Professor:  Have passion for learning, will travel
by Jonathan Dozier

At USC, Dr. Juliann Sivulka is an advertising professor. In Japan, though, she is a sensei.

It’s more than just a different word for “teacher” – it’s a whole other way of life, says Sivulka, who will return to Tokyo in 2004 for her second yearlong teaching residency at the new International College of Waseda University, one of Japan’s top private universities.

She says professors do all the talking in Japanese classrooms. Students listen silently and soak up the information.

“That’s in part because the students respect the sensei,” she said. “If they question the sensei in the classroom, they’re questioning his authority.”

Japanese undergraduates also take up to 18 courses at time – as opposed to four or five at American universities – but have few outside readings or projects. Sometimes a final exam is their only grade, she said.

Sivulka, a Michigan native and assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, first traveled to Japan two years ago on a Fulbright Scholar Program grant. During her 11- month visit, she taught popular culture theory and American advertising history at the University of Tokyo and the Japan Women’s University.

While there, Sivulka encouraged a more Western style in the classroom, drawing students into discussions and encouraging questions.

But while Asian and Western academic styles take different paths, she said, “The graduates, the end products, are the same.” Sivulka also said her experiences abroad have expanded her academic focus.

She visited mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand during her first Japan residency. Long a collector of U.S. advertisements from the early 1900s, she now has three 1930s-era cigarette ads from Shanghai, China – souvenirs of her trip – on her office wall.

She said she plans eventually to add a global component to her courses, moving from a focus on the history of national advertising to a larger international focus.

“I’m very passionate about my research,” she added. “And it’s taken me to some interesting places.”

For five weeks this summer, grants from USC and Duke University allowed Sivulka to do research at the Schlesinger Library and Baker Library at Harvard, Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, Hagley Library in Wilmington, Del., and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Her last stop was Duke University’s Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History in Durham, N.C.

With primary research now done and a chapter outline under way, she hopes to begin writing her next book while in Japan next year. The book will examine female stereotypes in pre-1960s advertising and the women in the profession who helped create them.

Her other goal next year is to travel beyond Japan, this time to three specific places.

Sivulka’s first book, Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising, has been translated into Russian, Greek and two Chinese dialects. “So I would like to either attend a conference or give presentations in those countries," she said.

Inaugural Sossamon scholarship helps Gaffney student

Gaffney High School student is the first to receive the Sossamon scholarship, begun this year by a Gaffney couple to help students studying mass communications at the University of South Carolina.

Lauren Everidge will receive $1,250 annually while she studies public relations at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Louis Sossamon, former publisher of The Gaffney Ledger, and his wife, Kathryn, picked the freshman for the honor.

“Kathryn and I are pleased this scholarship is available to Blacksburg and Gaffney High School students,” Sossamon said. “This is our expression of appreciation for assistance given to us when in pursuit of our education.”

The Sossamons attended USC from 1939 until 1943, the year that Sossamon, a Gamecock football player, also was student body president.

The Sossamon scholarship will be awarded every four years to a Cherokee County student who plans to study journalism, public relations or advertising at USC. Everidge, who received the scholarship this summer at the Ledger office, said she felt honored by the award. Dean Charles Bierbauer of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies was also on hand for the presentation.

“The Sossamons are providing significant support for young people who have grown up in their community,” Bierbauer said. “I wish there were one of these scholarships in every community.”