The Institute of Journalism (IJ), a constituent of the University of Media Arts and Communication, has appointed its first female rector, Prof. Christiana Hammond.

According to the school, the appointment of the first female rector of the institute reflects gender parity, academic excellence, and inclusive leadership.

In a Facebook post announcing the appointment, the school wrote, "The Institute of Journalism, a constituent institute of the University of Media, Arts, and Communication, is pleased to announce the appointment of its first-ever female Rector, Prof. Christiana Hammond."

As the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eric Opoku Mensah, noted in his remarks about the appointments, "These appointments also reflect our commitment to gender parity, academic excellence, and inclusive leadership."

The university community wishes her the very best as she embarks on this new journey of transformation and growth.

Professor Hammond has published widely on identity studies, pragmatics, and intercultural communication, including studies on politeness, metadiscourse, genre analysis, online dating, onomastics, cyberbullying and hate speech, and cultural shock and navigation processes, among others. She has served as a plenary speaker and has presented scholarly papers at local and international conferences.

Her academic publications include book chapters and chapters in edited volumes. Her publications can be accessed from these academic networks: ORCID, ResearchGate, SAGE, and Academia.com, among others. She is also a gender advocate and a public speaker.

Her doctoral thesis focused on how speakers of certain Ghanaian languages construct their identities in a multicultural higher education institution (HEI) in Ghana. The study discovered that speakers of the selected Ghanaian languages construct two types of identities: public and private.

Both strands are constructed through identification processes such as proximity to a specific culture, massive local presence, hegemonic outlook, de-ethnicization, identity negotiation, and self-branding in virtual spaces, among others.