Prof. Gary E. Swanson
Gary E. Swanson is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed photojournalist, documentary and news producer, director, editor, educator, speaker and consultant. He has given numerous keynote speeches, served as chair at conferences, presented workshops and lectured at embassies, festivals, and universities throughout China, South Africa, India, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Korea, The Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Greece, Italy, Germany, Jordan, Spain, Portugal, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Professor Swanson is the CEO of D'image Studios and the Former Hansen Endowed Chair in Journalism and Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at The University of Northern Colorado, USA. Swanson is a three-time Fulbright Scholar to Portugal and the People's Republic of China. He covered the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain for NBC News, and in 2008 was Commentator for China Central Television International (CCTV-9) and their live coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. Professor Swanson continued his on-air work with CCTV-4 as distinguished live guest and commentator in London the summer of 2012. Previously, Swanson was Professor and Director of Television for nine years at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He has also taught at DePauw University in Indiana and at Elon University in North Carolina. He has been an educator for 22 years.
Prior to his work in academe, Swanson compiled a distinguished professional broadcast career spanning 13 years at NBC News – producing award-winning documentaries, prime-time news magazine stories, and covering "breaking news" in 26 states and Canada for the network – including trips and campaigns of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
Swanson has earned more than 80 awards for broadcast excellence and photojournalism including three national Emmy's, the duPont Columbia Award, two CINE "Golden Eagles," 16 TELLY's, the Monte Carlo International Award, the Hamburg International Media Festival's Globe Award, the 2011 Communitas Outstanding Professor and Educator award, the 2012 Professor of the Year Award, and many others.
His photography has won numerous awards and his works have been published in Travel+Leisure, Frommers, PDN (Photo District News) and other magazines, books, and displayed in art galleries worldwide.
Professor Swanson is the Founding Judge of the IAFOR Documentary Film Award.
Dr. James Rowlins
James Rowlins left his native England for Paris, France, where he studied for a BA (Hons) and MA specializing in French cinema. His passion for visual culture subsequently took him to Los Angeles, where he earned a doctorate at the University of Southern California, USA. In addition to exploring literature and film through a theoretical lens, as well as dabbling in filmmaking, his dissertation focused on the crossover between post-war American film noir and the French New Wave, arguing that the subversive manipulation of the Hollywood genre formula by the auteurs constitutes a political aesthetic. He has published articles on contemporary French fiction, film and existentialism, cinematic phenomenology and new perspectives on the New Wave. He has held teaching positions in Europe, America and Japan, and is currently a Lecturer in the Humanities and the Arts Department at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
Dr. James Rowlins is also the Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication and Film.
Prof. Scott Erlinder
Scott was originally a fine artist, graduating from Shimer College in 1978 with a BA in liberal arts. After college, he used his graphics and technical skills in the Silicon Valley of California, working on a variety of industrial projects in the electronics field.
Returning to Chicago in the late 80's, he continued to work in graphic arts and photography. The natural extension of photography brought him to film making, particularly cinematography, and he entered Columbia College Graduate Program in Film, graduating with his MFA in 1995.
He has worked on numerous films, music videos, and corporate and documentary projects over the years and produced the PBS documentary "Storm Warriors" in 2004, "We, The Anishinabe", 2009, and "Stateless" 2013.