NCA Inside & Out

The March and April episodes of Communication Matters: The NCA Podcast addressed a variety of interesting Communication topics. The March 19 podcast episode featured Charles E. Morris III, Chair of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University and an Affiliated Professor of LGBT Studies at Syracuse. Morris, the new Chair of NCA’s Research Council, discussed research in Communication and some of the Research Council’s goals for 2020.

In a March 24 bonus episode of Communication Matters, Wayne State University Professor Matthew Seeger, an expert in crisis communication, and University of Colorado, Boulder, Professor Jennifer Ho, who is President-Elect of the Association for Asian American Studies, addressed best practices in crisis communication, how the government’s communication about COVID-19 could improve, and xenophobic stereotyping associated with responses to the pandemic.

The April 2 episode of Communication Matters featured an interview with John Gastil, Distinguished Professor in Communication Arts & Sciences at Penn State University, and Katherine R. Knobloch, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. Gastil and Knobloch discussed their recently released book, Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back into Politics. Their book tells the story of the Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review, in which a random sample of citizens evaluates ballot measures, then the group compiles a guide that is distributed to every registered voter.

The April 16 episode of Communication Matters featured an interview with Thomas K. Nakayama, Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. Nakayama was named an NCA Distinguished Scholar at the 105th NCA Annual Convention last November. In the episode, Nakayama discusses research on whiteness and international and intercultural communication.

New episodes of Communication Matters are released every other Thursday. Upcoming episodes of Communication Matters will feature a variety of interesting guests, including:

• May 14: Joy Connolly, President of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), will speak about ACLS and some recent ACLS initiatives centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. ACLS is a nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations, including NCA, that aims to advance humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and maintain and strengthen relations among the national societies devoted to such studies.
• May 28: Robert Townsend, Director of the Humanities Indicators Project and Director of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Washington Office, will address the results of the Humanities Indicators Project, including the Humanities Departmental Survey. Tune into this episode for insights about research and teaching in the humanities and in Communication departments, particularly.
• June 11: Megan K. Schraedley, Assistant Professor of Organizational Communication in the Department of Communication and Media at West Chester University, and Marianne LeGreco, Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, will discuss “Food (in)security communication: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum addressing current challenges and future possibilities.” 

You can find Communication Matters by entering “Communication Matters” in the search bar of your favorite podcast app. Subscribe and listen today!