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FACULTY PROFILE: Dr. Fong

FACULTY PROFILE: Dr. Fong

Dr. Mary Fong is a powerful positive influence in the Department of Communication Studies. Among the first Asian American Female faculty hired on our campus, her expertise has significantly influenced the field of study of Communication as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Last year, she keynoted a campuswide “Topics on Diversity” talk, “Understanding the Chinese Way of Communicating” where she shared academic and personal insights into cultural and social communication. Having published her first memoir in 2019, Two Heart Nuts to Crack! as part of her trilogy: A Magnificent Mess, she has also co-edited and co-authored a textbook, Communicating Ethnic and Cultural Identity. Her journal articles are published in the Howard Journal of Communication, Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Communication Studies, Intercultural Communication: A Reader, Our Voices, Intercultural Encounters, China Media Research, New Directions In Teaching and Learning, and others. Her teaching and research interests are in Cultural and Intercultural Communication, Ethnography of Communication, Instructional Communication, Language and Social Interaction, and Spiritual Communication with research interests studying the cultural and intercultural communication patterns of African Americans, North Americans, and primarily the Chinese (from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and U.S.).

Dr. Fong is recognized for her three research presentations on Top Paper panels in the Language and Social Interaction Division and the Intercultural and International Division at the National Communication Association (NCA) and Western States Communication Association (WSCA) conventions. She is the former Chair for the Spiritual Communication Division of NCA in 2016. She is the former chair of the Asian Pacific American Communication Division (APAC) affiliated with NCA and also has chaired the APAC Caucus of NCA. In addition, she is the Past President of the Association for Chinese Communication Studies of NCA. At CSUSB, she has served as Ethnic Studies Coordinator (2003-06) and Teaching Associate Coordinator (2002-07). She has been a recipient of the University Diversity award and the university-wide Outstanding Adviser award.

Some of the classes she is teaching in the 2020/2021 academic year include 1002 Communicating Compassion and Love, a general education first year experience course that she created, 2201 Intercultural Communication and 5267 Advanced Topics in Relational and Organizational Communication.