My name is Gilbert D. Martinez, a senior lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University in San Marcos. I’m also the Academic Program Director for this inaugural Faculty-led Study Abroad Program to Tokyo and Kyoto in June 2019. I’m fortunate to have Program Assistant and MILab Assistant Director Jon Zmikly join me on this program, along with 13 journalism and mass communication students.
I’m excited for this opportunity to teach Travel Journalism and Feature Writing for this program. Last summer, I spent five weeks in Japan, including a month last summer in Nagoya with Dr. Mayumi Moriuchi’s Study Abroad Program, learning Japanese. My mother was from Okinawa, Japan, and met my father, a native of the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, when he was stationed on Okinawa.
This is my first Faculty-led Study Abroad program. I’ve taught at Texas State since 2003 and served as assistant director in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication for seven years. I’m also a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law in New York, and a former newspaper reporter at The Jersey Journal in Jersey City, N.J.
My spouse, Raeanne R. Martinez, is a former copy editor at the Austin American-Statesman and currently works as a legal editor with the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency. She will be joining us on this, her second trip to Japan. We live in Austin with our sweet and crazy cat, Pepper.
