Our Members

Dra. Graciela Paz Alvarado | Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali

Profesor de tiempo completo de la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas de la UABC. Licenciada en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la UABC. Master en Ciencias de la Comunicación y Doctora en Comunicación Social por la Universidad La Habana, Cuba. Perfil PROMEP. Miembro: Cuerpo Académico Procesos de Comunicación en Organizaciones e Instituciones Sociales; del Núcleo Básico de la Especialidad en Traducción e Interpretación de la Facultad de Idiomas de la UABC; de la Asociación Mexicana de Investigadores y Profesionales de Comunicación Organizacional AMIPCO; de la Asociación Mexicana de Investigadores de la Comunicación (AMIC); y, del Consejo de Acreditación de la Comunicación A.C. (CONAC).

Laura Castañeda | San Diego State University

Dan Hallin | University of California, San Diego

Daniel C. Hallin is Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego.  His  research covers media and politics, media and war, media and public health, the history of journalistic professionalism, and comparative media systems, particularly in Europe and Latin America.  His books include The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam, We Keep America on Top of the World: Television News and the Public Sphere, Comparing Media Systems:  Three Models of Media and Politics and Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World and Making Health Public, How News Coverage is Remaking Media, Medicine and Contemporary Life.  Comparing Media Systems has received numerous awards and been translated into 10 languages.  Prof. Hallin received his Ph.D. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley in 1980.  He was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2017,  has been awarded the Murray Edelman Distinguished Career Award by the Political Communication Division of the American Political Science Association, the C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy, a Mercator Professorship of the German National Science Foundation,  and an honorary Masters degree from the Autonomous University of Baja California for his work with Binacom.   He has also been a Fellow at  Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Dr. Gerardo Guillermo León Barrios| Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

Profesor-investigador de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Miembro del Cuerpo Académico en Comunicación, Interacción y sociedad  (UABC-CA-157). Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, Nivel I, del CONACyT. Doctor en Ciencias y Humanidades para el Desarrollo Interdisciplinario por la UNAM y UAdeC, 2015; Maestro en Comunicación por el Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), 2007; Licenciado en Comunicación por la Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) Tijuana, 1998. Investigador asociado e investigador titular en diversos proyectos en el área de comunicación, cultura y sociedad. Ha publicado los libros Huellas de la incertidumbre: migración juvenil a Tijuana. Un acercamiento desde la comunicación sociocultural (Selección del Libro Universitario UABC, 2012), ¿Por qué no ven lo que no ven? Audiencias de Medios de Servicio Público y Medios Universitarios en Tijuana (UABC, 2015), La comunicación como objeto en construcción (Selección del Libro Universitario UABC, 2016), Ingeniería en Comunicación Social de la Familia. Apuntes metodológicos (UABC, 2018), Ecología mediática y comunicación universitaria de UABC (UABC, 2019). Actualmente dirige el proyecto de investigación Hábitos de uso de TICs e internet en niños y jóvenes y el proyecto de intervención sobre Alfabetización Digital, ambos para el Sistema Educativo Municipal, del Programa del Cuerpo Académico Comunicación, Interacción y Sociedad. Miembro nuclear GICOM (Grupo hacia una Ingeniería en Comunicación Social).

Antonieta Mercado  | University of San Diego

Dr. Mercado joined Communication Studies in the Fall of 2012 as an assistant professor in communication and social justice at the University of San Diego. She teaches classes on Media and Conflict, International Media, Introduction to Media Studies, and Public Relations and Social Movements.
 Dr. Mercado studies the communication and citizenship practices of Mexican indigenous immigrants in the United States, and how those practices extend to the transnational public sphere, contributing to forms of world citizenship or “grassroots cosmopolitanism.”
She has been working recently on the impact of cultural festivals in the public sphere.
She is a member of BINACOM, a Binational Communication Organization that brings together schools of communication in both the US and Mexico. Dr. Mercado has published her work in different communication journals such as Journalism: Theory Practice and Criticism, with an article on indigenous civic advocacy journalism focusing on the analysis of El Tequiomagazine, a transnational indigenous migrant publication. In the Journal of Transborder Studies, Research and Practice she published an article on indigenous resistance, nationalism, and transnational citizenship. She contributed a chapter on Indigenous Migrants Transnational Practices of Communication and Social Justice in the forthcoming book: Intercultural Communication, Globalization and Social Justice edited by Kathryn Sorrells and Sachi Sekimoto. Another article of hers discussing Transnational Indigenous Media and Cosmopolitanism is forthcoming in the journal Comunicación y Sociedad. She has also presented her work in different international conferences, such as the International Communication Association and the International Association for Media and Communication Research among others. She is currently a volunteer for the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations (FIOB) in San Diego, organizing media literacy workshops.

