Ha receives President’s Award for Collaborative Research and Creative Work

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Dr. Louisa Ha, a professor in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, received a President's Award for Collaborative Research and Creative Work at the Faculty Recognition Awards April 14.

The award recognizes innovative research and creative work conducted by faculty members in collaboration with graduate students. The $5,000 award included $2,500 for continued collaborative research activities with BGSU graduate students, and a $2,500 cash award.

Ha and over 20 of her graduate students were nominated for their ongoing Emerging Media Research Cluster that examines northwest Ohio media use. During the 2009-12 data collection period, the team documented the rise in social and mobile media. Their work resulted in 26 competitive conference research presentations, eight refereed journal articles and two book chapters.

The (Toledo) Blade and BGSU jointly funded the project and the Blade received reports from the team to understand media audience in the region to develop its editorial and marketing strategies.

Through actively participating in the large-scale survey project, graduate students received valuable hands-on experience in handling survey projects and collecting data.

“Dr. Ha is not only the leader of this project, but a model of an excellent researcher and professor for graduate students,” said Liu Yang, a Ph.D. student in the School of Media and Communication. “She is an amazing leader who respects everyone’s ideas and gets things done efficiently.”

Media and communication doctoral candidate Ling Fang said Ha encouraged the team to write original papers and also served as a role model for a collaborative work leader. “She encouraged teamwork among graduate students with similar interests and engaged in small groups to provide guidance and support that enhanced effective teamwork. Her dedication motivates and inspires our growth as individual researchers and as a collaborate team.”

Dr. Franklin Nii Amankwah Yartey, a former student of Ha’s and an assistant professor of communication at the University of Dubuque, said his collaborations with Ha played an important role in his development as a young scholar and faculty member.

“She has been an immense contributing factor to my current success.”