In This Issue:
 

Seattle Convention Program Now Online

 

President-elect Sara Hayden has completed her work on the convention program, and the Adobe Acrobat file is available for perusal online at http://www.westcomm.org/conventions/WSCA-2007-Seattle/program07.pdf.

Here is President Mary Jane Collier’s welcome to the convention, from the program:

On behalf of the Western States Communication Association, it is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome! Following a longstanding tradition of dynamic conventions, this WSCA convention is designed to provide opportunities for experienced and brand new scholars to present and perform their work, to discuss current issues and controversies, and to spark ideas for new projects. And, of course, WSCA conventions are spaces where we can connect with old friends and make new ones. The program outlines a wide range of stimulating panels, dynamic performances, engaging roundtables, workshops, and opportunities to socialize.

Sara Hayden, President-Elect, created a timely and important theme for the 2007 convention, PROMOTING SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH OUR WORK. This theme encourages us to focus our attention on the numerous and varied opportunities we all have to promote justice at multiple levels: in global, national and local communities, institutions, work places, and interpersonal relationships. Reflecting on the role of the U.S. in Iraq, contested national policy issues such as immigration and health care, and questions being raised about the relevance of academic work in general and communication scholarship in particular, the theme of social justice in our work is pertinent indeed. The President-Elect reports that the Interest Group Program Planners have worked very hard to ensure that our convention sessions are filled with the best of the best.

Saturday’s schedule is filled with diverse events and workshops! If this is your first WSCA convention, plan to attend the Newcomer’s Reception. You’ll hear lively presentations from undergraduates at the 4th Annual Undergraduate Scholars’ Research Conference. An engaging Preconference: Reframing our Research for Social Change is also scheduled. Don’t miss the Welcome Reception where you can be sure to meet old and new friends. Current and prospective graduate students please mark your schedules to attend a Graduate Student Workshop and the Graduate Programs Open House.

What promises to be a stimulating and inspiring Keynote Address will be given by Columnist and Poet Katha Pollitt on Sunday. The Convention Luncheon on Monday is an event where you can savor tasty cuisine and acknowledge colleagues who are being honored with annual awards. This year the Presidents’ Reception on Monday evening is in honor of all WSCA Past Presidents, and all WSCA members are welcome to attend. Finally, do include your voice and share your views by attending and participating in Interest Group Business Meetings.

Thanks to Valerie Manusov and her team of local hosts from the University of Washington, City University, Edmonds Community College, Highline Community College, University of Puget Sound, and Whatcom Community College for arranging events to help us take advantage of the local scene and providing us with a well staffed registration desk. Thank you for being a part of WSCA and coming to Seattle.

Enjoy the convention!

 Warmly, 

Mary Jane Collier
WSCA President

 

Local Host Planning Progressing Nicely

by Valerie Manusov, manusov@u.washington.edu, Local Host

I wanted to give you an update on what we are working on to make the Seattle WSCA convention fun as well as professionally satisfying.  As you know, from February 16-20, 2007, Seattle, Washington is the site of the Western States Communication Association’s annual conference, held this year at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel (http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/SEASM).  We have a large team of local volunteers working on the conference from the University of Washington, as well as City University, Edmonds Community College, Highline Community College, Seattle University, University of Puget Sound, and Whatcom Community College.   

Some news: 

Undergraduate interns at the University of Washington have been working with the local host on some additional features. Here are some: 

  • Each registrant will receive a raffle ticket in your registration materials.  If you fill out your ticket, and place it in the bin at conference registration, you will be eligible throughout the conference to receive an array of prizes, provided by local merchants.
  • Undergraduate students will staff an “information booth” across from the business center on the lower/ballroom floor of the hotel.  They have created detailed binders to help you choose restaurants, coffee houses, sporting events, fine art events, festivals, and other local places/events that you or your guests may wish to enjoy.  The students will be there to give you directions and advice (and their opinions).  So, look for the booth or for any of the students in their conference t-shirts.  The concierge at the hotel also provides a list each week of what is going on in Seattle.  Together, your tourist bases will be covered!

