Jonathan Guajardo, M.A.
I am a Full-Time Lecturer at the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station, Texas. I help run the New Media Lab within the Department as well as teach a variety of new and traditional media courses focusing on everything from new media, social media, media production, media theory, as well as basic public speaking and academic writing skills.
I graduated with my Bachelor’s and Master's Degrees in Communication Arts from the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), where I served as the Student Body President for three years and was able to experience first-hand how a university is run from the top down as a member of the Board of Trustees and Alumni Board for three years. This experience, coupled with my work in the Convergent Media lab at UIW, inspired me to do my Master’s capstone research project focused on Black Mountain College and its effect on subsequent experimental pedagogical endeavors.
Aside from my teaching course load at Texas A&M, I also have an interest in curriculum development and have developed a curriculum course called COMM 377: Entrepreneurship and New Media and a minor in New Media Production (currently awaiting administrative approval at TAMU). One of my chief goals as an educator, is to ensure not only that my students are adequately prepared to work in the current media landscape, but also that they can creatively envision what the future of new media might look like 10, 20, or even 50 years from now. This idea of “futuring” is imperative because today’s college students will be the ones shaping the future of emerging technologies and should have the capacity to be able to recognize gaps in the market and ideate ways to fill these niches.
My other academic interests center around the study of emerging social media platforms, alternative pedagogical theories, and the future of higher education in the digital age. I conduct research in these areas both in my capacity as a faculty member at Texas A&M, but also as a current doctoral student at Texas Tech University in the Department of Education, where I am pursuing my Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration.
Outside of academia, I am also a San Antonio, Texas based new media entrepreneur with experience in all aspects of videography, photography, live-broadcasting setups, 360-degree video, content design and social media marketing. Having produced both corporate and creative multimedia projects for the past fourteen years, I have gained a reputation as a reliable and creative producer in the San Antonio area.