Current committee, as of June 2026
Shahira S. FAHMY
Chair (2025-27)
Shahira S. Fahmy (PhD, Missouri School of Journalism) is an award-winning international Fulbright scholar and a Full Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo. She is affiliated with the University of Arizona, where she served as a tenured faculty for more than a decade. She was ranked the top social scientist in journalism and media in the Arab League and Africa — according to the AD Scientific Index 2023. Her research focuses on visual communication and peace journalism, most recently analyzing how emerging technologies are transforming the relationship between media and terrorism in society. She has published over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters, in addition to four books. Moreover, Shahira has won several international research awards, including the National Communication Association (NCA) book award. She has given several keynote speeches and her global engagements include professional visits to more than 30 countries. She received two Fulbright awards to work with the NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence in the Baltics and the United Nations in Africa. She edited multiple journal special issues and for more than a decade she served as the associate editor of the Journal of Communication and Mass Communication & Society. In 2024, Shahira received the accolade of being inducted as ICA Fellow for her years of exemplary service to the association.
📬 email: shahira.fahmy@aucegypt.edu
T.J. THOMSON
Vice-Chair (2025-27)
T.J. Thomson (PhD in Visual Journalism, University of Missouri-ColumbiaUniversity of Missouri-Columbia) is a senior lecturer at RMIT and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. His research is united by its focus on visual communication. A majority of T.J.’s research centres on the visual aspects of news and journalism and on the concerns and processes relevant to those who make, edit, and present visual news. He has broader interests in digital media, journalism studies, and visual culture and often focuses on under-represented identities, attributes, and environments in his research. T.J. is committed to not only studying visual communication phenomena but also working to increase the visibility, innovation, and quality of how research findings are presented, accessed, and understood. T.J. is actively involved nationally and internationally in a number of Associations and initiatives that contribute to the interdisciplinary visual communication field. These include serving on the editorial board of the journal Visual Communication Quarterly and acting as one of its associate editors (from 2017—present), serving on the editorial board of Communication Research and Practice, and serving as an officer in a number of national and international journalism and communication associations, including the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia, the National Communication Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the International Communication Association.
📬 email: t.j.thomson@rmit.edu.au
Yiting Wang
Secretary (2026-28)
Yiting Wang (PhD in Communication and Information Sciences, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa) is a digital media researcher focusing on understanding how people perform, engage, and connect in online spaces. The key focus of her research is screen-based media and multimodal forms of communication. She does research across disciplines that bridge visual communication, performance studies, and human-computer interaction. She earned her PhD in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Prior to her STEM education, she received her communication degrees from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing and now teaches visual communication at Simmons University in Boston.
📬 email: yiting.wang@simmons.edu
Dren Gërguri
International Liaison (2026-28)
Dren Gërguri (PhD in Science of Communication and Journalism, at the University of Pristina) is a professor at the Department of Journalism, University of Prishtina in Kosovo, a Fulbright scholar and a former TV journalist. His research agenda is at the intersection of disinformation, journalism, and political communication. For a decade, he was part of a national broadcaster in Kosovo, Kohavision (KTV), while after a break, he worked at the Paper Radio as editor-in-chief and he had his podcast, “Log me Dren Gërgurin”, to return to the TV again with the show “EduMedia”, in the period June-July 2022, again in KTV. He collaborates with the European Journalism Observatory (EJO) and HiveMind. He serves as the associate editor at the Central European Journal of Communication. Gërguri has also lectured at various European Universities, including San Pablo University of Madrid in Spain, Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, Wroclaw University in Poland, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, Ataturk University in Turkey, etc. He has been a guest lecturer at Universities in the United States too, including University of Houston, Iowa State University, Drake University, etc. His research agenda is at the intersection of disinformation, political communication, journalism, and AI.
📬 email: dren.gerguri@uni-pr.edu
Fabienne Bünzli
Student and Early Career Representative
(2026-28)
Fabienne Bünzli (PhD, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St. Gallen and an affiliated research fellow at the Institute for Data Science (Computer Vision) at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland). Her research focuses on strategic communication and persuasion, with a particular emphasis on visual and multimodal message effects. Her work has been published in leading journals and outlets, including Nature Portfolio (Communications Sustainability), Harvard Business Review, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Communication Research, Communication Theory, Mass Communication and Society, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Her academic research is complemented by several years of professional experience in strategic communication, public relations, political campaigning, and media analysis.
📬 email: fabienne.buenzli@unisg.ch
ICA Visual Communication Studies 