By Jordan Stenger |Staff writer 
Augusta University’s Communication Department has welcomed three new professors this semester.The three professors, Anjana Mudambi, Luis Rocha Antunes and Dylan Wilson will be replacing former professors Rick Kenney, Rick Pukis, and Todd Bennett.Assistant Professor Mudambi has been a professor for five years and previously taught at Randolph Macon College outside of Richmond, Virginia and Curry College outside of Boston, Mass. She received her Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico and her primary focus is intercultural communication.Her goal for teaching at Augusta University is to challenge her students.“I want to challenge them to think in ways they are not used to thinking about, challenge them to see the world a little bit differently,” she said.
Antunes received a dual Ph.D. just a year and a half ago from the University of Kent in England along with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Despite this being his first full time position as a professor he has a diverse teaching background from his experiences in non-profit, high school, and part time lecturing while working on his Ph.D.His focus is in film studies and video production and wants his students to learn both the technical and creative sides of video.“I want to open their horizons to the potential of using the same footage to create different meanings,” Antunes said.
For Wilson, this is his first job as a professor. His background as a photojournalist has been mostly professional.“I started off working at smaller newspapers, such as the Macon Telegraph and then a chain of weeklies in Baltimore, and I ultimately spent three years at the New York Post in Manhattan,” he said.Leaving Manhattan behind, he moved to Savannah to be a freelance photographer where he received his MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. Wilson also has done freelance work for the New York Times and other East Coast newspapers.The photojournalism professor ultimately wants his students to walk out of class and remember that journalism is important for our democracy.“As a journalist you get to be on the frontlines of history, you get to be there when important people make important decisions,” he said.