There is also news from the hotel: 

As noted, there is a business center open 24 hours (sometimes key cards are required for access) on the ballroom level of the hotel.  You may print, access the internet, copy, etc. at that location.  The public areas of the hotel are also set up for wireless connections.

And, as a very nice perk, remember that all wake up calls ordered at the hotel come with free coffee, tea, or hot chocolate service, delivered with a newspaper to your hotel room door!

For more information on transportation, local host events, and Seattle tips, see the WSCA website.  See you in Seattle, a marketplace of ideas.

Two Important Reminders from the Executive Director
by Mark Bergstrom, WSCA Executive Director

         WSCA is now conducting an online membership survey.

         The Survey was constructed by Sandra Petronio, Walt Zakahi, and David Droge.  Please take the time to fill out the survey.  The Executive Council works very hard to ensure that WSCA members are getting the most out their membership.  Your participation will be greatly appreciated and results of the survey will aid future decision making.

Go to https://www.hum.utah.edu/bergstrom/westcomm.php to complete the survey.

The Election Ballot is now in the mail.  The nominating committee has compiled an excellent slate of candidates for this year’s election.  November 30th is the deadline for returning your ballot.  Your participation in this election helps to ensure that WSCA will continue to enjoy the very best leadership.

WSCA Membership Drive for 2007

By Dan Brouwer, Second Vice President

 

For individuals and institutions, membership in WSCA has many benefits. In November, WSCA will initiate its drive to register individuals and institutions as members of the organization for 2007. Be on the lookout for membership materials!

 

C&I Interest Group to Honor Outstanding Teachers at Convention

by John Warren, Interest Group Chair

As chair of the WSCA Communication and Instruction Interest Group, I have the great honor of announcing the selected teachers who will receive this year’s Master Teacher designation at this forthcoming convention.  Each year, the Communication and Instruction Interest Group celebrates excellence in teaching, awarding some of our very best educators with the title Master Teacher. Dr. Elise Dallimore, faculty member at Northeastern University and the Communication and Instruction Vice-Chair, chaired this year’s committee.  Selected this year to receive Master Teacher honors are Dr. Mark Stoner, Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Sacramento and Dr. Charles Braithwaite, Assistant Director and Chief Advisor of the International Studies Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Dr. Mark Stoner is Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Sacramento.  His nomination materials spoke of his quality teaching across the board and included a total of 16 letters of nomination/support for this award. In one letter, Dr. Stoner is described as “mentor and friend” who uses “student-centered” pedagogy to inspire learning in his students: “In addition to being grounded in the theory and practice of teaching, the quality that impresses me most about Dr. Stoner is his ability to get students to do their own thinking.”  His colleagues and students join to note that what makes Dr. Stoner stand out as a teacher is the reflective practice that allows him to continue to grow as a professor, teacher, and mentor.  In sum, one of the reasons Dr. Stoner was selected for this award was because the selection committee agreed with this final comment in a letter of nomination: “In sum, Mark Stoner is deserving of this award in a way few others can be because his effect on students and faculty is not just about a few clever teaching strategies, popularity in the classroom, or high teaching evaluations, though all of those are true for him.  His effect is about rich pedagogical contributions to instructional communication, teacher training, rhetorical criticism pedagogy, and graduate training.  Quite simply, those who work with Professor Stoner inevitably are deepened as teacher-scholars.”

Dr. Charles Braithwaite is Assistant Director and Chief Advisor of the International Studies Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  With over seven letters of nomination, Dr. Braithwaite is a prime example of what this award seeks to celebrate.  With over 28 years of teaching experience, Dr. Braithwaite excels in both undergraduate and graduate classroom contexts.  Says his primary letter of nomination, “Chuck’s particular teaching strength lies in his ability to understand and teach intercultural issues.”  Described in his nomination materials as a passionate teacher, one letter argues, “Throughout the semester [Dr. Braithwaite] became an influence to me and what I wanted to do with my life. […] Dr. Charles Braithwaite is a phenomenal professor and a great person.  He has touched my life and I know he has touched other lives just like mine.”  The selection committee was left in agreement about Dr. Braithwaite’s fit for this award, especially this from a colleague: “Chuck is one of the most creative, thoughtful, and dedicated teachers I know, whether it is undergraduate or graduate teaching, studying teaching, presenting workshops, or creating new and innovative courses that span the globe.  If ever there was a person deserving of being called Master Teacher—it has got to be Chuck Braithwaite.”

