NCA Inside & Out

CSCA

Registration is now open for #CSCA2020, to be held April 14-19 in Chicago! 

Register before March 13 to take advantage of the special "Early Bird" rate. We encourage everyone to register early so that we can properly plan. Remember, those who do not register online before the convention will pay an additional on-site fee with their registration, as well as the regular conference rate.

Once again, we were able to reduce the undergraduate student rate by 50 percent and the graduate student rate by 16 percent this year! These rates will increase after March 13.

If you have not renewed your membership for 2020, you can easily do that when you register for the convention. Remember that we have several new interest groups, so take a close look at that section when renewing to make sure you are in the units that best represent you.

When you register, you will also be asked to indicate which events you wish to attend. This year we have an opening ceremony (Thursday) so that everyone can meet and chat, and a Saturday night President's reception.

You can also register for a hotel room at the Chicago O’Hare Loews here. This hotel provides a free shuttle to/from O’Hare.

SSCA

The 90th Annual Southern States Communication Association conference is scheduled for April 1-5, 2020, in Frisco, Texas.  The theme of the conference is “Disruptive Communication: A Discipline without Constraints.” 

Brenda J. Allen, Professor Emerita, University of Colorado, Denver, will provide the association’s keynote address, on Saturday, April 4, 2020, during the annual Business luncheon. 

There are four Vice-President Spotlight Panels scheduled throughout the conference:  

Disrupting Death: Grievability, Indifference, and Transgressive Deaths

Chair and Organizer: Christine Salkin Davis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Panelists: 

• Christine Salkin Davis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Christopher N. Poulos, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
• Jonathan L. Crane, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Cara Mackie, Florida Southern College

Disrupting Sports

Chair and Organizer: Daniel Grano, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Panelists:

• Meredith Bagley, University of Alabama
• Michael Butterworth, The University of Texas at Austin
• Ashley Garcia, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• Abraham Khan, Pennsylvania State University
• Artis Twyman, Senior Director, Communications, Los Angeles Rams, National Football League

Disrupting Beliefs and Faiths: The Role of Race in Religious Communication

Chair and Organizer: Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis

Panelists:

• Courtney N. Wright, University of Tennessee
• Sam Perry, Baylor University
• Jon Camp, Abilene Christian University
• Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis
• Annette Madlock Gatison, Independent Scholar
• Tina Harris, Louisiana State University 
• Rev. Michael Waters, Senior Pastor, Joy Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, Dallas, Texas

Disrupting Disruptive Pedagogy: De-Centering the Pedagogy of Communication Whiteness

Chair: Ashley Hall, Illinois State University

Panelists: 

• Eletra Gilchrist-Petty, University of Alabama in Huntsville
• Tina Harris, Louisiana State University
• Lionnell Smith, The University of Memphis
• Carolyn Webber, University of South Carolina Upstate
• Courtney Wright, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

WSCA

First Annual "Business" Clothing Swap and Discussion Event

By Benny LeMaster, Christina G. Yoshimura, and Jenna Hanchey

Both those newer to WSCA and those who have been with us for a while might have seen our standing guide posted on the Association website to assist in identifying conference norms and typical conference processes. For many years, this has been published on our site in the hopes that it might be useful to first-time and newer conference attendees. However, this guide is meant to be a helpful means of reducing uncertainty and is not intended to be restrictive or prescriptive.  

We recognize that we make suggestions or suppositions that do not fit all association members, and we urge you to use our posted information as suggestions, not as rules.  Particularly, we would like to recognize that we suggest business or business-casual attire for the convention.  Yet, we also understand that this suggestion is imbued with significant sociohistorical norms for “business” attire, including racist, sexist, sizeist and economic assumptions regarding what bodies and what clothing combinations have historically signified “business.”  

At the WSCA convention, our primary interest is in your ideas, whether they emerge from your formal presentations or through your other forms of participation in panels, preconferences, or other events.  We want to emphasize that our regional convention tends to be more casual than international or even national conventions, and that WSCA in particular has long emphasized substance over style.

This year, we would like to open conversations especially focused on convention attire in two ways.  We will be offering a panel on Friday, February 21, 3:45-5:00 p.m. in the Mt. Colombia room of the convention hotel.  We welcome formal and informal conversations regarding public presentation, assumptions, resistance, and choice.  We will simultaneously facilitate a clothing swap during this time for individuals who might like to let go of “business” attire that no longer serves them, and also for those who would like to peruse new options from donated attire that might serve them for our convention and for other professional endeavors.

This panel occurs purposefully at the start of the convention, so that attendees might use their newfound freedom or newfound clothing to kick off their convention.  This event runs concurrent with the grad open house, and we hope people will feel comfortable dropping in to both events throughout the 75-minute block.  Throughout the day on Friday, February 21, any individual may donate clothing items at registration check-in (regardless of their participation in the panel or swap).  If individuals would like to donate clothing but do not anticipate being at the convention at kick-off, they are welcome to mail their clothing in advance to the Grand Hyatt Denver, C/O Christina Yoshimura, 1750 Welton St., Denver CO, 80202.  Any unclaimed clothing will be donated to a not-for-profit in Denver.