ANDREW ISHAK

Film Screenings

Shots in the Dark (2021)

A group of friends leave a fun legacy at their alma mater by creating a not-so-secret, only-at-night disc golf course on campus that is still being played by students and alumni almost two decades later (documentary, 9 min).

    • San Jose International Short Film Festival, 2021, San Jose, CA
    • Independent-Star Filmfest Munich, 2021, Munich, Germany
    • Dalmatia Film Festival, 2021, Split, Croatia
    • SacFilmChallenge, 2021, Sacramento, CA
    • The Cut Film Series, 2021, Canton, OH
    • Marina del Rey Film Festival, 2021, Los Angeles, CA
    • The North Film Festival, 2022, Stockholm, Sweden
    • Austin Lift-Off Film Festival 2021, Austin, TX
    • Sunset Film Festival 2021, Los Angeles, CA
    • Bay Area Short Films Festival (BASH) 2021, San Francisco, CA
    • Washburn International Film Institute (WIFI) Film Festival 2021, Topeka, KS

Making Your Zoom Look More Professorial (2020)

This video provides a response to a recent article aimed at college instructors that said that students “need to see someone professorial” when they log in to their online classes this fall. It has amassed over 200,000 views on Vimeo (humor, 5 min).

 

    • National Communication Association Meeting 2021, Theatre, Film, and New Multi-Media Division, Seattle, WA

 

Remembering Hamilton: The Welcoming City (2019)

On the eve of an important address to be delivered by my father, this documentary chronicles a visit to the city that gave my family its start in North America (documentary, 6 min).

    • National Communication Association Meeting 2019, Theatre, Film, and New Multi-Media Division, Baltimore, MD (Best Film)

Support Dogs (2018)

Two well-intentioned professors engage in an arms race to see who can have the most effective support animal of all (humor, 6 min).

    • Bech Test Film Fest 2021, Scotland

Survivor (2018)

Everybody has something to overcome, including the main character of this short film, who has to overcome his “against the odds” complex (humor, 4 min).

    • Bristol International Short Film Festival 2021, Bristol, UK

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ANDREW ISHAK

Research and Teaching

I am on faculty in the Communication Department at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. I also serve as the Director of Core Curriculum for undergraduate education.

Research

My research has been focused on communication of teams and organizations that work in high-pressure situations, such as tactical police units, fire crews, and sports teams. Some of my recent research with Elizabeth Williams at Colorado State is aimed at understanding organizational training for lifesaving critical teams (e.g., wildland fire crews, SWAT teams).

I also study communication in sports teams. Here’s a recent review of sports team communication literature in Communication Research Trends. And along with Barry Brummett at University of Texas, I co-edited Sports and Identity: News Agendas in Communication, published by Routledge.

I also love to think about chronemics, which is the study of time and communication. My first publication, co-authored with Dawna Ballard at the University of Texas, looks at the relationship between high-pressure teams and time.

Teaching

The classes I teach at Santa Clara University mirror my focus on high-pressure communication, teams, sports, and time.

I coordinate the public speaking program in the Communication Department at SCU. I also teach Communication and Sport, Qualitative Research Methods, and senior thesis courses on Team Communication and Time and Communication (Chronemics).