This February at the annual Western States Communication Association convention in Seattle, the Communication and Instruction Interest Group will recognize Drs. Braithwaite and Stoner.  The Master Teacher Panel will feature these professors and their accomplishments.  The officers of the Communication and Instruction Interest Group encourage all to attend and witness why these professors have earned the kudos that have helped the selection committee name them 2007 WSCA Master Teachers. 

WFA to Host Tournament in Conjunction with Seattle Convention

 

by Derek Buescher, Speech Activities Director

 

The Western States Forensics Association will host the annual Forensics tournament in conjunction with WSCA from February 16-18, 2007. The tournament will take place at the Crowne Plaza Seattle hotel. This excellent location, one block from the conference hotel, will facilitate mutual involvement of conference goers in the tournament and tournament attendees in the conference. In addition to offering all 11 AFA-NIET individual events the tournament will offer 3 forms of debate--parliamentary, policy, and worlds. The tournament staff hopes conference attendees will stop by to watch a round of debate or an individual event competition.

Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference (USRC):
Deadline Extended to December 1, 2007
by Dan Brouwer, Second Vice President

 When & Where? Saturday, February 17, 2007, at Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, WA

What is the USRC? An annual gathering (now in its fourth year) of undergraduate researchers-and an extraordinary opportunity. Students share original research in the form of critical investigation, experimentation, or analysis. We welcome papers from a diverse range of philosophical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to the study of communication. 

 Why participate? Students benefit from participating in the research conference by crafting and sharing a professional presentation, meeting other undergraduate scholars from the Western region and the U.S., learning about each others' research interests, receiving supportive feedback from scholars in the field, and learning about graduate studies in communication. 

 Deadlines and particulars: Note: the deadline for papers has been extended. Papers must be received by 5p.m. (MST) on December 1, 2006. Please submit papers to Professor Dan Brouwer as Word or Rich Text Format attachments to electronic mail (brouwer@asu.edu). Please include all author contact information (name, mailing address, email address, and phone number) on a separate page from the title page. Papers should be composed of no more than thirty total pages. Students who submit papers must be undergraduate students at the time of submission. Students should not submit more than one essay for which they serve as primary author. Co-authored papers are welcome. 

 Spread the word! Please announce in your classes and distribute to advisors, colleagues, and student organizations. For more information, please contact the USRC Coordinator, Dan Brouwer (brouwer@asu.edu).

 

NCA Solicits Classic Articles for Database

by Roger Smitter, NCA Executive Director

Our publishing partner, Taylor and Francis, has asked NCA to identify the 400 "classic" articles published in NCA journals. Taylor and Francis will pay for the retro-digitalization of these 400 articles into one collection.  With the impetus of the Publications Board, the NCA Executive Committee has approved this project.  

In order to generate nominations for the collection, please announce the project at your business meeting during the 2006 annual convention. Also, if possible, please include this call for nominations in a list-serve or newsletter your unit produces.   

To nominate articles, the members should access http://www.natcom.org/retrodigitalization/.     

The Publications Board also established additional channels for nominations to the collection:   

  • A task force overseeing the project will select approximately 50 articles published in NCA journals prior to 1965.  The task force is chaired by Judy Pearson (as a past president) as well as Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (former journal editor); Herbert Cohen (historian); Dawn O. Braithwaite (Research Board) and Judith Hamera (Publications Board).
  • Articles that have won the Golden Anniversary Monograph Award or the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award as well as the texts of the annual Carroll C. Arnold Lectures will be included in the "classic" collection. 

