Regional Association News
Central States Communication Association
CSCA congratulates Tiffany Wang of University of Montevallo on being selected as incoming Executive Director. She will officially transition into this role in July 2020.
Tiffany Wang
During the CSCA Conference in Omaha, Scott Myers of West Virginia University was inducted into the CSCA Hall of Fame. CSCA congratulates him on this special recognition.
Scott Myers
Eastern Communication Association
More than 650 people attended the Eastern Communication Association’s 110th annual convention, held April 10-14 in Providence, Rhode Island. ECA First Vice President Katherine Thweatt (SUNY-Oswego) planned the convention with the theme, “Creating Our Future.” Among the 252 programmed events were community-focused panels, a Basic Course conference, and the annual James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond Undergraduate Scholars Conference. Special initiatives included a trip to cheer on the local minor league baseball team, the Pawsox, and a university t-shirt raffle for those who donated to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
ECA congratulates all those who received awards at the convention:
- Everett Lee Hunt Book Award: Michele Kennerly (Penn State) for Editorial Bodies: Perfection and Rejection in Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics (2018, University of South Carolina Press)
- Donald H. Ecroyd & Caroline Drummond Ecroyd Teaching Excellence Award: Timothy Barney (University of Richmond) and Nancy Willetts (Cape Cod Community College)
- Article of the Year Award: Ryan Neville-Shepard (University of Arkansas) for “Containment Rhetoric and the Redefinition of Third Parties in the Equal Time Debates of 1959” (2018, Communication Quarterly, 66)
- Distinguished Service Award: Ronald C. Arnett (Duquesne University)
- Research Fellows: Timothy J. Brown (Queens University of Charlotte) and Lance Strate (Fordham University)
- Teaching Fellows: Timothy J. Brown (Queens University of Charlotte), Thom Gencarelli (Manhattan College) Leanne Bell McManus (Stevenson University), Star Muir (George Mason University), and Rich West (Emerson College)
- Centennial Scholarship: Trevor Kauer, M.A. candidate at Texas State University
- Urban Communication Foundation Grant: Rebecca Townsend (University of Hartford) and Anna Pryzblyska (University of Warsaw)
- Richard E. Vatz Agenda-Spin Persuasion Award: D. L. Stephenson (Western Connecticut State University)
ECA extends special congratulations and appreciation to Dr. Thweatt and her planning team for a very successful 110th!
Southern States Communication Association
The Southern States Communication Association held its 89th Annual Convention April 3-7 in Montgomery, Alabama. The theme for the convention was “Conflict and Crisis at the Crossroads of Change,” which allowed participants to delve into the history of the town known as both the cradle of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. More than 50 panels focused on the theme and included representatives from the Equal Justice Initiative and the Tuskegee Institute, as well as a discussion about Selma. Hank Klibanoff, author of the Buried Truths podcasts and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Race Beat, served as keynote speaker, discussing his work with students to unearth Civil Rights Cold Cases. Divisions and interest groups also visited local sites and built in discussions about those experiences as part of their conference panels.
NCA President Star Muir provided the keynote address at the 29th Annual Theodore Clevenger, Jr. Undergraduate Honors Conference. This year marked the inaugural year for the top Lambda Pi Eta paper submitted by an UHC participant to be recognized at SSCA. The recipient of this honor was Kiley Lord of the University of Alabama, who was also awarded the Shirley Franklin Award for the top UHC paper. The UHC also hosted its first graduate school open house. The SSCA Executive Committee endorsed NCA's Credo for Ethical Communication; Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and Anti-Harassment Policy. The Executive Committee believes such support is important and necessary until ad hoc committees are able to develop SSCA’s own statements addressing those issues.
SSCA 2019 Award Winners
Dwight L. Freshley Outstanding New Teacher Award
Aubrey Huber, University of South Florida
John I. Sisco Excellence in Teaching Award
Bethany Crandell Goodier, College of Charleston
Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award
Lyndsay Michalik Gratch, Syracuse University
T. Earle Johnson-Edwin Paget Distinguished Service Award
Jerold L. Hale, College of Charleston
Michael M. Osborn Teacher-Scholar Award
Myria W. Allen, University of Arkansas
Robert Bostrom Young Scholar Award
Christopher Wernecke, Georgia State University
Rose B. Johnson SCJ Article Award
Kory Floyd, Perry M. Pauley, Colin Hesse, Jen Eden, Alice E. Veksler, and Nathan T. Woo
Franklin Shirley Award
Kiley Lord, University of Alabama
J. Donald Ragsdale Mentor Award
Myria W. Allen, University of Arkansas
Outreach Award
Holley Vaughn, University of North Texas
Minority Recruitment and Retention Award
University of North Texas
Suzanne Osborn Community College Award
Laurie Metcalf, Blinn College
SSCA Announces its 90th Annual Convention Call
“Disruptive Communication: A Discipline without Constraints”
The deadline for all submissions is September 6, 2019. The complete call for papers will be posted in June 2019. For more information, contact Dr. Shawn D. Long, Vice-President and Program Planner, by email at shawn.long@uncc.edu. We look forward to seeing you in Frisco, Texas in 2020!
Western States Communication Association
WSCA 2020 Convention in Denver, Colorado
By Marnel Niles-Goins, WSCA President Elect
The WSCA 2020 Convention will take place February 21-24 in Denver, Colorado. I am excited to share with you the Convention theme I have selected: “Communication, Agitation, and Justice.” Human communication plays a critical role in our understanding of and participation in social life.
Communication has the power to agitate and justify, changing norms and destabilizing what we view as unacceptable or acceptable societal constructs. As pleas for inclusion and justice increase, so do calls for and against continued agitation. This conference theme invites us to consider the communicative process(es) of agitation, as well as the communication of and response to agitators.
Justice is an important goal for agitators. While Communication scholars have contrasting definitions of justice, the conference theme invites further examination of how we analyze and prioritize justice within the discipline, and who benefits from it. The theme of “Communication, Agitation, and Justice” raises questions about when agitation is productive or counter-productive, and if and how it can lead to a more just society.
To submit to the 2020 convention, please visit westcomm dot org!