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If
You’re Going to San Francisco From
Ron Lustig, WSCA President…
Plan
now to attend the annual WSCA conference in San Francisco, February 18-22, 2005. People
in motion; people in motion… President-elect
Mary Jane Collier, the local hosts at San Francisco State including Karen Lovaas
and Amy Kilgard, all of the interest group planners, the WSCA officers, and
nearly a thousand communication scholars and teachers have been working to make
this year’s conference an outstanding one. There’s
a whole generation with a new explanation… You’ll
find the latest in theory, research, and “best practices” in communication
scholarship and pedagogy; fun, fellowship, and perhaps a little fallow-ship; new
ideas, new friends, and many old friends await you at the beautiful Argent
Hotel. You’re
gonna meet some gentle people there… Don’t
miss it! Let me also take this
opportunity to thank our many WSCA colleagues for their continuing help in
keeping the association as great as it is. The “WSCA ethos” doesn’t just
happen; it occurs because so many individuals work hard and play hard to
transform our conferences into wonderful experiences, our research into cutting-edge scholarship, our journals into exceptional repositories of erudition, and our teaching into extraordinary pedagogy. The
“work” of WSCA is essentially all done by volunteers, who contribute their
time and expertise in service to us all. Collectively, these efforts make a
tremendous difference; they strengthen our discipline, our departments, our
students, and our communities. So a big “thank you” to all of us. Keep up
the good work and the good fun! An
afterthought: can you name the song referenced above and the performer who sang
it?
From
Mary Jane Collier, President-Elect… WSCA
in San Francisco will be more than business as usual. This convention will not
only be filled with opportunities to renew relationships with colleagues and
friends, but also to create new connections and redirect current collaborations.
We’ll be doing what we do best; presenting ideas, learning from one other, and
reflecting on what our work means inside and outside of our academic
institutions. Thematic sessions will showcase the intersections and bridges of
research and practice, global and local, classroom and community, and political
and personal. In San Francisco we’ll also be able to sample diverse art, music
and theatre, not to mention the sights of the city, sea, and sky above the
hills. Traditional
Spaces: Full Schedule of Panels/Programs through Tuesday The
Interest Group Program Planners and reviewers are hard at work; and the high
numbers of submissions indicates that we’ll have a very full schedule of
high-quality panels and programs. Please note that this also includes a full set
of programs and panels through at least noon or later on Tuesday! New
Spaces: Saturday Preconferences & Kick-off This
year on Saturday February 18th we’ll continue adding new options to our
enduring traditions. The Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference will be
extended to a full day. In addition to several workshops, you’ll be able to
select from preconference sessions that address the convention theme. Saturday
evening there will be an exciting kick-off program that Local Hosts Karen Lovaas
and Amy Kilgard are coordinating. Plans include a local theatre group with
participation of our keynote speaker. Transformative
Spaces: Keynote & Continued Conversation with Starhawk We are
extremely fortunate that Starhawk is available for our convention! Her work is
an outstanding example of negotiating third spaces. Starhawk blends political
activism, practical strategies for group collaboration, and earth-based
spirituality. She works in arenas including global justice, environmental
practice, and feminist approaches to power and group facilitation. Her latest
book is Webs of Power, Notes from the Global Uprising. Naomi Klein writes
“Since the anti-WTO protests in Seattle, a dispersed and diverse global
movement has better understood itself in the mirror of Starhawk’s writings.
Her essays consistently and miraculously combine how-to practicality with poetry
and inspiration. She presents the best face of social justice and dares us to
live up to it.” Starhawk is the author or co-author of nine books including Truth
or Dare, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and the Spiral Dance. She has
agreed to collaborate in a performance at the Kick-off event on Saturday
evening. Sunday morning she will give a keynote presentation relating her work
to the convention theme, and then join in further dialogue with a panel of
scholars/performance artists. In order to continue the conversation about
negotiating third spaces, thematic sessions sponsored by Interest Groups will be
scheduled soon after the keynote event on Sunday. The
Argent Hotel, a Beautiful Space Our
convention hotel, The Argent, is centrally located, has a world class chef, and
we’ll be the only large group there. We were able to negotiate a room rate of
$179 per night, and this may include several people in a room! Staying at the
Argent means you’ll be in the central space of all the convention
action—with easy access to all the panels, programs, and WSCA events—and
you’ll be in downtown San Francisco just down the street from the Modern Art
museum. You’ll recall that as a part of our negotiations WSCA guarantees that
we’ll occupy a certain number of sleeping rooms, so plan to make your
reservations at the Argent soon. Thank
you to all who are working to make WSCA the place to be in February. I look
forward to seeing you in San Francisco! From
Our Local Hosts Karen Lovaas, Amy Kilgard, and Gerianne Merrigan (with
substantial input from Karen’s partner, Erich Hunt)…
Welcome
to San Francisco and the Bay area, richly diverse in world cultures, a center
for the creative arts and sciences, endowed with a necklace of natural beauty
and sublime maritime weather. We’re sure somebody informed you that getting
outside to see some of its sights -- and negotiate some of its spaces -- is part
of your 2005 WSCA conference activities. In fact, it says so right on the
registration form. For
those of us who live here, it’s hard to talk about the Bay Area without
drowning the listener in a riptide of accolades. This may contribute to some of
the bad press about The City spending too much time in front of the mirror. But
this is not about idle bragging: This is a unique place and most of the reasons
for living here are evident on the first day. San