Mercado formerly worked as a Press and Information Officer at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. Later, she worked as a freelance journalist for several years, writing articles for different newspapers such as La Opinión, Hoy, and Reforma. Mercado believes that a liberal arts education is crucial in forming better citizens and ethical human beings; and it can help foster a consciousness regarding diversity and global citizenship, as well as critical thinking skills and creativity. She combines her previous professional experience in diplomacy, journalism, and social activism with her academic interests to make her classes conducive to practical learning, but also to self-discovery and respect for others. She teaches students to acquire critical and methodological thinking, flexibility, aesthetic and political emotion and imagination, so they can apply those tools in their daily lives.

She has taught classes on Political Communication, Ethnic and Immigrant Media in the US, Communication as a Social Force, The Public Relations Industry, International Media, and Media Content Analysis. She previously worked at the Thurgood Marshall College’s Dimensions of Culture Program at UCSD.

Kristin Moran | University of San Diego

Kristin Moran, Ph.D. (University of Washington), has been teaching in the Communication Studies department since 1999 and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. Prior to that she oversaw the core curriculum revision and implementation process and was appointed USD’s first Core Director in 2015. She served as Chair of the Communication Studies department between 2011-2015. She teaches courses in Media Studies and her current research focuses on the reception of Latino-themed and Spanish-language media in the United States. She works with the Binational Association of Schools of Communication (BINACOM), an organization devoted to creating opportunities for cross border interaction for faculty and students. Moran’s research focuses on Spanish-language media in the United States, Mexico and Spain with special attention to the role media play in the identity development of children and adolescents. Moran’s research focuses on the relationship audiences have with media texts emphasizing the development of Spanish-language media in the United States and its reception. Her book, Listening to Latina/o youth: Television consumption within families, critiques the tendency of mainstream media to reify and contain a Latina/o identity that is then sold back to youth in ways that limit Latino/a agency. Her research has also appeared in a variety of journals including the Journal of Children & Media and Learning, Media and Technologyfocusing on Latino-themed children’s television. She has published research comparing the presentation of local news in Spanish and English in Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism and the Journal of Borderland Studies. Moran teaches a variety of courses that focus on the role of mass media in society, including the introductory course, Introduction to Media Studies, as well as more specialized courses such as International Media, Children and Media, and Communication Criticism. She has also participated in interdisciplinary courses in the Honors program offering Asian Women in Popular Culture and Media and Politics in Latin America.  Moran regularly teaches in the Learning Community program for first year and transfer students. She also enjoys mentoring undergraduate research through the Honor’s Program, McNair Scholars, and Independent Studies.

Mtro. Armando Gtz. Ortega  | Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali

Profesor de la Licenciatura en Ciencias de la Comunicación de la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas de la UABC y productor independiente de proyectos multimedia. Especializado en producción multimedia, procesos de identidad sociocultural, comunicación educativa, economía del conocimiento y capital humano en la industria de la innovación. Licenciado en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Maestro en Comunicación y Educación por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y egresado del Doctorado en Estudios del Desarrollo Global de la UABC. Ha publicado capítulos de libros relacionados con la historia de la producción en video de Baja California y la economía del conocimiento. Director de la agencia de producción Agente Naranja.

Ortega is a Professor of the School of Communication Sciences of the Human Sciences School/ Autonomous University of Baja California and an independent producer of multimedia projects. He specializes in multimedia production, socio-cultural identity, educational communication, knowledge economy and human capital in the innovation industry. He has a degree in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Baja California, Masters in Communication and Education from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and graduated with a Ph.D. in Global Development Studies from the UABC. He has published book chapters related to the history of video production in Baja California and the knowledge economy. He also the director of the production agency Agente Naranja.

Russel Redmond | San Diego City College

Russel Redmond graduated from UCLA Film School “cum laude”, with a specialization in screenwriting –and he continues to this day, both writing scripts and teaching script writing. He has worked in television for local, regional and international (BBC) companies as a writer and film reviewer, and as an art director. He has worked with local and national advertising agencies creating commercials and documentaries. Russel also works as an artist, doing commissioned paintings, illustrations, logos, designs and advertising art for private and corporate clients. He and his wife, Jennifer Silva Redmond, spent many years living and working in Baja California, Mexico, and are currently working on two screenplays set in the U.S. -Mexican border region.

