Texas State's Rao receives Fulbright Award
By Maria R. Gonzalez
University News Service
March 19, 2007
Texas State University-San Marcos School of Journalism and Mass Communication Professor and Associate Director for Graduate Studies Sandhya Rao has received a Fulbright Award to teach at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India during the 2008 Spring semester.
The Fulbright Award is a competitive international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
At Manipal Academy, Rao will teach graduate mass communication courses, take part in collaborative research and assist the university in curriculum development. The focus of Rao’s research is the measuring of media habits and growth in India, a topic that she has been working on throughout her illustrious career.
“Since 1989, when I moved to the United States, winds of liberalization have blown over India, rapidly changing the economic, cultural and the mass media scene,” she said. “Living there for some time will enable me to reconnect with ‘modern’ India professionally and culturally and to participate in this process of change.”
Rao said the Fulbright Award will contribute to her duties as professor of mass communication and that she hopes to enhance research collaboration between Texas State and her future colleagues in India.
Rao worked as a journalist and public relations officer in India prior to her tenure at Texas State. Throughout her career in mass communication academia, Rao has published two books, numerous book chapters and journal articles, and received various honors and grants. Presently, she is a member of the University Curriculum Committee, of the Academic Steering Committee for the Center for International Studies, of the Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies Advisory Council and of the Graduate Council.
For more information, contact the Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication at sjmc@txstate.edu or (512) 245-2656.