Francisco’s proximity to long ocean strands, cathedral groves of redwoods, and
maritime activities on the Bay, means that yes, bring your walking shoes and
faithful camera. Ferries criss-cross the Bay to laid-back Sausalito, historic
Angel Island, rock star inhabited Tiburon, and infamous Alcatraz Island. San
Francisco is one of the world culinary centers as can be seen by the sheer
number and globe-spanning variety of restaurants here. Even the locals are
overwhelmed trying to keep up with the choices, the new chic bistros, the
legendary restaurants, the word-of-mouth cafes, and so on. It is impossible to
“eat your way” across San Francisco. The
City is host to world-class museums, art galleries and has an architectural
personality with a matching eclectic skyline that fits its traditional old town,
restless new city energy. Galleries and exhibitions are spread throughout this
arts-driven city. The Civic Center’s gilded City Hall and a cohort of stately
gray edifices contain state and local government offices, symphonies, ballet
companies, the opera, the recently re-imagined SF library and the Asian Art
Museum. San
Francisco lives up to its reputation for being a smorgasbord of alternative
diversions. As a visitor, it is your duty to take in the South of Market (SOMA)
nightlife, walk through Chinatown, emote in the theater district, have a
midnight espresso in North Beach, show your love up in the club in the Castro,
or salsa in the Mission District. And don’t forget that you can easily take
BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) eastward under the bay to visit Berkeley’s
bookstores and Oakland’s jazz clubs. People
back home are bound to ask what wild and crazy things you did during your stay
here so we’ll be enticing you with more specific recommendations later. We
trust that you won’t let them down. From
Sue Pendell, WSCA Executive Director…
Experience The Argent – Our San Francisco
Convention Hotel The
right place to experience the 2005 WSCA convention and the excitement of San
Francisco is the Argent Hotel, conveniently located in the vibrant South of
Market district with hot clubs, restaurants, galleries, and so much more in the
area. You
can walk to cable cars and street trolleys that ride to China Town, Alcatraz,
and Fisherman’s Wharf. You can
visit the world-renowned San Francisco Museum of Modern of Art (just a half
block south) and the theatre district, spread out within a five-block radius. Next door is Yerba Buena Gardens and Center for the
Performing Arts and the Sony Metreon Entertainment Complex. The Cartoon Art Museum and SBC Park are not far away.
And if spectacular shopping is what you want, just two blocks away is
Union Square, featuring Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and the
incredible seven story Macy's store. When
you enter The Argent Hotel, you’ll notice the blending of design, art, and
craft that makes the interior unique. The
marble foyer leads you to the hotel's elegant lobby.
Rich woodwork, gold leaf domes, and an amazing art collection can be
found throughout the hotel. The
Argent's artwork includes more than 30 original pieces, including images and
sculpture from well-known artists such as David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein. Rooms
at The Argent overlook the beautiful San Francisco City skyline.
Each room has floor-to-ceiling windows, a full-sized lighted desk, three
telephones, voice mail, Gilchrist & Soames spa line amenities, and warm
feather comforters. Jester's
Lounge, just off the lobby, is an intimate martini lounge complete with ample
seating on comfortable plush couches, a warm fireplace, original art pieces by
Donald Sultan, friendly service, and live music on Friday night. Jester's
Restaurant offers classic American cuisine with a French accent for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner. The
internationally acclaimed cuisine is inspired by Master Chef Joel Guillon, one
of only 50 French master chefs in the U.S.. The
Argent is featured in “The Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best Resorts
& Great Hotels: The 2004 Collection.”
We are fortunate to have our 2005 convention at such a unique and
wonderful hotel! From
the Planners of the Undergraduate Conference… The
San Francisco WSCA will be the site of the 2nd annual Undergraduate
Student Research Conference. Conference
organizers Leah Vande Berg (vandeberglr@csus.edu)
and Julie Yingling (jmy2@humboldt.edu)
welcome undergraduate papers
reporting original research (i.e., critical investigation, experimentation, or
analysis leading to the discovery or creation of new facts, theories or
interpretation or significant revisions of already existing ones, or the
practical applications of these new or revised conclusions). Diverse
philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome. Pastries,
coffee and juice will welcome USRC presenters and attendees at 8:30 a.m. on
Saturday, February 19, and an awards ceremony and reception, courtesy of Sage
Publications and the WSCA Executives Club, will follow the last presentation.
For those students whose papers are accepted, WSCA will pay $15 of the
$25 USRC registration. Paper submissions must be received by December 6,
2004; authors will be notified of paper acceptance by January 17, 2005.
Western
Journal of Communication and
Communication
Reports
to be published by
Routledge/Taylor & Francis
beginning in 2005
We are pleased to
announce that, beginning in 2005, Western Journal of Communication and Communication
Reports will be published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis in partnership
with WSCA. Western Journal of Communication will retain its current frequency of four issues per
year and also will be available online from 2005. Communication Reports will be published as two
issues online per year, followed by a print volume at the end of the year. The Journals are available through an individual or
institutional subscription or through membership in WSCA. As of 2005, WSCA members, and those subscribing to
the journals through the regional journal exchange, will be entitled to both
print and online versions of both Western Journal of Communication and Communication
Reports. Members will also
have online access to one of a fixed selection of other Taylor & Francis
journals. The selection will be
announced in 2005 and will change each year. From Dan Canary, WJC Editor…
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Copyright © 2004 Western States Communication Association. All Rights Reserved.