UM professor Todd Sandel receives Outstanding Book Award from US National Communication Association

Todd Sandel, an associate professor from the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau (UM), received the 2016 Outstanding Book Award from the International & Intercultural Division at the 102^nd Annual Convention of the National Communication Association of the United States held in Philadelphia, for his new book, Brides on Sale: Taiwanese Cross-Border Marriages in a Globalizing Asia.

Prof Sandel’s book is based upon field research conducted in Taiwan and Indonesia. The book explores the cultural, linguistic, and mediated conditions that impact ‘foreign spouse’ marriages in Taiwan. This book argues that the rise of foreign spouse marriages is a gendered and relational phenomenon, linked to the forces of globalisation. Traditional ideas such as the belief that a woman ‘marries out’ of her natal family to be dependent upon her husband and family, and the idea that a man should ‘marry down’ to a woman of a lesser social and economic status, have not kept pace with changes in women’s educational and career opportunities. This book explores how these relationships are formed, how they impact gendered understandings of men and women, how families are constituted and relationships are developed, and how they affect the children of these families and their education.

The book breaks new ground in the understanding of transnational and cross-border marriages by looking at the long-term effects of such marriages on communities, families, and individuals. Advertisements of ‘brides for sale’ play a negative role in shaping ways women are framed and categorised. The book also finds that the introduction of mobile phones in rural communities has impacted perceptions of these marriages, and contributed to the empowerment of women and their families, and a decline in ‘brokered’ and for-profit, arranged marriages.

Prof Sandel holds a PhD degree in communication from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral thesis was based upon research conducted in Taiwan, and examined childhood language socialisation and cross generational communication within Taiwanese families. He is also currently the editor of The Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, published by the National Communication Association with Taylor & Francis.

The conference was organised by the National Communication Association of the United States, the oldest and largest communication association in the world. Approximately 5,000 scholars from more than 1,000 universities across the world participated in the conference in Philadelphia.