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CSCA
CSCA 2022 Annual Conference
You are cordially invited to submit competitive papers, panel discussions, and performance sessions for our 91st Annual Convention, to be held in Madison, Wisconsin, March 30 – April 3, 2022. Members are encouraged to reflect on the theme of Re-connect. It is time (hopefully) to come together in person after our two years of very different conference circumstances. We made it through many challenges—let’s celebrate together!
Our annual conference provides us an opportunity to re-connect with one another; with where we have been in our work, our discipline, and our lives overall; and with how we create our futures. It also provides us with new opportunities: How can we forge new, more inclusive paths to expansive horizons in thought, creativity, expression, and scholarship?
As noted in 2020-2021, Central States is a space that is reinvented every time we gather together at the conference, every time we talk with a colleague, and every time we share our research, our teaching ideas, and our very selves. We are not a perfect organization. How can we re-connect and create a more welcoming space for all our members?
Faculty, students, independent scholars, and community members are encouraged to submit and attend the convention. Institutional and community partnerships are particularly welcome. Submissions inclusive of all methodological perspectives in the Communication discipline are expected and embraced. Submissions that foreground the voices of marginalized groups and underrepresented scholars are especially welcome.
Watch for specific calls and submission information from each of the 27 CSCA Interest Groups, Caucuses, and Sections.
Questions about the general call or the 2022 conference:
Contact Deb Ford, 2022 Primary Program Planner, at DebraFord@creighton.edu.
Deadline for Submissions: October 8, 2021, 11:59 pm CDT
Directions for using the online system
ECA
ECA CONFERENCE UPDATE
New Dates and New Location for ECA 2022 “Reunion”
While we were looking forward to visiting Buffalo, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, our conference hotel will no longer be able to accommodate our conference plans. The good news is that we will be able to return to an “ECA Favorite,” Philadelphia, as we celebrate our Reunion at the Marriott Old City Thursday, April 7th – Saturday, April 9th.
You’ll notice that these new dates reflect a shorter conference. The hope is that this three-day conference will be more accessible to our community this year, given some members’ budgetary concerns and reduced travel funding.
Conference Registration Rates
We will be offering the same reduced registration fees that were offered for the 2021 conference. We expect that this will be the final year we will provide these reduced fees to members and are doing so to provide relief to those who have been financially affected by COVID-19. The reduction in fees provides a 50 percent decrease for members’ registration categories only. In addition, we will offer an option for registrants to provide a donation to ECA to help offset these costs.
Future Conference Dates and Locations
Over the past few months, we have been working with our hospitality partners to negotiate new contracts for our upcoming conferences:
- ECA 2023: Hyatt Regency Baltimore
- ECA 2024: Hyatt Regency Cambridge
- ECA 2025: Hyatt Regency Buffalo
Next Steps for You
Interest Groups will share their calls for submissions for ECA 2022 soon. For most interest groups, submissions will be due October 15, 2021, 11:59 pm EST. Submissions for the James C. McCroskey and Virginia P. Richmond Undergraduate Scholars Conference and Graduate Student Posters will be due December 13, 2021, 11:59 pm EST.
We wish you a successful transition to the new school year and can’t wait to see you in Philadelphia next year.
ECA TASKFORCE UPDATE
Call for Taskforce Members
The Eastern Communication Association invites members to join a Presidential Taskforce. Each year, the incoming ECA President puts forward a set of initiatives for the year. Please review the two taskforces below and consider sharing your time and talents.
Resilient ECA Taskforce
Inspired by the thoughtful comments from our invited speakers and guests, this taskforce will consider the place and value of ECA post pandemic. The taskforce will explore questions that could include the following:
- What is the future organizational structure of professional associations?
- What is the future of academic conferences?
- How can ECA best support its members post pandemic?
Graduate Student Professional Development Taskforce
This taskforce will identify opportunities for maximizing graduate student engagement with ECA. From mentoring activities to spotlight conference sessions, we’re excited by the interest expressed during the 2021 virtual conference and look forward to continuing these conversations.
Email ECA President Amanda McKendree (amckendree@nd.edu) to confirm your participation on these taskforces.
ECA FLASH PANEL UPDATE
Call for Flash Panel Topics and Speakers
We’re looking for experts who can address the most relevant and timely issues facing our communities. For example, our April event brought together the ECA community for a discussion on the Derek Chauvin verdict.
Email ECA President Amanda McKendree (amckendree@nd.edu) to share a topic idea or to express interest in sharing your expertise.