Jessica Retis | School of Journalism at University of Arizona

Jessica Retis, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism, Director of the Master’s in Bilingual Journalism and Affiliated Faculty with the Center for Latin American Studies and the Human Rights Practice Program at the University of Arizona.

She holds a Major in Communications (University of Lima, Peru), a Masters in Latin American Studies (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and a Ph.D. in Contemporary Latin America (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain). Prior to entering academia, Retis worked for two decades as a journalist in Peru, Mexico and Spain. She has almost three decades of teaching experience in several universities in the United States, Spain and Mexico. Before joining the University of Arizona, she taught bilingual journalism for a decade at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Her areas of research include Latin America, international migration, diasporas and transnational communities; cultural industries; ethnic media; diversity and the media; Latino media in Europe, North America and Asia; bilingual journalism, journalism studies, and journalism education. She is co-author of Narratives of Migration, Relocation and Belonging: Latin Americans in London (Palgrave,2020) and co-editor of The Handbook of Diasporas, Media and Culture (Willey, 2019). Recent reports include: Hispanic Media Today. Serving Bilingual and Bicultural Audiences in the Digital Age (Democracy Fund, 2019), La circulación de la cultura en español en las ciudades globales de los Estados Unidos: Los Ángeles, Nueva York, Miami (Hispanic Cultural Circuits in Urban Context of Global Cities: Los Angeles, New York, Miami) (RIE, 2019), and Los Latinos y las industrias culturales en español en Estados Unidos (Latinos and Spanish-language Cultural Industries in the U.S.) (RIE, 2015). Recent book chapters include “Migrations and the Media between Asia and Latin America: Japanese-Brazilians in Tokyo and São Paulo” (Sage, 2019), “Hashtag Jóvenes Latinos: Challenges and opportunities of teaching civic advocacy journalism in ‘glocal’ contexts” (Peter Lang, 2018), “The transnational restructuring of communication and consumption practices. Latinos in the urban settings of global cities” (Routledge, 2017).

Amy Schmitz Weiss | San Diego State University

Amy Schmitz Weiss is a professor in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. In 2011, she was named a Dart Academic Fellow. She is the 2014-2015 recipient of the Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education by the Online News Association. She is also the 2011-2012 Recipient of the AEJMC Bridge Grant with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that led to the creation of a mobile news app, AzteCast for the San Diego State University campus population in spring 2012. She also is a former journalist who has been involved in new media for more than a decade. She has worked in business development, marketing analysis and account management for several Chicago Internet media firms. Dr. Schmitz Weiss has presented her research at several national and international conferences. Her research interests include online journalism, media sociology, news production, multimedia journalism and international communication. Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, as book chapters and in a book she co-edited.

Liesbeth Wiering  | University of California, San Diego

Liesbeth Wiering is a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in the Communication Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). A member of Binacom since 2010, she holds a MA in Communication from San Diego State University (2007), and a BA in Journalism from Fontys University (1996) in the Netherlands, her home country. Before coming to the United States, Liesbeth worked as a medical journalist and science writer. After getting an MA, she taught communication and journalism classes at various local colleges and universities (Cuyamaca, SDSU, City College, Miramar, USD, and Mesa College), as well as at VU University in Amsterdam. Her research interests focus on the role of media in the conceptualization of health, culture, identity, and education. In particular, she is drawn to areas of tension between globalization and cultural (health) identity, and “border health” in particular. Liesbeth has published and given talks on the role of online support groups in health uncertainty, the communication of power differences in intercultural couples, health uncertainty-motivated information-gathering, gender roles in animated television shows, and gendered coercion among third grade elementary school students. She also holds a latent interest in the evolving depiction of blackface in the Dutch traditional December 5^th celebration of Sinterklaas, the predecessor of the American Santa Claus.

Jesús Adolfo Soto Curiel  | UABC

Es Doctor en Ciencias y Humanidades para el Desarrollo Interdisciplinario por la Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Master en Escritura para TV y Cine por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), Posgraduado en Políticas Culturales y Gestión Cultural, en nivel especialización por la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM)  y Licenciado en Ciencias de la Comunicación por la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC), Director y profesor -investigador de tiempo completo en la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas (UABC). Productor de los cortometrajes Pie de página (Premio Mejor Cortometraje Mexicano en DOCSDF 2014) y Puntos Suspensivos (Premio a Mejor Corto/Mediometraje en ZANATE 2015). Director del espacio de gestión, producción y promoción de cultura cinematográfica 2 VEINTE 22. Su última publicación es el libro Recordar en presente. Cine documental y memoria en México (UABC,2017).

Ruth Wallen | University of California, San Diego