Regional Association News
ECA
ECA Elects Next Vice President and 2021 Convention Planner
The Eastern Communication Association (ECA) is pleased to congratulate Amanda McKendree of Notre Dame University for her recent election as ECA Vice President Elect-Select. Dr. McKendree will officially join the Association’s Executive Council at the annual convention in Providence, RI, in April 2019, where she will begin planning for the 2021 convention in Cambridge, MA.
A member of ECA for well over a decade, McKendree has served as the chair for both the Philosophy of Communication and Communication Administration interest groups. She has also reviewed submissions for the Undergraduate Scholars Conference and served more generally as a reviewer, panel chair, and respondent. McKendree is a member of NCA’s Nominating Committee and Legislative Assembly, and has served as chair and conference planner for the NCA Communication Ethics division.
Currently, McKendree is also the President of the Pennsylvania Communication Association, which recently recognized her with the Carroll Arnold Distinguished Service Award. At Notre Dame, she is an Associate Teaching Professor of Management and the Director of the Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication in the Mendoza College of Business. Her teaching and research interests include business communication pedagogy, strategic communication, and crisis communication.
When not serving her students and the discipline, McKendree dedicates her time to Strikeout PSP, an awareness and fundraising initiative for progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease. Based in southwestern Pennsylvania, Strikeout PSP was founded by McKendree in 2017.
SSCA
Theodore Clevinger Undergraduate Honors Conference
By Pamela G. Bourland-Davis
A cornerstone for the Southern States Communication Association has been the Theodore Clevinger Undergraduate Honors Conference (UHC). Former presenters have indicated that the experience was helpful in many ways, including in their job interviews.
The 2018 UHC in Nashville attracted 134 papers and project submissions, with 89 accepted. Student presenters represented 39 different schools, and 13 different states.
The Clevinger conference has been around long enough for at least four former participants to serve as reviewers for 2018. We are now collecting the names of former UHCers who have gone on to graduate school, and who are willing to be part of UHC Alumni to help review, chair, and respond to future sessions.
Following the last conference, we conducted a survey of the participants, resulting in a 39 percent response rate. We found that participants were very satisfied with the UHC experience. Of course, we also found some areas for improvement, including finding some additional time for participants to meet with graduate school sponsors.
Shawn Long will be leading the Clevinger UHC in 2019. The deadline for student papers and projects is December 10. The full call is available at SSCA.net below the general call for papers.
Southern Communication Journal
By Jennifer A. Samp
Editor: Jennifer A. Samp, University of Georgia (jasamp@uga.edu)
Book Review Editor: Mary Beth Asbury, Middle Tennessee State University (MaryBeth.Asbury@mtsu.edu)
Southern Communication Journal (SCJ: Print ISSN: 1041-794X Online ISSN: 1930-3203) is the nationally and internationally read scholarly publication of the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA). Southern Communication Journal publishes original scholarship that makes significant contributions to understanding the processes and consequences of human communication. The journal is not limited with regard to topic, methodological approach, or theoretical perspective, although authors must establish the significance of the research, soundness of methodological choices, and appropriateness of theoretical perspectives. We seek to publish articles and book reviews that will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and practitioners of communication. Authors should submit their work electronically to the Manuscript Central website for SCJ at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rsjc.
In 2017 and 2018 SCJ has published important work spanning rhetorical, interpersonal, health, media, and political perspectives. Highlights include:
Karyn Sporer & Paige W. Toller (2017). “Family Identity Disrupted by Mental Illness and Violence: An Application of Relational Dialectics Theory,” Southern Communication Journal, 82:2, 85-101, DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2017.1302503 (The Rose B. Johnson Award Recipient for the best article published in SCJ during 2017).
Andrea L. Meluch (2018). “Spiritual Support Experienced at a Cancer Wellness Center,” Southern Communication Journal, 83:3, 137-148, DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2018.1459817
Pavica Sheldon & Mary Grace Antony (2018). “Sharing Emergency Alerts on a College Campus: How Gender and Technology Matter,” Southern Communication Journal, 83:3, 167-178, DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2018.1437467
Nicole Tara Allen (2018). “Publicizing Pussy Riot: Translating (Inter) (Trans)National Memories on the Global Memoryscape,” Southern Communication Journal, 83:3, 192-203, DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2018.1441897
Lisa M. Corrigan (2018). “The (Re)segregation Crisis Continues: Little Rock Central High at Sixty,” Southern Communication Journal, 83:2, 65-74, DOI: 10.1080/1041794X.2017.1423513
Upcoming Issues:
A Special Issue on Racial Microaggressions, edited by Tina M. Harris (University of Georgia) and Kimberly Moffitt (University of Maryland, Baltimore County). To be published in December 2018.