Nominations for Editor-Elect of Communication Research Reports
ECA will be seeking nominations or self-nominations for Editor-elect of Communication Research Reports, Volumes 40-42 (2023-2025). All candidates who meet the membership requirements set forth in the ECA Constitution are eligible to apply. The call is forthcoming. We will be seeking applicants with a wide variety of experiences. If you are interested, but think you don't have the necessary "research record," please reach out to ECA leadership to talk through your decision before counting yourself out. Specifically, reach out to any member of the ECA Publications Committee as you consider this position.
Communication Research Reports is published five times per year, with a specific focus on report-length manuscripts (3,500-4,000 words) and brief reports (1,500-2,000 words). CRR manuscripts are focused on social scientific research with a quantitative focus, and the journal actively encourages the submission of manuscripts demonstrating null findings, as well as manuscripts that follow open science. CRR also accepts submissions that spotlight emerging practices in Communication Studies, as well as short editorials on topics of interest to Communication scholars.
SSCA
Upcoming Submission Deadline for the 2022 SSCA Conference
The theme for the Southern States Communication Association 92nd Annual Convention is “Resilience Through Resistance.” Like everything else in the world, SSCA came to a screeching halt in the spring of 2020 in response to the COVID epidemic that paralyzed the world. All that was normal became foreign, forcing us to create a new semblance of normalcy. This was further complicated by the racial pandemic that plagued the United States in response to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor due to police. These dual pandemics presented us with many unimaginable challenges. Despite these traumatic events, we have all shown resilience in the face of resistance. The year 2020 has gone down in history as one of the most unfathomable, unjust, and deadliest years known to humankind.
The 2022 Southern States Communication Association conference affords us the opportunity to showcase the many ways that we as well as our students, community members, and others gathered the wherewithal to make it through and rise above the many obstacles thrown our way since March of 2020. Now, we have the wonderful opportunity to translate those difficulties into victories by showcasing the many ways that people either sought or found resilience. As Communication scholars, we should engage in self-reflexivity and take this moment to consider how our scholarship, pedagogy, and service contribute to a field that is germane to every facet of human life throughout the world.
For the 2022 SSCA convention, we are excited to convene in the bustling and growing city of Greenville, SC, which is also affectionately called "Upstate"! At least one panel per each division and interest group will be reserved to address the conference theme. The papers, panels, and division/interest group co-sponsored panels are directly tied to and capture the spirit of this year’s theme. The Vice President is interested in workshops and interactive programs that maximize opportunities to address the theme and/or contemporary communication issues in ways that encourage professional development.
When submitting panels for consideration, avoid constituting panels where most or all of the panelists/presenters are from the same college or university. Program proposals that do not align with SSCA’s divisional and interest group structure may be submitted directly to the Vice President for consideration as part of the Vice President’s Spotlight Series.
The deadline for all submissions is October 1, 2021. The complete calls for papers have been posted at www.ssca.net under the Division or Interest Group menu tabs. The direct link for the portal submission platform is https://www.xcdsystem.com/ssca/member. If you submitted in the past two years, you should already have an account. If not, please create an account and then follow the button prompts for uploading your submission.
For more information, contact Dr. Tina M. Harris, Vice President and Program Planner, at tharris4@lsu.edu. We look forward to seeing you in Greenville, SC in 2022!
WSCA
Cultivate Connections Keynote Event
By Christina G. Yoshimura, WSCA President-Elect and Primary Program Planner
The Western States Communication Association has a history of outstanding keynote speakers, and we greatly value public address. However, our main goal in holding the WSCA annual convention in person this February is to provide professional engagement opportunities that our members missed over the past year. While social distancing led to an increase in the streaming opportunities that many people had to hear from inspiring public speakers over the past year, opportunities to create new, meaningful interpersonal connections were in short supply.
In lieu of a keynote speaker, we will sponsor a “Cultivate Connections” keynote event at our 2022 convention in Portland. This event offers the opportunity to create new mentoring relationships for members at every career stage. In advance of the convention, members will be invited to note areas in which they have expertise to share (such as publishing advice or how to move into a department chair position), as well as areas in which they are looking to grow (such as adopting new teaching technologies or how to best make the move into retirement).
Pairs will be matched based on their desired areas of growth and available areas of expertise. At our in-person keynote event in February, we will establish these new relationships at a social with food, music, and live conversation. We believe that all of our members have something to teach and something to learn, and we hope that this mentorship program can cultivate new connections that benefit all participants. We are especially interested in facilitating support and resources for those who have experienced limited options for growth and development, and we see this keynote event as an important step in our association’s mission to promote equity and inclusivity.
Invitations to the “Cultivate Connections” mentorship program will be sent via member email, our newsletter, and our social media channels this fall.