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September 2009 Vol. 28, #1

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Department of Communication Studies
225 Ford Hall, 224 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Editor: Beatrice Dehler
Secretary: Edward Schiappa

Notes from the Chair:

Greetings and welcome to another exciting school year. Mark your calendars: We plan to dedicate our reception at the National Communication Association to Donald Browne & David Rarick. With Don's retirement later this year, these two gentlemen served the University of Minnesota for a combined total of over 75 years! Come celebrate their careers at our reception Friday evening, November 13th, between 7:30 and 9:30 pm in Boulevard A of the Chicago Hilton.

Note also an NCA event sponsored by the First Vice President alum Dawn Braithwaite: "Sharing Favorite Fantasy Themes in Remembrance of Ernest G. Bormann: Former advisees, colleagues, fellowship recipients, friends, mentors, and students" on Friday, November 13th, 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. in the Hilton Chicago/Continental Ballroom A.

—Ed

Alumni/Department Friends News

Bob Bevard (1978 U of MN graduate/debater) is the new Development Officer for American Mensa, Ltd., and oversees all internal and external marketing and public relations. Additionally, he oversees licensing of the name and trademark, chairs the committee which selects individuals for the Mensa Hall of Fame, and has responsibility for the annual Mind Games®.

Dawn O. Braithwaite (Ph.D. 1988), Willa Cather Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is NCA's First Vice President and the Primary Planner for the NCA Convention in Chicago, November 2009. Dawn's theme is "Discourses of Stability and Change." There are 1,200 programs scheduled for the upcoming convention. She has added several opportunities for one-on-one interaction, such as the Scholar's Office Hours, where students and others may meet with over 70 senior scholars. Also new are the Roundtables on Research in Progress, for which there were close to 200 proposals submitted. She is sponsoring 42 "Five Years Out" programs as we move toward NCA's Centennial in 2014. Clark Olson (Ph.D. 1987) is the coordinator for these programs.

Dr. Charles Braithwaite (past adjunct faculty member/continued friend of the department) currently serves the Center for Great Plains Studies and serves as Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has published African Americans on the Great Plains: An Anthology, co-edited with Bruce A. Glasrud (California State University East Bay), University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

Judy (Chayer) Hartley (M.A. 1986) continues as Principal Consultant/Owner of her own management consulting firm, Judy Hartley & Associates. Her business focuses primarily on development of first-time and frontline leaders/supervisors.

Cynthia R. Carver (Ph.D. 1994) continues to serve as Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. She is also serving an administrative role as Division Chair for Professional Programs and Communication Studies.

Jinbong Choi (Ph.D. 2005) presented papers at the 2009 Journalism in the 21st Century Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia, and the 2009 International Convention of Asia Scholars, Daejeon, South Korea. His article, "Culture and Characteristics of Cellular Phone Communication in South Korea" appeared in the Journal of Media and Communication Studies, Vol. 1(1), 1-10. His book Framing North Korea: How do American and South Korean Newspapers Frame North Korea? was published by Communication Books, August 2009.

Robbin Crabtree (M.A. 1987, Ph.D. 1992), Dean of Arts & Sciences at Fairfield University in Connecticut, attended the Leadership in Higher Education Summer Institute at Harvard University in June 2009. Fellow alum John Stone (M.A. 1985, Ph.D. 1990), Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, observed in awe as Dr. Crabtree brought rhetorical perspectives to the discussions where they were sorely lacking, and infused a necessary and appropriate degree of irreverence into the overwrought Ivy League experience. Both recalled, over beers in various Cambridge pubs, their Minnesota years and expressed deep and abiding affection for their mentors, colleagues, and academic formation in the Speech-Communication Department.

Cragan, J.F. (Ph.D. 1972), Kasch, C.R., & Wright, D.W. (2009) Communication in small groups: Theory, process, skills, 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage.

