AU highlights Robyn Goodman

Communication studies professor Robyn Goodman made time for an interview last week. As she noted, it was a rare opportunity for her to be on the opposite side of the conversation.

As a communication studies professor, Goodman is the only professor in the division with a background in journalism; an attribute that has served students, colleagues, and "Fiaters" for the last 15 years here at Alfred University.

With a playful dash of eccentricity, Goodman began a whirlwind tour of her experiences in 1988. After a life lived in Hollywood, California and aspirations of becoming a director or screenplay writer ended, Goodman began teaching at a major university in Beijing from 1988 to 1990.

While living in Beijing, Goodman witnessed the breadth of militarism in communist China as civil dissenters were subdued at Tiananmen Square. She recounted seeing CBS’s Dan Rather arrive in a limousine, hearing the typewriter clacking away and found herself able to help in covering the event, although modestly as she tells it.

Following her arrival back in the United States, Goodman began studies at Michigan State University for her doctorate in journalism. After working as a journalist all across the nation in New York, Washington, D.C. and California, Goodman found her way to Alfred, New York and AU’s communication studies program.

Very much a full body communicator, Goodman has a way of speaking as if she is directing the conversation with a conductor’s baton. Passionately energetic, she continued to relay her life with a transition into her present career.

As the only communication studies professor with a specialization in journalism, Goodman both studies and teaches international journalism, journalism as it relates to media, gender, race and class. She also likes to dabble in other topics.

"I’ve been here 15 years. I think I’ve created 15 courses,” Goodman joked.

Goodman’s research has led her to an organization called the World Journalism Education Congress. The congress was generated out of an initiative, Goodman explained, “ [to] get journalism educators together from around the world to talk about good education and keep up with the times.”

As Goodman’s time as adviser of the Fiat Lux comes to a close "Fiaters" past and present know that her enthusiastic experience will be greatly missed.