By Sydney Ball

The University of Louisville is not only fueled by the passion and vigor of incoming students, but also by its new professors.

This year, one of those new professors is Edwin Lee of the Department of Communication. He came to U of L after receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at San Jose State University and getting his doctorate at the University of Alabama.

Lee described San Jose State University as a commuter campus. There, many students had to focus on work while completing their degrees. On the other hand, the University of Alabama had a much more campus-centered culture, with Greek life and an intense support for sports teams.

So far, Lee has found that the U of L is a good mix of the two cultures. With this, he hopes to use his previous experiences to meet the needs of every student.

Lee debuts with two classes

Lee teaches two courses. The first of which is Communication and Statistics, or COMM 255. This course encompasses statistical math skills, which will be relevant to students’ careers in communication or related fields. It also introduces the topic of research methods.

“I hope students will gain knowledge that will help them solve problems that involve statistics without an issue in their daily lives, or build a great foundation that helps them succeed if they need to take advanced classes that require them to use statistics,” said Lee.

Lee also teaches Rhetoric from Greeks to Tweets, or COMM 225. In this course, students learn the history of the art of persuasion. For students taking COMM 225, Lee said that he hopes they “will understand the big picture of rhetoric as a field of study, and get good practice on speaking and writing, which will be helpful to them in other classes, or their daily life.”

He previously served as a graduate teaching assistant and held positions as an adjunct lecturer at other institutions. However, he said that the content of these courses is different from the courses that he has previously taught and the courses that he took as a student.

“I believe my experience this semester is a reflection I’m growing intellectually, and mastering new skills to become a great scholar,” Lee said.

Going for the gold in sports communication initiatives

Besides teaching, Lee has other responsibilities at the U of L. A primary reason for his coming to U of L was to help the Department of Communication develop a sports communication program.

Lee is a critical sports scholar, meaning that he studies a variety of social issues as they appear in sports. His studies also center on rhetoric and memory, which he describes as the “study that investigates how performances, artifacts, buildings, and neighborhoods present how the past affects the present, and how history can be challenged.”

In practice, Lee analyzes activities that happen during sports and sports venues, looking to understand how these elements can present social issues. He gave the example of Olympic ceremonies, in which host cities may deliberately show content that will put them in a favorable light. They may avoid showing a more accurate history of their city.

He also explained how aspects of a sports arena, such as banners, plaques, and historical markers, represent not only members of a sports team, but also their culture and history. Lee mentioned that these aspects can be useful in understanding which people and events are remembered, and which ones are left to be forgotten.

As a scholar who enjoys studying every sport, Lee’s favorite event to study is, naturally, the Olympics. Lee is fascinated by the cultural significance of Olympic venues. Often bunched together, these venues bring a variety of sports and people of different backgrounds into close proximity.

He also delves into dissecting the work of the organizers responsible for the games. Particularly, he looks into what the “host city and International Olympics Committee did to embrace cultural diversity, teach the world about the host city’s culture, but what could be further improved to help people who have been oppressed,” said Lee.

“I am honored to be a member of UofL! Go Cards!”

Photo by Sydney Ball / The Louisville Cardinal