The Crisis / Risk Doctoral Seminar Group: (Back Row): Julie, Ryan, Steph, Kathleen, Sadaf, Matt, Laura, Sarah, and me. (Front Row): Christine, Kate, Dr. Lee Wilkins, Elizabeth, and Christine.
I just arrived back in Knoxville, TN after spending the last few days in Detroit, MI for the Wayne State for the summer doctoral seminar on crisis and risk communications. To say the list, it was one of the most educational experiences I have had as a doctoral student. The discussions that we had were very insightful, energizing, and strategic – these were some of the brightest minds in the field discussing issues and problems that are currently happening in the field. There were so many highlights to the seminar, but I wanted to share with you a few that really made the time at Wayne State an amazing one:
Collaboration with fellow doctoral students: What is exciting about the field is how different disciplines come together to make crisis and risk communications transdisciplinary. This is the wave of the future, and I do believe that this group really focused on where we can go with this. Some of us are in PR (me) while others are in Communications studies, but what about Systems Engineering or Information Sciences? How can we bridge these disciplines together with handling a crisis? This was just one research question that we came up with during our discussion, and I do believe one that we will continue to ask and find out what are the best practices to handle it.
Presentations on disasters with pop culture: Our assignment was to do a presentation on a natural disaster, discuss the literature, and show how this disaster was presented in pop culture. Each of us had a different disaster – from planetary destruction to chemical plant accidents to floods – we talked about all of these! These presentations were creative, and it really got us thinking about what we need to do in the field and how our specific research interests in crisis communications and risk communications can help in answering some of these questions.
Experiencing Detroit through its attractions and cuisine: One of the things that we got to do during our time in Detroit is to play tourist, and see some of the various attractions of the city. We had the chance to check out the Detroit Institute of Art right by campus (their Egyptian and Greek displays are very cool) and also go to some amazing restaurants. My favorite was Slow’s – bbq and other fabulous items – it was all good! Amazing food and fabulous company talking about crisis, what can get better than this? 🙂
Networking with the future leaders in the field: All of the students at this doctoral seminar were all very well published, had numerous presentations, and are currently establishing a reputation for themselves in the field. It is very exciting and energizing at the same time to see where the field is going and knowing that it will be done by those in this doctoral seminar. After this seminar, I have some new friends and future collaborators in research projects, which makes me very excited as well. This was a definite highlight for me! 🙂 Overall, it was a wonderful professional and personal educational experience for me. I would like to thank Dr. Lee Wilkins for doing an amazing job with discussing the future trends and issues in the field, and giving us some ideas and suggestions on where to go next in our research. Dr. Fred Vultee and Dr. Julie Novak really did a great job in organizing the event and making sure that everything went smoothly. Wayne State students Sadaf, Laura, and Christine were amazing to make sure that we got a chance to see the campus and we had rides. It was just an amazing experience – thank you! 🙂
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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