Faculty Experts

Nicole Watts

Professor and Chair of Political Science

Office Phone: (415) 405-2470

Email: nfwatts@sfsu.edu

Nicole Watts is an expert in ethnopolitical and national movements; state-society relations; protest and dissent; and Kurdish politics and mobilization, particularly in Iraq and Turkey. She is the author of several books, including "Activists in Office: Kurdish Politics and Protest in Turkey," and the co-editor of "Negotiating Political Power in Turkey: Breaking up the Party." She is currently working on a book on politics and protest in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and has been conducting research there since 2009. Watts is associate editor of the peer-reviewed European Journal of Turkish Studies, and is a former co-director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies program at SF State.

Areas of Expertise:

Kurds and Kurdistan

Kurdish politics in Iraq and Turkey

Highest Degree:

Ph.D., University of Washington

Yumi Wilson

Associate Professor of Journalism

Office Phone: (415) 338-1197

Email: ywilson@sfsu.edu

Yumi Wilson specializes in social media and branding, offering workshops to nonprofit leaders, lawyers, educators, students and others across the country. Among her clients were journalists from Consumer Reports magazine and four major news outlets in China.

Wilson is a former news reporter and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Associated Press, the San Jose Mercury News, the Modesto Bee and the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner. She is also the recipient of the Fulbright grant and prestigious Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship.

Most recently, she worked as a corporate communications manager at Linkedin, where she traveled around the world, teaching hundreds of journalists, executives, and employees how to build their brand on LinkedIn. During her three-year tenure, Yumi devised training sessions in Belgium, Canada, New York, Chicago and many other places. She also specialized in profile optimization for high-profile politicians and celebrities, including Carly Fiorina, Oprah Winfrey, chef Mario Batali and Bravo host Andy Cohen.

Areas of Expertise:

Newspaper ethics

Racial issues

Social media and branding

Highest Degree:

B.A., Print Journalism, University of Southern California

Michelle Wolf

Professor Emerita of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts

Office Phone: (415) 338-1334

Email: mawolf@sfsu.edu

Michelle Wolf teaches courses in the areas of media literacy, electronic media and social issues, pedagogy, and qualitative audience research. Nine threads run through all of her classes and much of her research: body, class, disability, gender, generation, geography, race/ethnicity/whiteness, religion, and sexual orientation. She has been active in media literacy efforts and issues surrounding electronic media representations of disenfranchised groups since the 1970s, and she conducts qualitative research on media literacy, pedagogy, and the range and diversity of mediated images of groups without power. She is currently completing phase two of a 20-year research project on media, body image, and self-conception by focusing her research on bisexual, gay, and heterosexual men, and women with physical disabilities. An award-winning documentary featuring her early body image research was produced in 1999. In fall 2007 Professor Wolf was the first faculty member on the SF State campus to receive the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award.

Areas of Expertise:

Uses and effects of electronic media

Media and identity construction/self conception

Highest Degree:

Ph.D., Mass Communication Theory, University of Texas, Austin