COMMPOST
January 2015
Volume: 33, #2
National Communication Association Edition
University of Minnesota
Department of Communication Studies
225 Ford Hall
224 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Editor: Beatrice Dehler
Secretary: Ronald W. Greene
_____________________________________________________________________
I was happy to see so many alums stay so late into the evening at the Minnesota Party in
celebration of Karlyn Campbell. I wanted to thank everyone for making it such a great event. A
special congratulations goes out to Professor Alan Gross for receiving a well-deserved NCA
Distinguished Scholar Award.
Ron Greene
Senior Faculty (NCA) Activities
Ron Greene
Last year my essay "Another Materialist Rhetoric" won the Charles Woolbert Award. So in
Chicago we had the panel to discuss the work. Ed Schiappa, Matt May, and Kristen Swenson
were part of a good panel.
I was happy to return to my performance roots in Chicago and did a performance with Dr. Amy
Darnell from Columbia College (MO) for the 100 years in 100 minutes panel. We performed
"Performance as Knowing/Knowing as Performance" by Mary Francis Hopkins and Beverly
Whittaker Long.
Susanne Jones
Jones, S. M., Hansen, W., & Hughes, S. (2014, November). How the genie got in the bottle:
Initial results for an appraisal-based model of mindful supportive communication. Presented at
the Communication and Social Cognition division of the National Communication Association,
Chicago, IL. (Top 3 Paper)
Bodie, G., Cannava, K., Vickery, A. J., & Jones, S. M. (2014, November). The role of “active
listening” in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener helpfulness,
sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement. Presented at the
Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.
Jones, S. M. (2014, November). The mark of person-centered speech on interpersonal
communication scholarship. (Panel Presenter). Competitive panel held in the Interpersonal
Communication Division of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.
Ascan Koerner
“Family Communication Patterns, Family Sexual Communication, and Adult Children’s Sexual
Communication, Satisfaction, and Relationship Quality”
Mark Pedelty and Joy Hamilton
“Act Like it Matters: Putting Art, Performance, and Popular Culture into Environmental
Communication Curriculum”
(Presented at the Environmental Communication Pedagogy and Practice NCA Preconference)
Arthur Walzer
“Norton Anthology on Rhetoric and Writing: A Response to Robert Hariman”
(Chair and Participant)
Panel: Appropriating Foucault for Communication Studies
(Respondent)
Graduate Student (NCA) Activities
Jacquelyn Arcy
“A Dolla Make Me Holla’: Finance and Sentiment in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo”
&
“Affect & Activism in Feminist Media Studies: Mapping Conceptual Links before and after the
Affective Turn”
Emma Bedor
Re-Evaluating the Gaze for Revenge Pornography/“Gonna Show the World…” Using Classic
Critiques to Make Feminist Sense of Today’s TV, Global Brands, Reporting on Violence Against
Women, and Revenge Porn
Shelby Bell
“Supreme Court Authority: Deeds Done in Words”
(Communication and Law Division Scholar to Scholar Session)
Diane Cormany
“The Affective Flows of Financial News Media: CNBC’s The Closing Bell”
&
“Whitewashing Memories of Violence on Game of Thrones”
Carly Danielson
“Student Bullying as ‘Repetitive’” Societal Conceptualizations and Implications”
Liora Elias
“Outside the Box: Representations of and Possibilities for Transgender People on TV”
(Co-authored with alumni Raechel Tiffee)
&
“’Is Laverne Cox the Woman We’ve Been Waiting For?’ Transgender Possibilities and
Resistance to the Carceral State In/Outside of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black”
(co-authored with alumni Raechel Tiffee)
Mia Fischer
“”Free CeCe! The Tragic Consequences of Transgender Deviance”
&
“Under the Ban-Optic Gaze: Chelsea Manning and the State’s Surveillance of Transgender
Bodies”
(top three papers in NCA’s LGBT division)
Elena Hristova
“Speaking the Public Intellectual: Race, Media, and Praxis in the Public Sphere”
Allison Prasch
“Towards a Rhetorical Theory of Deixis”
(Paper competitively selected by Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division)
&
“Saluting the ‘Skutnik’: The Civic Hero in Presidential Discourse”
(co-authored with Julia Scatliff)
Special Note to Alumni
Dear Alumni Members of the Department of Communication Studies:
As graduate students in the Department of Communication Studies, we would like to express our
deepest gratitude for your active participation and generosity at the Minnesota Party at the NCA
conference in Chicago. It was our great pleasure meeting and sharing such a wonderful moment
with you to celebrate the 100th anniversary of NCA and Professor Campbell’s lifelong
contributions to our discipline. Without your generosity, contributions and concerted effort to
advance our discipline we are unable to attend these conferences and continue our scholarly
work. For many of us, it was our first NCA conference and it was exciting to see the energy and
enthusiasm that the network of friendship and scholarship created at the party. The opportunity to
meet with professional scholars strengthened our shared believe that our strong sense of
community is vital to the advancement of our scholarly research and communal ethos. We are all
very thankful to be a part of this vibrant community and its history.
Again, we thank you for your generosity and support.
