RESEARCH STATEMENT
My area of research expertise is on the creative process and its implication for teaching in higher education. In my work I argue that although the creative process still happens in discrete stages as documented in the literature, there are new approaches that benefit the act of balancing conceptual and technical skills in the classroom due to technological developments. I continue to position myself as a creativity researcher and expert, which is explored by only a few scholars in the field of mass communications. I am also an artist and visual communicator, which led me to other paths, discussed below.
The question of how we prepare students for a career in a constant state of flux intrigued me to the point of turning it into a central inquiry of my dissertation. Going even further, how do we prepare them to set trends and innovate? I found that an overused and cliché term held the answer: critical thinking. In my field, critical thinking means creative thinking and problem-solving. Clients, brands, media outlets, and filmmakers will always have problems, developing strategies for problem-solving equips students with the ability to evolve as professionals, using the latest tools and gadgets as leverage for better communication rather than a central or starting point.
A strong emphasis on creative thinking will allow students to go through technological changes throughout their careers without falling behind. However, learning how to use current tools (e.g., social media and Adobe programs) is an important part of the short-term goal of graduating well-rounded emerging professionals. It also establishes the expectation that learning technology will be an ongoing effort as they advance professionally. Balancing technical skills with critical thinking is an important aspect of teaching that is prominent on my research findings.
I am often invited to work with researchers from other fields that need the unique combination of someone who is both a visual artist and a researcher, well versed in both worlds. I view these collaborations as my own creativity in practice as I work to problem-solve unique challenges with other researchers from disparate fields. I make interesting connections and further my understanding of how visual communications can be applied, presented, perceived, and justified. Although they might seem like a divergence from my focus of creativity, in reality they mimic my professional experience outside of academia of learning each client’s branding and identity deeply and going from topic to topic, exercising my own problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These participations do not take away my expertise in creativity or lessen my status as an expert. On the contrary, they allow me to practice the theories I research. Such collaborations are really interesting to me and enrich my knowledge of the visual communication field as a whole, making me a better teacher to share a broad application of knowledge in the classroom.
Upon moving to Texas in 2013 and living in one of the most drilled urban areas in the USA, I was invited by chemistry faculty to collaborate through the development of visual representations of their research. They wanted videos, website, branding, and help fundraising, as well as participation in their research by writing the qualitative portion of the mixed methods papers. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an extremely complicated industrial process, and the scientific findings behind it are filled with jargons from the fields of chemistry and engineering. I was only able to work with the chemistry faculty by doing my own research to make sense of it all, which as tenure track faculty that effort should result in peer-reviewed work when possible. I followed the chemistry dept. faculty in field, filmed their data collection, and interviewed the people who potentially had their water wells contaminated. I was then invited to write a chapter for their book and present at the Annual Responsible Shale Energy Extraction Symposium & Exposition as the only social scientist and qualitative researcher in the room. Results from this collaboration are on my vita and are still ongoing.
Another collaboration rooted in science communication led me to co-author several studies related to self-efficacy and STDs in women who are over 55 years old. My contribution consisted of making the visual stimuli (advertisements) for the study and writing the methods section about the visual choices such as font, color, images, etc. One of those papers won best faculty award and will be published without revisions, it’s currently in press.
Qualitative research methodologies are of great interest to me. Although I believe in many instances quantitative methods are more appropriate, qualitative research reveals insights that are profound, between the lines, and can better inform the development of quantitative instruments. In my work, I specifically explore the use of video as data, combining filmmaking with methodologies that are scientifically sound. This approach is a common thread in both research veins that I currently pursue.
In addition to research, I always seek activities that provide me with an outlet to create visual information, which makes me more inspired as a person, and motivated in the classroom. Photography and video are my passion, and will always remain an extension of my thoughts.
The question of how we prepare students for a career in a constant state of flux intrigued me to the point of turning it into a central inquiry of my dissertation. Going even further, how do we prepare them to set trends and innovate? I found that an overused and cliché term held the answer: critical thinking. In my field, critical thinking means creative thinking and problem-solving. Clients, brands, media outlets, and filmmakers will always have problems, developing strategies for problem-solving equips students with the ability to evolve as professionals, using the latest tools and gadgets as leverage for better communication rather than a central or starting point.
A strong emphasis on creative thinking will allow students to go through technological changes throughout their careers without falling behind. However, learning how to use current tools (e.g., social media and Adobe programs) is an important part of the short-term goal of graduating well-rounded emerging professionals. It also establishes the expectation that learning technology will be an ongoing effort as they advance professionally. Balancing technical skills with critical thinking is an important aspect of teaching that is prominent on my research findings.
I am often invited to work with researchers from other fields that need the unique combination of someone who is both a visual artist and a researcher, well versed in both worlds. I view these collaborations as my own creativity in practice as I work to problem-solve unique challenges with other researchers from disparate fields. I make interesting connections and further my understanding of how visual communications can be applied, presented, perceived, and justified. Although they might seem like a divergence from my focus of creativity, in reality they mimic my professional experience outside of academia of learning each client’s branding and identity deeply and going from topic to topic, exercising my own problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These participations do not take away my expertise in creativity or lessen my status as an expert. On the contrary, they allow me to practice the theories I research. Such collaborations are really interesting to me and enrich my knowledge of the visual communication field as a whole, making me a better teacher to share a broad application of knowledge in the classroom.
Upon moving to Texas in 2013 and living in one of the most drilled urban areas in the USA, I was invited by chemistry faculty to collaborate through the development of visual representations of their research. They wanted videos, website, branding, and help fundraising, as well as participation in their research by writing the qualitative portion of the mixed methods papers. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an extremely complicated industrial process, and the scientific findings behind it are filled with jargons from the fields of chemistry and engineering. I was only able to work with the chemistry faculty by doing my own research to make sense of it all, which as tenure track faculty that effort should result in peer-reviewed work when possible. I followed the chemistry dept. faculty in field, filmed their data collection, and interviewed the people who potentially had their water wells contaminated. I was then invited to write a chapter for their book and present at the Annual Responsible Shale Energy Extraction Symposium & Exposition as the only social scientist and qualitative researcher in the room. Results from this collaboration are on my vita and are still ongoing.
Another collaboration rooted in science communication led me to co-author several studies related to self-efficacy and STDs in women who are over 55 years old. My contribution consisted of making the visual stimuli (advertisements) for the study and writing the methods section about the visual choices such as font, color, images, etc. One of those papers won best faculty award and will be published without revisions, it’s currently in press.
Qualitative research methodologies are of great interest to me. Although I believe in many instances quantitative methods are more appropriate, qualitative research reveals insights that are profound, between the lines, and can better inform the development of quantitative instruments. In my work, I specifically explore the use of video as data, combining filmmaking with methodologies that are scientifically sound. This approach is a common thread in both research veins that I currently pursue.
In addition to research, I always seek activities that provide me with an outlet to create visual information, which makes me more inspired as a person, and motivated in the classroom. Photography and video are my passion, and will always remain an extension of my thoughts.