Peter Oehlkers


Professional Details

Title Associate Professor
Department Media and Communication
Office Classroom Building 134
Phone 978.542.7086
Email peter.oehlkers@salemstate.edu
Photo of Peter Oehlkers

Recent and Upcoming Courses

MCO 222 How Advertising Works
MCO 250 Engaging Your Audiences
MCO 316 Communications in the Global Village
MCO 333 U.s. Media History
MCO 421 Copywriting for for Digital Advocacy
MCO 500 Directed Study in Media & Communications
MCO 506 Independent Research in Media Studies

Professional Biography

B.A., Writing Seminars, The Johns Hopkins University (1986)

M.A./Ph.D, Communication Studies, Northwestern University (1996)

Assistant Professor, Emerson College (1997-2002)

Assistant Professor, Salem State College (2002-2007)

Associate Professor, Salem State College (2007- )

Professional Interests

History of bird protection and print media

Internatural communication, environmental listening

Intercultural communication and popular culture

Responsibilities

Teach advertising, social media, global communication, social marketing, media history. 

Selected Publications

Oehlkers, P.W. & A.I. Oehlkers (2021). Ada Clapham Govan and “Birds I Know”: Ecological Intimacy in a Mass-Mediated Sisterhood, in V. Fletcher and A. Dare (eds.), Communicating (in) the Anthropocene: Intimate Relations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2020). “Birds I Know,” the Boston Globe’s Bird Column, 1932-1966. Bird Observer, 48(5).

Oehlkers, P.W. (2017). Bird Sermons: Thomas Green Fessenden and the New England Farmer (1822-1846). Bird Observer, 45(4), 247-252.

Cho, H., P. Oehlkers, J. Mandelbaum, K. Edlund, and M. Zurek. (2004). The Healthy Talk Family Planning Campaign of Massachusetts: A communication-centred approach. Health Education 104 (5), p. 314-325.

Oehlkers, P. W. (2000). Mediating news: The "international media echo" and symbolic international relations, in A. Malek & A.P. Kavoori (eds.), The global dynamics of news: Studies in international news coverage and news agendas. Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, p. 31-53.

Selected Presentations

Oehlkers, P.W. (2023). BYRDSXNG with House Sparrows: The Birdsong Project and the tuning of bird/human community. Conference on Communication and Environment. Harrisonburg, VA.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2023). Listening to birds as they listen: Eavesdropping on Baltimore orioles in one place over time. World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. New Smyrna, FL.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2021). Touching Birds: Images of the tame-wild in the early Audubon movement. Conference on Communication and Environment, Online everywhere.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2018). Rhetorical Orioles. Symposium on Sound, Rhetoric, and Writing. Nashville, TN.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2017). “Spare the Birds” Stories and Bird-Friendly Editors (1819- 1855). Conference on Communication and Environment, Leicester, England.

Oehlkers, P.W. (2015) Marketing Thornton Burgess. Conference on Communication and Environment, Boulder, CO.

Personal Interests

Vice Chair, Needham Conservation Commission

Production Editor, Bird Observer 

Blog projects include: Thornton W. Burgess Research League (http://twbresearchleague.blogspot.com); Wingéd Wardens (wingedwardens.blogspot.com); Japanrockology (japanrockology.wordpress.com); Harrison Cady cartoon archive (harrisoncady.tumblr.com).

Self-published volumes, including 1999 "Pokemon Case Study" and  "A Bird-walk through Macunaíma" on archive.org @profoehlkers.