Faculty Foucus: New to BGSU Dr. Ilyoung Ju

New to BGSU - Dr. Ilyoung Ju

By Jillian Monczynski

            From South Korea, to Gainesville, Florida, and now Bowling Green, Ohio, Ilyoung Ju is here to share his expertise with Bowling Green State University (BGSU). Ju is a Ph.D. graduate in mass communications specializing in advertising from the University of Florida (UF) and is new to BGSU this fall.

            Ju moved to the United States in 2011, residing in Gainesville, Florida for about six years. In his research and dissertation, he focused on emotional response to advertising and how these nostalgic feeling increases one’s reaction to advertising. Ju explains how he found this topic interesting to study.

 “the old definition of nostalgia is ‘longing for home,’ and since I was away from home at the time is how I got into this area of study so quickly. I thought the area I’m interested in was less effort, more productivity,” Ju explained.

Ju has co-written and published over nine articles, half related to nostalgia, which is his main interest. He has also received several awards at UF such as Outstanding International Student Award and Dissertation Award. In addition, Ju and his co-author received the Top Student Paper and Top Faculty Paper from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC.), which hosts one of the largest conferences in journalism and mass communication.  

Ju also mentioned Dr. Jon Morris and Dr. Susan Bluck, two of his mentors from UF. Ju explained that Dr. Morris was his dissertation advisor and professor at UF and had been studying emotional response for advertising for more than 30 years. Dr. Bluck is a director of Life Story lab at UF (in Psychology) and studies aging and autobiographic memory. Both individuals brought Ju positive energy, inspiration and emotional support during his Ph.D. program.

After receiving his Ph.D., Ju applied to several universities; BGSU made a positive impression, especially after his visit.

 “The town was very quiet, the [Kuhlin Center] was very well designed and I also heard a lot of positive words spoken about BGSU. When I actually came here and did my presentations, I met a couple of colleagues and great faculty members. The people I met filled me with a lot of positivity, especially when I made my final decision to come here,” expressed Ju.

Ju explained that he is the first advertising faculty member in the School of Media and Communication. He is currently teaching Interactive Advertising & Social Media (MDIA 2640), and he will be teaching Social Media Campaigns (MDIA 4640) in Spring 2018. Ju also hopes to develop a research pipeline into social media and hopes to advance knowledge in the subject and his expertise.