June 29  (Wednesday) 2022, 11:30 am to 1:15 pm
Luncheon Event at the Solomon Ortiz Convention Center

Dr. Peter Gross will address developments in the explosive region in the wake of the on-going war in Ukraine. Gross is a specialist in international media and cultural studies, a distinguished academician, scholar, and professor emeritus and former Director of the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media. He held the Gaylord Family Endowed Chair (International Communication) at the University of Oklahoma, where he also served as Director of the Institute for Research and Training at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Gross is a non-resident Fellow at the Center for Media, Data and Society, the Central European University, Vienna, Austria, and currently the Co-Editor of the Journal of Romanian Studies.

Gross is a former research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. He frequently lectured at the U.S. Department of State’s National Foreign Affairs Training Center and served as consultant to the International Media Fund, The Freedom Forum, the U.S.I.A. and Voice of America among other governmental and non-governmental organizations. Gross is the recipient of the Secretary’s Forum Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. Department of State. Since finishing his MA and Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, Gross gave keynote addresses and presented papers at scholarly conferences and workshops in Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Moldova, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Scotland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Yugoslavia (prior to break up in 1991/92), and the U.S.A.

Gross’ scholarly articles appeared in U.S. and European academic journals (e.g. Journalism Studies; Media, Culture and Society; International Journal of Press/Politics; European Journal of Communication; East European Politics and Society; Political Communication and Persuasion; East European Quarterly; Sfera Politicii – Romanian political science review; Me.Dok – Hungarian journal of Media, Press History, Communication; Comunicación y Sociedad – Spanish Journal of Social Communication; Reseaux – French Journal of Communication Research). His journalistic writing was/is disseminated in European and American general circulation and professional publications (e.g. Balkan Insight – Bosnia-Herzegovina; New Eastern Europe – Poland; Social Europe – England; Revista 22 and Dilema – Romania; Media Perspektiven – Germany; Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor – International Edition, Columbia Journalism Review, Eurasian Daily Monitor (The Jamestown Foundation); Georgetown Journal of International Affairs – Georgetown University, U.S.A.).

Gross is a long-standing columnist for Transitions Online, a Czech-based journal concentrated on East and Central European politics, economics, society, culture and media. His research focus is East, Central and Southeast European societies and cultures. He carried out multiple assessment assignments for the U.S. Information Agency, U.S. Department of State and Voice of America in these regions. Among his 12 authored and co-authored scholarly books, textbooks, and co-edited book collections are, Entangled Evolutions. Media and Democratization in Eastern Europe and Media Transformations in the Post-Communist World: Eastern Europe’s Tortured Path to Change, which he co-edited with Dr. Karol Jakubowicz (Poland).  His forthcoming book, Focusing on the Core: A Cultural Approach to Media Systems, will be released in 2023.

Multilingual, Gross carried out research in East, Central, and Southeast Europe. In 2009, Gross received one of Romania’s highest national awards, the Order of Merit in Education, Commander Grade, conferred by decree by the President of the country for “unusual merit in the development of education…and in research.” In 2005, the University of Bucharest, Romania, awarded Gross the Doctor Honoris Causa for his contributions to East, Central and Southeast European media scholarship, as did the University of Timisoara West, Romania, in 2009. The Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, accorded him the Professor Honoris Causa in 2018. In Spring 2022, he was inducted into his alma mater’s Hall of Fame.

Please reserve your tickets by Friday, June 24, Noon. We need to give the headcount to catering staff in advance! Ticket and membership information please visit our website: www.worldaffairstexas.com For more information, please contact: Dr. Anantha Babbili, WACST President & CEO, at 361.563.5177 or at ananthasbabbili@yahoo.com.

COME JOIN US FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY CONVERSATION AT THE LUNCHEON — COURTESY OF THE WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL OF SOUTH TEXAS!!!!