Cragan J.F. & Shields, D.C. (Ph.D. 1974) (2009, April) Understanding communication Theory: The textbook's history and development. Central States Communication Association Annual Convention, St. Louis, MO. [Presented by Professor Shields at the panel: "Communication Theory Textbook authors Roundtable"]

David Dotlich (Ph.D. 1981) has just published his ninth book, Leading In Times of Crisis: How to Navigate Complexity, Diversity and Uncertainty to Save Your Business, published by Wiley and translated into eight languages worldwide. David recently retired as CEO of Oliver Wyman Leadership Development and has begun a new firm: Pivot. He can be reached at www.pivotleadershp.com.

Bill Eadie served as editor for 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook, which was published by Sage Publications in May 2009. The two-volume, 1000-page work aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the communication discipline with nearly 100 7000-word essays. This work is being sold to university libraries to be shelved in the library's reference area. An online version is also available.

Loren Ekroth (Ph.D. 1967) continues his pro-tirement in Las Vegas with occasional side trips to Buenos Aires and Goteborg, Sweden. He just completed his "Class Reunion Conversation Kit" and is now beta testing the process of nine U.S. high school reunions. Fall 2009 he will re-launch his "Conversation Coaching Clubs" in the U.S., Canada, the U. K., and Australia. Contact him at loren@conversationmatters.com.

Robert Hariman's (Ph.D. 1979) book Political Style has been published in a French translation. He also recently published "Future Imperfect: Imagining Rhetorical Culture Theory" in Culture and Rhetoric, ed. Ivo Strecker and Stephen Tyler (New York: Berghahn Books, 2009), 221-237.

Michael Holmes (Ph.D. 1991) was named a Centennial Scholar of Communication by the Eastern Communication Association at ECA's 100th annual convention in Philadelphia last April. This spring he and his colleagues at the BSU Center for Media Design completed the Video Consumer Mapping Study, a six-city observational field study of media exposure. The landmark research was sponsored by the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence. Michael credits their successful completion of over 15,000 hours of coding of participants' locations, life activities and media exposure (in 10-second increments) to the methodological lessons of his mentors at Minnesota.

Michele Jackson (Ph.D. 1994) has finished her term as Chair of the Communication Department at CU-Boulder and is now founding Director of a program called ASSETT, a College-wide program to support teaching and learning through technology (http://assett.colorado.edu).

Casey Kelly's (Ph.D. 2009) article "Orwellian Language and the Politics of Tribal Termination: 1953-1960)" will appear in the Western Journal of Communication in Winter, 2010.

Jolene Koester (Ph.D. 1980) begins her 10th year as President of California State University, Northridge. She is serving as Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. She and her husband Ron have just published the 6th edition of their textbook, Intercultural Competence.

Alla Kushniryk (Visiting Assistant Professor 2008-09) accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

David Lapakko (Ph.D. 1989) is starting his second year as Division Chair at Augsburg in the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. He is about to publish a second expanded edition of his text, Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action through iUniverse.

Nan Larsen (M.A. 1992) has been invited back to the Graduate School of Banking in Madison, WI, as part of the Leadership Development Team. She is responsible for leading sessions on the topics of Change Management, Innovation, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Strategy Implementation.

Kirk Millhone (M.A.) accepted the position as Senior Director, Training and Development, Apple Retail. He and his team are globally responsible for opening Apple stores and making them wonderful places to both work and shop.

Christopher Paul (Ph.D.2005) has several articles published or forthcoming: "Welfare Epics?: The Rhetoric of Rewards in World of Warcraft." Games and Culture. Forthcoming. "World of Rhetcraft: Rhetorical Practices of Raiding in World of Warcraft." Writing (and) the Digital General. Ed. Heather Urbanski. Forthcoming. "Culture as Practice: What We Do, Not Just Where We Are." Journal of Virtual World Research 1.3 (February 2009) https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/472,428. "Seeking Fulfillment: Comparing Role-Play in Table-top Gaming and World of Warcraft." (with Jason Pittman) International Journal of Role-Playing 1 (2008): 53-65.

