UND journalism professor returns from UNESCO-sponsored study in Asia Richard Shafer, journalism professor in the UND Department of English, recently returned from Asia, where he traveled on a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) grant. Shafer studied the feasibility of a new UNESCO-sponsored international journalism curriculum, which is designed to further the application of mass media as a tool for development in lesser developed nations. Shafer also presented a co-authored paper critiquing the new UNESCO curriculum at a conference sponsored by UNESCO and the Asian Institute of Journalism in Manila and visited his former Peace Corps site on Jeju Island, Korea, where he served from 1973 to 1976. While in the Philippines, Shafer conducted graduate and undergraduate journalism seminars and interviewed journalism faculty at several universities. A second co-authored paper, "An Overview of Contemporary Central Asian Mass Media Research" was delivered at the Media, Democracy and Governance: Emerging Paradigms in the Digital Age Conference sponsored by the Asian Media Information Centre (AMIC) in New Delhi, India, on July 15. Shafer has lectured and conducted research on the media and development since he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri in 1987 on the role of the press in social change and development. Since then, he has conducted journalism seminars and workshops in the Philippines, India, Singapore, Nepal, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as throughout Central Asia and Eastern Europe for the Fulbright program, the George Soros Foundation, the International Center for Journalism and other sponsoring agencies. His book, Journalists for Change, is still used in mass media courses throughout the Philippines. -- Juan Pedraza, Writer/Editor, University Relations, juanpedraza@mail.und.edu, 777-6571