2020 National Communication Association Awards

Communication Studies faculty, students win multiple honors at NCA Convention

The Department of Communication Studies is respected as a leader in communication research and graduate student education.

This year, faculty and graduate students throughout the department have been recognized by the National Communication Association (NCA) for their excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. Their work in these areas is shaping the field of communication and helping to train students at all levels.

“The range of honors received at this year’s national conference is really quite impressive. Once again, faculty and graduate students in the department have been recognized by our peers for excellence in research, teaching, and service,” said Department of Communication Studies Chair Craig Scott.

2020 National Communication Association Awards

Rick Cherwitz

Wallace A. Bacon Lifetime Teaching Excellence Award

This award recognizes retired NCA members at any grade level, from kindergarten through graduate, who have demonstrated a long-term commitment to teaching. In addition to the Bacon Award (2020), Cherwitz has also received the Karl Wallace Memorial Award (1978), the Douglas Ehninger Distinguished Scholar Award (1995) and the Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching (2012) from NCA.

Stacey Sowards

Marie Hochmuth Nichols award (Public Address)

Outstanding Book award (Latina/o Communication Studies)

Bonnie Ritter Outstanding Feminist Book award (Feminist and Gender Studies)

Sowards book, “Sí, Ella Puede!: The Rhetorical Legacy of Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers” was honored with all three of these awards.

Dawna Ballard

Outstanding Service Engagement Award

Organizational Communication Division

Keri Stephens

Organizational Communication Division Edited Book of the Year

“New Media in Times of Crisis”

Josh Barbour, Jeff Treem

Bill Eadie Distinguished Article Award

Applied Communication Interest Group

“Analytics and expert collaboration: How individuals navigate relationships when working with organizational data”

Emily Van Duyn

Best Dissertation Award from the Political Communication Division

"Networked Silence: Political Dissent in a Digital Era"

Advisor: Talia Stroud

JhuCin (Rita) Jhang

Sandra Petronio Family Communication Dissertation Award

"She did not come out, but we have come to terms" -- Family reconciliation of challenged expectations when a young adult child is gender and sexual minority/Tongzhi: Multiple perspectives”

Advisor: Madeline M. Maxwell

Kate Rich

James L. Golden Outstanding Student Essay in Rhetoric Award

“Uncanny Demonstration: Holographic Cyborg Politics in Hologramas Por La Libertad.”

Faculty mentors: Johanna Hartelius and Mike Butterworth

Anastazja Harris, Keri Stephens and Courtney Powers

Top Paper

Training and Development Division

“Trainers at the Crossroads: Recovering from Inadvertent Equivocation During a Client Needs Assessment and Development Project”

Dawna Ballard, Dron Mandhana, Matthew McGlone, Ana Aguilar and Dina Inman-Ramgolam

Top 4 Paper

Group Communication Division

“All action and no talk: A multimethod investigation of routinized adaptation in interprofessional critical teams.”

Jeff Treem

Top 4 Paper

Organizational Communication Division

“Driven by Fear: An Analysis of Fear Factors Predicting ESM Platform Use”

Andrew A. Coolidge

Top Student Paper Award

Interpersonal Communication Division

“Subversive or Sexist: The effects of perceived gender on interpretations of disparaging and subversive humor”

Top Papers Session (Master's Education Section)

“Strategists and Tacticians: Co-Creation of Offensive Humor in Improv Comedy”

Clayton L. Terry

Top Student Paper Award

Instructional Development Division

“Toward a Model of Rhetorical-Relational Growth: Dynamic Flexibility and Deweyan Instructional Development”

Shuting Yao

Top Student Paper Award

Interpersonal communication Division

“It’s not you, It’s me: Face Work of Disengagement Language in Dating Relationship”

Delaney Harness

Top Student Paper Award

Organizational Communication Division

“Paradigms and Paradoxes: Beyond the Extant Approaches to Transparency”

Katie Lever

Top Student Paper

Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division

“Ideology in Practice”: Conceptualizing the NCAA’s Student-Athlete as an Ideograph

Courtney Powers

Top Submission Award

Great Ideas for Teaching Division

“Identifying Crossroads in Organizational Culture: Conducting a Mini Cultural Analysis of an Organization”

Natalie England
Assistant Director, Communications