Thiel College endowed chair among US scholars named to prestigious international research committee

GREENVILLE, Pa. - June 29, 2017 - PRLog -- Thiel College James Pedas Professor of Media, Communication and Public Relations Dane S. Claussen, Ph.D., is one of only four U.S. scholars chosen for the Research Committee of the World Media Economics & Management Conference, to be held May 6-9, 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa. The Research Committee will be judging for acceptance abstracts of papers in August and accepting completed papers from mid-December until the end of January 2018.

Thiel College (https://www.thiel.edu/) is a leading liberal arts college in northwest Pennsylvania.

Paper presenters will have several months after that to revise their papers based on the judging. Claussen, who also is Chair of the Department of Media, Communication and Public Relations and Executive Director of the James Pedas Communication Center at Thiel College, developed media management courses while a faculty member at Point Park University (Pittsburgh) and at Missouri State University (Springfield). He is the former Head of the Media Management, Economics & Entrepreneurship Division of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication.

Claussen is the former publisher and editor of daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly newspapers in Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington and a former newspaper management consultant and media mergers/acquisitions broker. He holds an M.B.A. in corporate finance and labor relations/human resources from The University of Chicago.

Claussen participated in the 2012 World Media Economics & Management Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, and the 2016 World Media Economics & Management Conference in New York City (the only time it's been held in the U.S.). The conference, started in 1994, is held every two years in a different city. Host cities have included Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Stockholm.

The 2018 conference, though being held in Cape Town, is being sponsored by the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Claussen has previously been to Rhodes University and Cape Town each twice, when Rhodes University hosted UNESCO's 2008 meeting on "Capacity Building for Potential Centres of Excellence in Journalism Training in Africa," and the 2nd World Journalism Education Congress (2010).

Other U.S. scholars chosen for the 2018 conference's Research Committee are Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Richard Gershon, Western Michigan University; and Kent Wilkinson, Texas Tech University. The Committee's 14 other members are from various other countries, including three from South Africa and two from the United Kingdom.

Before joining Thiel, a leading liberal arts college in northwest Pennsylvania, in 2015, Claussen was Visiting Professor of International Journalism at Shanghai International Studies University in China from 2013-2015. He also was Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada (2011-2013); he was a Fulbright Specialist (2009-2014) and has done extensive consulting for universities and nonprofits in Bangladesh.

In addition to his M.B.A., Claussen holds a doctorate in mass communication from the University of Georgia, an M.S. in mass communications from Kansas State University, and a B.S. in journalism from the University of Oregon. He was named the Pedas Endowed Chair in Communication in 2015.

About Thiel College

Thiel College (https://www.thiel.edu/) is a private liberal arts institution founded in the Lutheran tradition. Located in Greenville, Pa., the College offers 60 majors and minors, 25 varsity sports, and an 11:1 student-faculty ratio to more than 900 students. A dedicated faculty paired with dynamic research and internship opportunities produce numerous graduate school and job placements. Coeducational from its beginnings, the College celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2016 and remains committed to combining tradition with innovation.