A Special Issue on “(Un)coupling,” Edited by Lindsey S. Aloia, University of Arkansas. Submissions are due this December. Read the call below:
(UN)COUPLING: The initiation, maintenance, and dissolution of romantic relationships
Communication is central to the evolution of romantic relationships. More specifically, communication both defines and reflects romantic bonds. This special issue will highlight communication scholarship focused on both relational outcomes of communication episodes (e.g., negative reciprocity in distressed couples), as well as the effects of relationship stage on communication processes (e.g., relational scripts for cohabiting unions). Theoretical advancement, measurement development, qualitative methodology, and quantitative research investigating communication in romantic relationships are encouraged.
Topics include, but are not limited to, mate selection; physical and social contexts that constrain relationship development; building intimacy through reciprocal disclosure; managing relationship uncertainty; expectancy violations; relationship trajectories and turning points; experience and expression of relational closeness; explanatory and evaluative knowledge structures; sexual communication; strategic and routine maintenance behaviors; demand-withdraw behavioral sequences; relational transgressions; relationship repair and reconciliation; and relationship disengagement and termination.
Completed manuscripts should follow the “instructions for authors” guidelines available on the Southern Communication Journal’s webpage: www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsjc20. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rsjc by December 1, 2018.
For further information, please contact the guest editor:
Lindsey S. Aloia
University of Arkansas
Department of Communication
aloia@uark.edu
WSCA
2019 WSCA Seattle Convention Preconference Sessions
President-Elect Rodney Reynolds has organized an exciting slate of pre-conference workshops. Be sure to plan on arriving early to participate. You can register for pre-conference workshops when you register for the 2019 Convention. All sessions will take place on February 22, 2019. Here is the current list of workshops:
Morning Sessions: 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Advocating for Environmental Stewardship: The Development of a Micro-Credentialing Program
Facilitators: Brent E. Adrian, Central Community College - Nebraska
Assessment Matters: When Saying “I know what I’m doing so just trust me” Isn’t Enough to Help Students Succeed
Facilitators: Audrey Deterding, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Dayle Hardy-Short, Northern Arizona University
Evidencing Interpretation, Theory-building, and Claim-making in Qualitative Inquiry
Facilitator: Sarah J Tracy, Arizona State University
Advocating with Visual Evidence: How to Improve Presentation Slide-Design with the Assertion-Evidence Approach
Facilitators: Peter Nello Miraldi and Lori Miraldi, The Pennsylvania State University
Afternoon Sessions: 1-4 p.m.
Qualitative data analysis: The backstage steps of crafting qualitative evidence
Facilitator: Sarah J Tracy, Arizona State University
Getting it Right: Mindfulness Based Critical Thinking in Advocating with Evidence
Facilitators: George Nagel and Donna A. Smith, Ferris State University
Developing Students into Self-Advocates and Intentional Learners: Responding Confidently to the Question "What are you going to do with that major?"
Facilitators: John McClellan Boise State University; Matthew Sanders, Utah State University
Teachers as Trickster–Advocates: Playful Use of Critical Communication Pedagogy in the Introductory Course
Facilitators: Nicholas A. Zoffel, Sierra College/edoptics; Deanna Fassett, San Jose State University; Keith Nainby, California State University Stanislaus; Raina Chelise, San Jose State University; Tyler Gidney, San Jose State University
All-Day Sessions: 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Designing an Idea-Based Curriculum for the 21st Century
Facilitators: Jonathan Rossing, Gonzaga University; Lisa Silvestri, Juliane Mora, Casey R. Schmitt, Kristina Morehouse, and Melissa Click, Gonzaga University
Advocating with Evidence through a Feminist Lens
Facilitators: Julianna Kirschner, University of Southern California; Mary Domenico, University of North Carolina; Karen Foss, University of New Mexico; Rebecca A Litke, California State University, Northridge
Co-sponsored by ORWAC
Animals, Nature and Human Relationships: Analyzing Evidence and Advocating for Inclusion in Communication Studies
Facilitators: Nathalie Campbell Crocker, Landmark College; Emily Plec, Western Oregon University; Susan Hafen, Weber State University; Jeremy Gordon, Gonzaga University; Elizabeth Craig,
North Carolina State University; Aria Mia Loberti, University of Rhode Island
WSCA Seeks Social Media Editor
The Western States Communication Association is seeking applications and/or nominations for its News and Social Media Editor. This position is a three-year term, and includes tasks such as soliciting news, publishing on a rolling basis, attending WSCA Executive Council and Publication Board meetings, and managing social media content. The full job call is available here. To apply, please submit a cover letter, CV, statement of support from chair or dean, and names of three references. Applications and questions can be sent to: Stacey K. Sowards, Ph.D., at ssowards@utep.edu.