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“The political transition in South Africa led me to critiquing how powerful organizations and people use public relations to promote their own agenda and to strengthen their own power,” she says. “That critique led me to learning how power in Western society works, which eventually led me to a postmodern approach.” Today, Holtzhausen is one of the foremost experts on postmodern public relations, a fairly new
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SU professor Derina R. Holtzhausen knows the field of public relations is often seen as frivolous. And why not? People in the profession polish the public’s perception of fat-cat corporate executives (think of Enron’s Kenneth Lay), rehab the images of hardpartying celebrities (Charlie Sheen) and spin the truth for politicians everywhere (pick one).
Holtzhausen celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication with students and faculty from the School of Media and Strategic Communications.
But Holtzhausen, director of the Oklahoma State University School of Media and Strategic Communications, argues that PR is a meaningful profession. As a native Afrikaner, she saw the role it played during apartheid in South Africa.
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research field in academia. International business communications expert David McKie, a professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, calls Holtzhausen the major writer on postmodern public relations internationally.
“Dr. Holtzhausen has established a solid body of work in top journals and produced the first fulllength book study on the field, which is highly rated around the world,” he says. Rebuilding a country Holtzhausen didn’t start out in PR — or even studying it. In 1971, she earned bachelor’s degrees in Afrikaans Dutch Literature, German and psychology from the University of Pretoria, one of the largest universities in South Africa. She followed a creative path after graduation, helping specialneeds teens, working as a journalist and managing PR for a small ad firm. In 1976, she and her husband, Paul, opened Holtzhausen Publicity and Advertising in Johannesburg, handling accounts for banks, insurance companies and savings and loans. Holtzhausen also honed her PR skills and continued her education, earning a master’s in Afrikaans literature in 1990 and a doctorate in communication science in 1995. In 1992, she was hired as head of corporate communications for the South African Tourism Board, one year after apartheid ended. Holtzhausen’s job was to help rebuild South Africa’s global image. “PR practitioners became the bridge-
builders between grassroots movements and the powerful organizations they worked for,” she says. “I had a critical role during this transition. This role shaped my interest in postmodern PR as a form of activism.” Starting over While in South Africa, she had met University of Maryland Professors James and Larissa Grunig, a husband-and-wife team of world-renowned public relations academics. During her doctoral research, Holtzhausen received a $5,000 grant from the South African Human Sciences Research Council and traveled to College Park, Md. The two were impressed with Holzhausen’s work, encouraging her to teach in the U.S. “They saw something in me and it opened the way for my career,” she says. The pair kept her apprised about job openings, which led to Holtzhausen’s finding a faculty opening at the University of South Florida’s School of Mass Communications. In 1997, Holtzhausen accepted a job as an assistant professor at USF in Tampa. The timing was perfect for her family’s move to the U.S. Her husband, Paul, found a magazine job in Florida, and their son, who had just graduated high school, was preparing to study film-making in America.