Dear Professor :
Please consider this letter and enclosed materials as my application for your tenure-track assistant professor position in communication. I am currently a doctoral candidate in public relations in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. I finished the collection of data for my dissertation and expect to graduate by May of 2009. I believe that my academic and professional training and rich teaching experience in communication strongly positioned me to take up your job responsibilities and contribute to your program’s continuing excellence in teaching, research, and service.
In my graduate education and research at the University of Maryland and Syracuse University, I have explored the intersections between public relations, education, communication, and culture. Specifically, several lines distinguish my scholarship: 1) international/global organizational communication (with a predominate focus on public relations); 2) communication ethics and philosophy (with a primary focus on Confucianism and Taoism); 4) public relations education; 5) organizational communication and (Chinese) culture; and 6) health communication. These lines of research led to research articles (under review) on public relations ethics, culture and public relations, and health communication; eighteen conference paper presentations at various distinguished national and international conventions such as NCA, AEJMC, and ICA; and a number of awards and research grants. In these endeavors, I have developed a keen interest in examining, analyzing, and theorizing how culture, serving as the invisible machinery, has influenced people’s understanding of the communication phenomena in various organizational settings at different cultures.
For example, one research project, which won the Susanne A. Roschwalb Grant Award by AEJMC’s Public Relations Division, examines how Chinese cultural values have affected moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. Another research project, a Top Ten Interactive Paper Award by ICA, adopts a phenomenological approach to explore the meaning-making of a particular cultural group in the context of health communication. My other co-authored project, an AEJMC’s First Place Award, uses an inside-out approach to examine how culture constitutes an understanding of Chinese public relations. My dissertation project, which received a $5000 Graduate Student Research Fellowship from the University of Maryland, seeks to explicate specific cultural conditions that have influenced understandings of public relations education in China. Eventually, my goal is to publish my dissertation as a book and journal articles to facilitate a better understanding of Chinese public relations for scholars and practitioners in China and abroad. This project also aims to empower marginalized groups to embark on a journey to investigate the ways in which public relations is interpreted, taught, and practiced in their home cultures so as to challenge the dominant voices preoccupied in the mainstream intellectual dialogue in the U.S. public relations literature. Research findings will also help internationalize the U.S. curricular content and diversify its scholarship by introducing a Chinese perspective. In this respect, the project participates in larger scholarly conversations about the urgent need of multiculturalism in Western public relations curricular content and of strengthening the theoretical foundation of public relations education in China in ways that are sensitive to its cultural context.
Additionally, I have accumulated rich teaching experiences on several courses that touch upon a wide range of topics. At Syracuse University and University of Maryland, I taught introductory courses to communication, public speaking, interpersonal communication, communication theory, and advanced communication theory. I also spend extensive hours advising students outside the classroom, helping them work on research projects, improve their critical and analytical thinking skills, and enhance their theoretical sensitivity to everyday communication phenomena. While I am primarily a qualitative scholarly, I also have background in quantitative methodology. In my teaching, I expose students to both methodologies. For example, in my advanced communication theory class, I facilitate students in their own model building by utilizing quantitative methods. Additionally, while I familiarize students with mainstream communication theories, I also draw from my cross-cultural background to develop a teaching pedagogy that exposes students to newer and alternative ways to understand life and sharpen their critical and comparative thinking skills. I coach students to challenge what is usually taken-for-granted and understood as the norm.
I also believe in learning by doing. For example, in my interpersonal communication class, I ask students to work in groups of five or six on a multi-week project. The project asks students to shoot a 10-minute video about a particular interpersonal relationship issue that is of great interest to them. Students are the playwright and actors for the video. They are also required to write a research paper by applying theoretical principles or concepts to creatively and critically analyze the relationship dynamics and tensions implicit in the play including their own roles. This hands-on experience has significantly sparked students’ interest in conducting academic research.
As a result of my quality teaching, I was awarded a Certificate in University Teaching by the Future Professorite Program at the Syracuse University. I firmly believe that these experiences qualify me to teach a variety of courses in the areas of communication, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, communication theories, public relations (including principles, writing, campaigns and cases), ethics and philosophy, research method, and small group communication.
