From the Incoming Director, Bruce A. Williams

It is a very great pleasure and a high honor to have been chosen as the new Director of the Institute of Communications Research. We are entering an exciting period of change and opportunity. As many of you know, the College of Communication underwent an extensive review last year. Many of the recommendations from that review affect ICR, chief among them a major reorganization which involves the creation of a new Department (which I will head) that will house both the undergraduate Media Studies major and the Ph.D. program. While the details are yet to be worked out, one of my highest priorities (shared by the faculty) is that the outcome will serve to strengthen and improve what is already a stellar graduate program.

Evidence of the quality and vitality of ICR abound. The Institute's leadership in the area of Cultural Studies was demonstrated by the 5th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference held on the UIUC campus in June, 2004. Organized by Prof. Norm Denzin (and a host of graduate students and faculty), the conference attracted 700 participants from 42 countries.

A year long seminar in Communications Policy, funded by the Ford Foundation and organized by Prof. Paula Treichler, set the stage for the development of a concentration in Media Policy. The visibility of ICR as a leader in this area is illustrated by the work of Professors Robert McChesney and Dan Schiller who have become two of the most influential academics working in this increasingly vital area of communications research. In addition, Bob has been successful at attracting both campus and foundation funds to support a major new initiative in media policy and media reform. There will be many exciting opportunities for graduate students as this project unfolds.

The quality of our graduate program is widely recognized and our students continue to be successful on the job market and have, over the last two years, received offers from such distinguished institutions as Harvard, Rutgers, McGill and Queens College.

Throughout my academic career I have worked in a number of different departments, in a number of different disciplines, at a number of different universities, and the intellectual environment, collegiality, and sheer joy of working in the Institute has been unique. Indeed, my gratitude to the Institute for providing me with an intellectual home and my commitment to preserving and strengthening what is best about ICR are the reasons I have enthusiastically accepted the position of Director.


Bruce A. Williams