Paula Pribble (Ph.D.1986) had the essay "Listening, Ethics, and Dialogue" published in the International Journal of Listening. Paula also spent spring semester in northern England directing a study-abroad program housed in the castle of the Duke of Northumberland. The castle is better known as the real-life model for Hogwart's School of Magic in the first two Harry Potter movies. The broomstick flying lessons were filmed just outside one of her apartment windows.

Ripley Smith (Ph.D. 1996) published the following book chapter: "The Role of Trust in International Crisis Areas: A Comparison of German and US American NGO Partnership Strategies," in Saunders M., Skinner D., Dietz G., Gillespie N., and Lewicki R.J. (editors) (2010 forthcoming) Organizational trust: A cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ripley Smith also presented the keynote address "Music and the Message: Connecting the Prophetic Voice in Christian Radio" to the Faith and Thought Lecture Series, Northwestern College and Media, February 24, 2009.

Marsha Vanderford (Ph.D. 1982) is the Director of the Emergency Communication System & Chief of the Emergency Risk Communication Branch in the National Center for Health Marketing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Gordon Zimmerman (Ph.D. 1973) has resigned his position at the University of Nevada, Reno as professor and department chair in communication. "The state of Nevada is in economic crisis. The regents offered substantial buyouts to all senior faculty. I took the money and moved to full time consulting in trial advocacy and judicial communication. After 12 years as department chair, I quit before I had to terminate anyone. Alas, my tenure-track line at Nevada, along with about 40 others, will not be filled for at least two years."

Faculty

Rosita Albert presented a paper on Genocide Prevention and Ethnic Conflict at the 8th meeting of the International Association of Ethnic Scholars conference in Arlington, VA, June 2009. She also presented a paper on the Ethnics Conflict Project: Current and Feature Work at the Intercultural Research and World Peace meetings of the International Academy for Intercultural Research in Honolulu, August 2009 as well as a paper on Humiliation and Ethnic Conflict at the meetings of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies meetings in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 2009.

Rosita Albert published the chapter "Communication for Impact on Ethnic Conflicts Around the World" in Lynn Harter & Mohan Dutta (Eds.) Communicating for Social Impact: Engaging Communication Theory, Research, and Pedagogy. Hampton Press, 2009.

On May 29, 2009, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell presented a paper on President Andrew Johnson, "Standing on the Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence," at the conference at Northwestern University in honor of the retirement of Professor David Zarefsky.

In July Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, ably supported by Justin Killian (ABD), led a workshop at Pennsylvania State University sponsored by the Rhetoric Society of America on Rhetoric, Agency, and Political Women.

Ronald Greene was appointed the Donald V. Hawkins Professor of Communication this past summer. He was also awarded a College of Liberal Arts Imagine Fund. 2009 brought to print his co-authored essay (with Larry Browning and others) "Constitutive Complexity: Military Entrepreneaurs and the Synthetic Character of Communication Flows." In A. Nicotera & L. Putnam (eds), The Communicative Constitution of Organizations: Centering Organizational Communication (pp. 89-116). New York: Routledge, 2009. Moreover, the summer brought to conclusion his two entries in the Encyclopedia of Communication: "Modernism in Communication Theory" and "Marxist Theory." The Encyclopedia of Communication, edited by Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss, will be published this fall by Sage. The summer came to an end with the presentation of his co-authored work (with Darrin Hicks) "Conscientious Objections: Debating Both Sides and the Cultures of Democracy" at the Alta Argumentation conference. Most importantly, Ron Greene and Zornitsa Keremidchieva welcomed Jack (officially John Dimo Willis Greene) to their family this summer.

