• Home
  • » Recent News
  • » 03/13/2009

Ohio University’s quarter-century relationship with Guyana has led to a $300,000 grant headed by Media Arts and Studies Professor Vibert Cambridge. The project, funded by The United States Agency of International Development, has the objective of upgrading the quality of mass communication at the University of Guyana’s Center for Communication Studies.

Professor Cambridge was the program director for the Guyana Broadcast Corporation prior to attending to Ohio University in 1986. Cambridge, who brought to Athens the experience and knowledge of the media development of Caribbean countries, has played a key role in the creation of this relationship with the University of Guyana.

Ohio University’s relationship with the University of Guyana began 25 years ago when a former Ohio professor, Maisha Hazzard, attended a conference in Guyana and began to develop the School’s relationship with Guyana. This helped spark a number of collaborations.

The relationship with Guyana has now led to Cambridge heading the current grant project funded by the United States Agency of International Development. Starting in the fall of 2010, faculty members from the University of Guyana’s Center for Communication Studies (UGCCS) will come to Ohio University to pursue their master’s degrees. In exchange, graduate students from Ohio University will go to Guyana to teach at UGCCS. In addition, for the next three summers faculty members from the School of Media Arts and Studies will travel to Guyana to conduct workshops for the faculty of UGCCS and journalists, which will further strengthen UGCCS’s curriculum.

The project will also establish distance-learning links between Ohio University’s School of Media Arts and Studies and UGCCS. The distance-learning link will contain graduate level courses in communication and development that will be jointly offered by Ohio University and the University of Guyana.

Cambridge traveled to Guyana in early February to attend the launch of the project. “The American ambassador who participated in the launch felt that this project will make a major contribution to the development of journalism and mass communication and the nurturing of Guyana’s democracy,” said Cambridge, “I hope that this will strengthen the history the school has had with Guyana and I look forward to seeing more students and faculty from our school traveling to Guyana and participating in the development of electronic media in that country.”

For more information about the School of Media Arts and Studies, please visit http://www.mediaschool.ohiou.edu.