This year the National Communication Association 2010 conference was held in San Francisco, California! The theme for this year’s convention was appropriately dubbed “Building Bridges.”

Several faculty and graduate students from the Communication Studies Department were awarded Top Paper and other prestigious recognitions:

Dr. John Daly was honored with the Distinguished Scholar Award this year. From the official NCA website: The NCA Distinguished Scholar Award was created in 1991 to recognize and reward a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of human communication by members of NCA. Recipients of this award are individuals selected to showcase the communication profession. The award is supported by the Mark L. Knapp Distinguished Scholar Fund. Since 1992, those recognized as NCA Distinguished Scholars nominate and elect members to join this select group.Congratulations, Dr. Daly!  

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Dr. Mark L. Knapp, Professor Emeritus, was awarded for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpersonal Communication.

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Assistant Professor, Dr. Erin Donovan-Kicken co-authored a manuscript with three graduate students--Trey Guinn, Lynsey Kluever Romo, and Lea Ciceraro--that received a top four paper award from NCA's Interpersonal Communication Division over the weekend. The citation:

Donovan-Kicken, E., Guinn, T. D., Kluever Romo, L., & Ciceraro, L. D. L. (2010, November). Thanks for asking, but let’s talk about something else: Reactions to topic avoidance messages that feature different interaction goals. Paper presented at the annual convention of the National Communication Association, San Francisco, CA. Top four paper, NCA Interpersonal Communication Division.

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The second edition of Professor George Cheney's organizational communication textbook, released in June of this year andco-authored with colleagues from Denmark and New Zealand, has just received an award at the National Communication Association (NCA) conference in San Francisco.  The Organizational Communication Division of NCA has named the book "Textbook of the Year" for 2010.  The text is widely used around the world in upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses, appealing to many audiences because it is organized around 15 major topics. Each chapter demonstrates the practicality of theory and how practice contributes to theory, while challenging readers to adopt a critical-thinking approach that helps to move students beyond the taken-for-granted.  The complete reference is as follows:

 Cheney, G., Christensen, L. T., Zorn, T. E., Jr., & Ganesh, S. (2011).  Organizational communication in an age of globalization:  Issues, reflections, practices, 2nd ed.  Prospect Heights, IL:  Waveland Press.  515 pp.  ISBN: 978-1-57766-640-0. $61.95

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Sharon Jarvis received a Top Paper Award from the Political Communication Division for her essay “Is the Game Frame Inevitable?: Building Bridges between Academics and Journalists to Assess News Frames that Dampen Cynicism “ (co-authored with Soo-Hye Han).

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Matt McGlone and coauthor Abigail Pfiester (UT alum, Concordia University faculty member) received a Top Paper award from the Communication and Social Cognition Division for their piece titled "Stereotype Threat and the Evaluative Context of Communication."  This paper reports a study investigating how concerns about fulfilling negative gender stereotypes can impair men and women's communication performance.

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MaryAnne Taylor was recognized as "Most Innovative" in her session. Also, Joe Faina and Roy Christopher were awarded "Most Innovative" during their session.
Jane Damron and Leah Lefebvre won the "Breakout Scholars" award during their poster session.

Congratulations to all the award winners!