Michael Russo  |  Interests  |  Scholarship  |  Service  

Interests

• Interests and Pursuits
  In 2011 and 2012, I taught in the Summer Communication Program at John Cabot University in Rome's Trestevere district. There I was able to meet faculty and students from around the world. I taught both "Religion, Media & Culture," and "Political Communication." In 2006, I was “scholar-in-residence” at Georgian Court University, Lakewood, N.J. At the invitation of the University President and Provost, I guided curricular discussions among members of the Communication Department, and chaired two college-wide seminars: “Preaching in a New Key,” and “Women & Media.” I worked on three projects for publication that have advanced my academic scholarship, teaching and creative writing. • “Preaching Project” – My current research and writing on preaching brought me to national preaching conferences and key interviews with preachers and theologians at universities and seminaries, including Notre Dame, Fordham. I have listened to homilists throughout the United States; and while my study focuses primarily on Roman Catholic liturgical preaching, I am deeply interested in the preaching of Rev. Billy Graham, the late Fulton J. Sheen, Timothy Keller, and the mega-Church phenomenon of television evangelist Joel Osteen. My introductory preface assesses the genre or style of preaching, the underlying problems of contemporary preaching, and the criteria for critical judgment. • “Writer’s Life” – As a 2006 ASNE Fellow, I had the opportunity of working as an editorial writer for the “Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.” I published columns under my own byline, attended editorial meetings, and observed a newspaper on the brink of convergence into the new media age. A writing course in literary non-fiction at NYU in the fall of 2006 brought me into contact with a talented band of writers; I’m presently working on a series of personal stories. • “Religion, Media & Culture” – Drawing on my academic and professional background, I developed a new course that examines how religion employs the media to amplify and make effective its message. And, conversely, how the media of newspaper, radio/television, film and the internet report about religious themes for a widely diverse and global audience.