Ascan Koerner returns from his sabbatical leave and reports having two book chapters published: Koerner, A.F. (2009). "The scientific investigation of family communication." In C. Berger, M. Roloff, & D. Roskos-Ewoldsen (Eds.), The handbook of communication sciences (pp.27-47). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Koerner, A.F., & Floyd K. (2009). "Evolutionary perspectives on interpersonal relationships." In S. Smith & S. Wilson (Eds.), New directions in interpersonal communication (pp.27-47). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Laurie Ouellette published a chapter on contemporary public television in the book Beyond Prime Time: Television Programming in the Post-Network Era (Routledge 2009). Her editorial on media coverage of "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" appeared in the New York Times forum "Room for Debate." She received an Imagine Grant from the College of Liberal Arts and conducted the research for a book chapter, "Real Justice: Law and Order on Reality Television," to be presented at the University of Alabama's Law School in September and published by Oxford University Press.

Amy Sheldon is returning from sabbatical during AY 2008-2009. During that year she was a participant in the faculty Embodied Methodologies Working Group (EMWG). This was created by a University Symposium Award of $20,000 from the Institute for Advanced Study and the Office for the Vice President for Research to fund research collaboratives working on the IAS 2008-2010 theme: Body & Knowing. In conjunction with the grant, she facilitated and videotaped a lunch session at the Institute for Advanced Studies eliciting faculty and student narratives of personal experience related to "Body and Knowing," April 9, 2009. In addition, she participated in private and public EMWG grant-sponsored workshops with invited scholars, in somatic workshops for EMWG, in discussions, etc. The grant has been renewed and she will continue to participate in the EMWG through AY 2009-2010.

Sheldon Publications:
Berryman-Fink, C, Bing, J., Cameron, D., Sheldon, A., & Taylor, A. (authors alphabetical). 2008. "Blogging about Feminist Interdisciplinary in the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender. The transcript of a month-long blog by five contributors." Women and Language Vol. 31, No. 2. 26-35. George Mason University. (INVITED)
Sheldon, A. (2009). "Assimilating radical new knowledge without a safety net. Epistemological issues in teaching about language and gender." In J. Holmes & M. Marra (Eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth International Gender and Language Association (IGALA5) Conference, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, July, 2008.
Awards:
Office of International Programs, U of M, Travel Grant Award, Spring 2008, to attend IGALA5 conference in Wellington, NZ.
Honors:
Appointed Faculty Mentor, President's Distinguished Faculty Mentor Program (PDFMP) starting after sabbatical, 2009-2010.

Mary Douglas Vavrus presented the paper "Feminist Media Studies: Meet "The Trades" as part of a panel called "Beyond the Modifier: Feminist as Keyword" at the International Communication Association Convention in Chicago, May 2009.

Kirt Wilson completed a draft of "The Radical Contexts of Public Address: Interpreting the Violence of Reconstruction" for inclusion in the Handbook of Public Address, edited by Michael Hogan and Shawn Parry-Giles and published by Blackwell Press.

Graduate Students

Samuel Boerboom will be presenting a paper titled "Infinite Responsibility, Singular Context: Levinas and the Deduction Problem" at the National Communication Association Convention in Chicago, IL, November 11-15, 2009.

Thomas C. Johnson and Edward Schiappa's article, "An Exploratory Study of the Relationships Between Televised Sports Viewing Habits and Conformity to Masculine Norms," will appear in the Spring 2010 issue of the Journal of Sports Media.

Amy Pason has accepted a one-year, fixed-term position as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Recent Ph.D. Degrees

Casey Ryan Kelly
"The Rhetoric of Red Power and the American Indian
Occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969-1971)"
Adviser: Kirt Wilson

Matthew May
"Hobo Orator Union: The Free Speech Fights of the Industrial Workers
Of the World, 1909-1916"
Adviser: Ronald Greene

Kelley Skillin
"Beyond the Classroom: Rhetorical Constructions of ‘Service Learning'"
Adviser: Edward Schiappa

Recent M.A. Degrees

Matthew Bost
Adviser: Kirt Wilson

Anthony Todero
Adviser: Edward Schiappa

Thank you for your "bits and pieces" for COMMPOSTING. Next edition: December 2009.