Thank you for your assistance in this important project.

 

Albuquerque Summer Institute Organizers Reflect on Experience

by Karen A. Foss, Kris Kirschbaum, and Stephen W. Littlejohn,
University of New Mexico 

            From its origins at the Western States Communication Association convention in San Francisco to its realization in Albuquerque, the notion of a gathering as an NCA Summer Institute to further social construction in the communication discipline was met with high energy and enthusiasm.  Planners and participants perceived the need to address seriously social construction as an important exigence with implications for the nature and future of the communication discipline and beyond.  As local hosts of the conference, we were committed to producing a conference that facilitated productive discussions about social construction but also created a world—for the few days of the conference—that was an ideal one for enhancing such discussions.

We conducted all aspects of the conference with this goal in mind.  While Albuquerque as the site for the convention was in many ways a pragmatic choice, those of us who live here understand the kind of world it naturally constructs:  diverse in population, breathtaking in scenery, and accommodating in terms of weather.  To take advantage of what Albuquerque already constructed for us, we found a hotel within walking distance of Old Town and downtown to facilitate participants’ interactions in the evening.  We included most meals in the conference fee to encourage participants to stay together so that informal discussions of all kinds could carry over from more formal sessions.  We encouraged casual dress so that participants “knew” this was a comfortable work session unlike a typical academic conference.  And we incorporated a planning process that engaged participants in talking, planning, and imagining.

            The conference outcomes were many—though perhaps not those originally intended.  First, there was palpable enthusiasm for social construction and almost a sense of relief to be with like-minded individuals, talking over issues without having to offer philosophical explanations or justifications to begin.  One of the many outcomes of the conference, then, was the identification of others in the communication discipline who identify with, advocate, and enact social construction as philosophy and practice in all areas of their lives.  We do not always have an opportunity to locate our allies, and we predict that this knowledge alone will do much to further social-construction “moves” at many colleges and universities.  The decision to apply for division status was an outcome that enhances these collaborations even more.  The decision to dissolve the division after a certain amount of time means we believe that social construction will become an integral part of the discipline.

The decision to ask participants to identify their project preferences in advance—teaching, research, or practice—made use of the standard expectations of the discipline in terms of what faculty do and need to do for tenure and promotion.  Participants within these areas ended up conceptualizing diverse projects rather than concentrating on what they could contribute to transformation of the discipline.  In hindsight, not asking for pre-conference preferences might have worked better.  In fact, thinking within the traditional categories of the academy may have inhibited the possibilities that were generated.  We should have realized that we were setting ourselves up to construct the discipline as it is rather than imagining all kinds of ways that social construction might impact the structure, content, and processes of the discipline.  Perhaps we could have started the conference with a brainstorming session about how to change the discipline.  On the basis of that session, groups could have formed around specific projects directed at the discipline.  To end the conference, a central plan could have been worked out for bringing these projects together under a shared agenda, with different groups following through on their areas of commitment and interest.

Another option might have been to have individuals or groups identify ongoing social construction projects in the discipline of which they were a part, with the intent to articulate for the discipline what makes such projects different.  Such an approach would demonstrate the presence of social construction in action, could energize those projects with new blood, and would have made use of ongoing work rather than require participants to take on new projects.

Instead, all kinds of wonderful projects emerged, all characterized by a great sense of mission, possibility, and even urgency—but most did not focus on changing the discipline per se.  Groups dreamed big, offering proposals that truly convey the power of social construction.  And many may indeed affect the participants themselves, those with whom they come into contact, and even larger circles within society.  Again, whether these will impact the discipline, however, remains to be seen.

             Despite the discrepancy between anticipated and realized goals, we were delighted to have been part of this conference.  We believe this social-construction moment will indeed generate new possibilities for participants and the discipline that will make social-construction principles more visible.  Though we cannot anticipate what all of these outcomes will be—and isn’t this always the case when making social worlds?—we look forward to their creation.