Communications - About Us

Dr. Elizabeth Jackson is a 35-year veteran of the Department of Communications. A five-credential professor, she holds a BS degree from UCLA in psychology, her first MA degree from Fisk University in clinical psychology, a second MA in Radio Television and Film from Northwestern University, and her PhD in Communications from Northwestern. She holds a postmasters degree credential from California State University Dominguez Hills’ Department of Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Mediation and Negotiation, and is a certified mediator.

Professor Jackson is an international scholar, a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Zimbabwe(2003-2004), and Russia(Senior Scholar, 2012), and has taught worldwide: two stints as a visiting scholar with the International Foundation for Education and Self Help (IFESH) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where at the behest of the Minister of Education she served as the writer/host/producer for the television program “English For Us,” which promoted literacy for the education-deprived post dictator-ruled country, and for which she received the International Scholar of the Year award from the Foundation, and in Malawi, Africa, as a visiting professor where she taught conflict resolution and negotiation to the strife-torn campus-in-conflict with then President of the country Bingu-Wa Mathuria. After her two-year stint in Ethiopia, Jackson wrote, created and directed, “Surviving Abyssinia” (2000), shot underground, about her experiences living in the third poorest country in the world during a breakout war with Eritrea, and for which women made up only 3% of the professional workforce. The video received the Best Documentary of the Year award from the Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF). On additional sabbatical years, Jackson taught conflict-anti-bullying workshops for the gang-ridden inner Belize City for trauma-worn youth at the Anglican school, taught Negotiation and International Conflict Resolution as a visiting scholar for the floating university Semester-at-Sea (SAS) through Central and South American countries including Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, and during an additional appointment with SAS taught communication courses through Cuba, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, India, South Africa and Tanzania.

Jackson currently teaches Negotiation, Theories, Intercultural Communications, and Interpersonal Communications in her department, where is relishes plying her world experiences and wisdom as she helps student navigate through what she deems “this dense and complex world.” She is an avid CFA Union member who has dedicated her last seven years of service as a CFA co-facilitator instructor of Anti-Racism workshops throughout the state of California’s 23 campuses.

Joe Ren is a multimedia artist, designer, and educator. He is an assistant professor in Digital Media at California State University Bakersfield. He is also a co-founder / chief designer at Expose Art and a rotating-term vice-chair of the Executive Committee at the Association of Chinese Artists in American Academia (ACAAA). For the past few years, he has exhibited his works nationally and internationally in America, Sweden, Finland, South Korea, and China. His research and articles have been published in China, England, and America such as, Fusion + Evolution - Teaching and Learning of Design, New Media Art, International Academic Forum on Individualized Education of Art and Design in International Field of Vision, Chinese Literature Today, etc.

His work explores the complex relationship between reality and representation, focusing on the tension between humanity and nature. He exposes the contradiction between appearance and substance by revealing the disorder in our environment. His art highlights themes of alienation, greed, waste, and desire inherent in modern life. Through his use of conflict between foreground and background, he challenges our perception of reality. He questions the boundaries between truth and deception, what we see and what we want to believe, as well as the divide between the real and the imagined. By raising these inquiries, he encourages reflection on the world we inhabit and the postmodern cultural experience, delving into the duality, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding the nature of reality itself.