Professor María Teresa La Porte Fernández-Alfaro, currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Communication School of Communication at the University of Navarra, joined IWP as an independent researcher on July 15. At the Institute, she will be researching public diplomacy and its relationship to democracy promotion and non-state actors.
At the University of Navarra, where she will return this December, Professor La Porte has been the Associate Director of the Center for European Studies, Dean of the School of Communication, Director of the International Media Program, and is currently an Associate Professor. She has been a guest professor at Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California and at the University of Paris XII: Paris-Val-de-Marne.
During her time at the Institute, Professor La Porte will be examining new practices in public diplomacy that are being developed by states to get in contact with non-state actors. Her work will be focused on the creation of networks, e-diplomacy practices, and interactive relationships among traditional and new international political actors.
“Teresa’s work is particularly relevant to our academic life here at the Institute, where we emphasize the study of all the arts of statecraft,” commented IWP President John Lenczowski. “Public diplomacy represents a vital instrument of national power, and Teresa’s cutting-edge research will serve as an important contribution to this often-overlooked field.”
Professor La Porte’s goals include the publication of a research article and the completion of the table of contents and first chapter of a monograph on “Reciprocity and Collaboration in Diplomatic Communication.” She also seeks to develop two new courses for graduate programs: “International Political Communication and Social Power” for the MA in Political and Corporate Communication at the School of Communication at the University of Navarra and “New Strategies in Public Diplomacy” for the MA in Corporate Diplomacy at the School of Political Science and Sociology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Prof . LaPorte’s work at IWP will be just one of the many research projects she has completed. Others in which she has participated include: “Frontiers and Culture: Government in Complex Societies”; “The Social Experience of Time”; “La Moderna División del Trabajo” (“The modern Division of Labor”); “La prensa diaria como actor político y social de la transición a la democracia: De la muerte de Franco a la promulgación de la Constitución,” (“The daily press as a political and social actor in the transition to democracy: From Franco’s death to the enactment of the Constitution”); and “Cooperative Study of Foreign News and International News Flow in the 1990s.” She has acted as the Principal Investigator in the following projects: “Un Nuevo Modelo de Comunicación para Instituciones.” (A New Model for Institutional Communication); “Globalizacion y Pluralismo: la Función de la TV Pública en el Mercado Audiovisual Europeo.” (Globalization and Pluralism: The Role of TV Audiences in the European Market); and “Globalization of the Media Industry and Possible threats to Cultural Diversity.”
Ariana Bostick
IWP Intern