Professor Stephen Croucher is the new head of Massey University’s award-winning School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing.
The arrival of new School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing head Professor Stephen Croucher at Massey’s Wellington campus arguably coincides with a need for greater global insight into his specialist area of research – intercultural communication.
Professor Croucher, from the United States, has spent the past five years working at the University of Jvväskylä in northern Finland but his research encompasses studies into cultural communication in different parts of the world.
Examples of his published research include a comparative analysis of religion and self-disclosure in India and the United States, being Chinese in French-speaking Quebec and an analysis of North African and Russian immigrants in France.
In particular, his research is concentrated on analysing the information gathering methods concerning issues such as the ongoing refugee crisis where data is still being sourced on the thoughts of host nations accepting refugees from places such as the Middle East and Africa.
“Issues of migration include [the question of] refugees in crisis and perceptions of refugees and migrants. How do you measure the dominant cultures perceptions of refugees and vice versa?”
Another area of interest is organisational communications including research into how people relate to each other in the workplace and observations into the relationship between argumentativeness and conflict style preferences in the United States and Finland.
The continued rise of European nationalism, with isolationist stances in England and France gaining popularity, is another phenomena he is keenly observing noting, “ in politics people are pushed to a threshold and that is what is happening in a lot of European countries.”
Professor Croucher has a PhD from the University of Oklahoma, and before his time in Finland, worked at Bowling Green State University, Ohio and Marist College, New York.
He is looking forward to building on his experience at Massey University.
“There are so many positive things happening at the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing and at Massey. I am looking forward to furthering our academic, research and service goals.”