Meanwhile, I have accumulated rich professional in communication in industries. In summer 2008, along with a few entrepreneurs, I launched our own company entitled Heart to Heart International Communication based in Beijing, China. The company holds the vision of creating a global community by inviting people from all over the world to participate in its various language and business immersion programs that integrates learning and living. I am the CEO of this company in charge of planning, promoting, managing, and budgeting programs; coordinating communication between countries; reaching out to diverse cultures; building and sustaining networks with various government and educational sectors; and managing and maintaining the content of our Website. This experience has significantly improved my leadership, management, and communication skills. Meanwhile, during the same summer of 2008, while I was doing fieldwork for my dissertation in China, I had the honor to network with many influential educators and practitioners in the field of communication and public relations, and managed to build an ongoing relationship with them. Many of these educators and practitioners expressed their sincere interest in collaborating with American universities for cultural exchange programs. Two of the universities had also invited me to give guest lectures regarding educational systems in the U.S. These rich resources laid a solid foundation for securing external funding and initiating cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary collaborations in the United States.
Furthermore, during graduate school in Syracuse, I worked as a public relations specialist for a year at Model Neighborhood Facility-Southwest Community Center, where I developed technical skills and creatively practiced theories of public relations. During the senior year of my undergraduate study in China Agricultural University, I had the honor to be selected as the only undergraduate student to serve as the chief program manager for International Volunteer Organization ITOI, organizing and providing opportunities for volunteers from the United Kingdom to teach English in rural areas in China. These practical experiences have tremendously sharpened my theoretical understanding of the communication knowledge that I learned in the classroom and helped me realize the urgent needs of communication experts in various professional settings.
Last but not least, I am a concerned scholar who has commitment to the public good. As an international student studying abroad in the United States, I am fully aware of the challenges that this experience has upon students’ adaptation to a new culture. Drawing from my personal successes and failures, I become interested in mentoring and advising international students to help them make smoother transitions to American life. Since the second year of my graduate study in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, I have been serving as a mentor for incoming international students helping them cope with the difficulties that they encounter during their study and social life. Recently, I have just become an admission assistant to help the Department of Communication recruit new students, answer their questions during the process, and advise them once they get accepted.
To serve the university, I helped organize a Chinese Culture Club sponsored by the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland. I am also an active member at Confucius Institute, designing cultural activities to introduce Chinese cultural heritage to the West. I helped launch a Forum on Chinese Culture and Language. This forum serves as an exchange platform for people interested in Chinese culture and language to learn Chinese language, mainstream and subcultures in China, and to discuss economic and social transformations along with various contemporary social issues. Meanwhile, I am an active member of a university-wide Initiative for Education in Peace, Cooperation, and Development (IEPCD) participated by 30 faculty members and students from various disciples at the University of Maryland. The initiative is dedicated to bring peace and social justice to the world through various interdisciplinary projects. One such interdisciplinary project is study abroad. I made critical contributions to the initiation and planning of this project. I help integrate study abroad into a peace education certificate. I am also working closely with faculty members from the College of Education and East Asian studies at the University of Maryland to launch a study abroad program in Japan. Along the similar line, I am helping initiate another study abroad program in China. Both of these two study abroad programs will come into fruition by summer of 2009.
In service to the discipline, I was the chair of the External Affairs Committee for the NCA’s Chinese Communication Studies division, and served as volunteers for both NCA and ICA conferences. My service also extends to an international level. I was honored to be invited to give lectures about communication studies in the U.S. at two universities in Hangzhou, China. In these roles, I come to see myself as a cultural bridge, fostering understandings and cultural exchanges between the intellectual communities in China and the U.S.
Along with the letter of application, enclosed please find 1) a copy of curriculum vita that lists the contact information of three references; 2) three samples of my recent research; and 3) summary and copies of students’ evaluation. Should you need additional materials, please feel free to let me know. I sincerely appreciate your time and consideration. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
Ai Zhang
Doctoral Candidate
Department of Communication
University of Maryland
2130 Skinner Building
College Park, MD 20942
aizhang@umd.edu
