Lucia Porcu or Tolga Torun chat at the We Welcome the World reception.
Lucia Porcu or Tolga Torun chat at the We Welcome the World reception.
Neither Lucia Porcu or Tolga Torun had been to Canada before when their planes touched down a month ago. Now, they navigate Brock University like pros.
The visiting PhD candidates – Torun from Bilecik University in Turkey, Porcu from Granada University in Spain – said when they first got to Brock, the campus seemed “complicated” to get around.
“The first day, it seemed so big,” Porcu said.
Now they are among 17 visiting scholars who have become part of the fabric of the university, all honoured at Brock International’s We Welcome the World reception at Pond Inlet on Oct. 25.
Porcu and Torun study marketing communications. Porcu is researching integrated marketing communications, while Torun researches the impact of marketing communications in virtual communities like Facebook and MySpace. Both came to Brock to work with Philip Kitchen, new Dean of Business and recognized expert in the field.
“He’s a very good professor. He’s had a very important impact,” said Torun, who describes Kitchen as “a guru” in marketing communications.
Torun, who will be at Brock until February 2011, calls Canada a “nice place to live.” Porcu, at Brock until December, describes it as quiet compared to bustling southern Europe.
Their visit has been more than just academia. They’ve already toured Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Travel plans before they head home include Toronto, Montreal and New York City.
Brock’s current visiting scholars include professor and graduate students from as far as Pakistan, Egypt, China, Iran and Columbia. Among them are:
- Jurgen Kramer, a professor from the University of Dortmund in Germany teaching courses in Joseph Conrad and Later Victorian Literature
- Salwa Helmy Aly Youssef, a PhD candidate from Beni Suef University in Egypt who is researching human rights education
- Rui Li, a PhD candidate from Central University of Finance and Economics in China who is researching earnings consistency and riskiness related to executive compensation
- Yutae Seo, a graduate student from Myungji University in Korea, who is working with Mathematics professor Thomas Wolf to research the game Go
Russell Lawson, a professor from Bacone College in the U.S., is a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Transnational Studies. He will give his inaugural lecture, “The Messengers,” at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29 in Pond Inlet.
