching of master course Media and Migration, Master programmes in Media and Business and Media, Culture & Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
In the autumn of 2018, the new course ‘Media and Migration’ will be offered to MA students who are interested in developing both theoretical and practical (applied) projects in the field of media and migration, and intercultural communication. This course aims to offer conceptual, empirical and practical tools for building students’ knowledge about current (research) topics and trends in this interdisciplinary field that can also be used in the development of students’ master thesis projects. In this course, we will focus on the critical role played by media and communication in the different levels of the transnational condition of migration, ranging from mass media representations of migrants and refugees to the mediated communication exchanges conducted in the social media scenarios, from political negotiation between relevant actors in the field of policy-making through the organizational side of hiring migrants to the role played by hands-on intercultural mediation projects.
- 2015 – present: Coordination, design, and teaching of bachelor seminar Cultural Identities and New Media, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
The purpose of this research seminar is to unravel the intricate relationships between new media, in, and cultural identity through the process of definition, interpretation, and critical analysis. We examine the relationships between new technologies and cultural identity from the perspective of diaspora, focusing on community networks to explain the new dynamics of social connections and bond formation among migrants, and the development of transnational socializing in online environments. Furthermore, we also focus on the analysis of the various ways in which (ethnic) migrant groups are currently using such new technologies and the implications of these practices for their acculturation/integration experiences in their entirety. In this research seminar, students will develop a good research question as one of the first critical steps in their research process, write a literature review in which they discuss theoretical approaches to new media and cultural identities, produce and present their own research paper.
“Educational project with refugees”.
Other courses I also teach in the Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam:
- 2017 – present: Teaching of master course Methods of Media Research I & II (Qualitative Research Methods), Master programmes in Media and Business and Media, Culture & Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Teaching of Workshop Cross-national Comparative Research, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Coordination and teaching of Communication as Social Force, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Coordination and Teaching of New Media Production, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Teaching of Media Processes & Influences, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Teaching of Introduction to Human Communication, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2015 – present: Teaching of Academic Skills, International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- 2010 – 2011: Teaching of Radio and Television Programming, BA in Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising. University of Santiago de Compostela. Spain.
Master student supervisions (selection – supervision of 4 MA theses per year)
- 2017 – 2018: Van Ouwerkerk, Nora: ‘Mediatized refugees: Exploring the role of digital media technologies in the acculturation of refugees’
- 2017 – 2018: Konnecke, Sophie: ‘Influence of digital technology on the formation of social connections during Syrian and Eritrean refugees’ journey’
- 2017 – 2018: Goana Go Ying Ying, Anastasia: ‘Minding the Gaps: An inquiry of humanitarian innovations within the Netherlands’
- 2017 – 2018: Boekhold, Joelle: ‘Victims or intruders? A qualitative analysis of news media coverage of refugees in the Netherlands’
- 2016 – 2017: Guigui, Bettina: ‘Connected health: outsourcing social media for refugee health integration’
- 2015 – 2016: Mouws, Rosa: Digital Campaigns for social change. How to best tell the social good story of your brand.’
Educational projects for refugees in the Netherlands
- 2018 – present: Coordination, design, and teaching of New media, integration and intercultural communication course – preparatory year in higher education, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).
- 2018 – present: Instructor for the digital literacy module of Computer skills course for refugees, supported by the International Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), The Hague.
Dr. Amanda. P. Alencar 