The Communication Studies Graduate Student Association
Teaching Faculty (NCA) Activities
Alyssa Isaacs
“Defining, connecting, implementing: Furthering the field of family sexual
Communication”
Scott Makstenieks
“Tradition for a Modern Ummah: Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s Rhetoric of Contemporary
Islam in a Post 9/11 World”
Other Department Activities
Senior Faculty
Susanne Jones
Susanne Jones has been busy working on her research in social support. Best news, the first pub
on mindful communication is published in the peer-reviewed journal, Mindfulness.
Jones, S. M., & Hansen, W. D. (2014). Mindful supportive communication: Three
empirical studies exploring initial connections. Mindfulness.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12671-014-0362-7
Together with Graham Bodie from Louisiana State University and his students, Jones also
published papers in Communication Monographs, Communication Studies, and the Western
Journal of Communication.
Bodie, G., Cannava, K., Vickery, A. J., & Jones, S. M. (in press). Patterns of
nonverbal adaptation in supportive interactions. Communication Studies.
Bodie, G., Cannava, K., Vickery, A. J., & Jones, S. M. (January, 2015). The role of
“active listening” in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener
helpfulness, sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement.
Western Journal of Communication.
Bodie, G., Jones, S. M., & Vickery, A., Hatcher, L., & Cannava, K. (2014). Examining
the construct validity of enacted support: A multitrait-multimethod analysis of four
perspectives for judging immediacy and listening behaviors. Communication
Monographs. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2014.957223
Ascan Koerner
Ascan Koerner gave a colloquium entitled “Family Communication Patterns: The Next 25 Years”
at the University of Missouri Department of Communication Studies on December 5, 2014.
Mark Pedelty
“Making Music with, for, and at Animals”
(Keynote lecture and performance presented with David Rothenberg at the Ecomusicologies III
Conference)
Asheville, NC
“Sounds Studies, Ecomusicology, and PostHumanism in/for/with Ethnomusiciology”
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pittsburgh, PA
Pedelty, Mark and Morgan Kuecker. “Seen to be Heard? Gender, Voice, and Body in Television
Advertisements.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 11, no. 3 (2014): 250-269.
Amy Sheldon
Invited chapter:
Sheldon, A. forthcoming. "Thank you for heckling me: Hillary Rodham Clinton's discursive
management of her public persona, her political message, and the 'Iron my shirt!' hecklers in the
2008 Presidential election campaign." In John Wilson and Diana Boxer (eds.), Discourse,
Politics and Women as Global Leaders. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Invited conference particpation (accepted):
Sheldon, A. "'Oooh, this smells like strawberry': American preschoolers evaluations of synthetic
food odors in color markers during an art activity -- metonymic mapping, embodied cognition".
Paper for the panel "Adapting food, adapting language" at the 14th Conference of the
International Pragmatics Association in Antwerp, 26-31 July 2015.
Teaching recognition:
Mentor, President's Distinguished Faculty Mentor Program, 2014-2015
Graduate Students
Emma Bedor
Catfish-ing With Foucault: Discipline and Punishment in the Digital Panopticon/” It’s Real Life,
Lower Your Expectations”: Gender(ed) Performances in Post-Recessionary Situation Comedies
and Reality Television
National Women’s Studies Association
San Juan, Puerto Rico
November 2014
&
“Material Minds: Psychiatric Research Practices and the Case of Dan Markingson”
Stephen Bennett
“Kayne West, Runaway, and the Crazy-Making of a Black Auteur”
Dean Hooper New Scholars Conference
Drew University, Madison, NJ
Bennett, Stephen. “The Othering of Palestinians in Film: Munich and Waltz with Bashir.”
Networking Knowledge, Vol. 7, no 3 (2014).
Liora Elias
“Post(ing) Same-Sex Marriage: Discourse of Marriage Rights as they Circulate on and Around
ABC’s Modern Family”
Film and History Conference, Madison, WI
Mia Fischer
“Terrorizing Chelsea Manning – Transgender Surveillance and the U.S. Security State”
National Women’s Studies Association
San Juan, Puerto Rico
November 2014
Fischer, M. (2015). “Under the Ban-Optic Gaze: Chelsea Manning and the State’s Surveillance
of Transgender Bodies” in E. van der Meulen & R. Heynen (Eds.), Expanding the Gaze: Gender
and the Politics of Surveillance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (forthcoming 2015)
Awarded a $900 travel award from the Council of Graduate Students, December 2014.
Elena Hristova
“Patricia J. Williams on the Radio: Speaking Race, Speaking Praxis in the 1997 BBC Reith
Lectures”
“Time Out For Victory!”: Women, Work, and Comic Books During the Second World War:
Engendering Education, Engendering Labor
(Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender)
Elena also won a Lent Award for Comics Scholarship (2014) – Popular Culture
Association/American Culture Association.
Allison Page
“Slavery’s Not Funny but You People are Hilarious’: Race, Satire, and New Media”
American Studies Association Conference
Los Angeles, CA
November 2014
Page, A. “How Many Slaves Work for You?’ Race, New Media, and Neoliberal Consumer
Activism.” Journal of Consumer Culture. Pre-published online October 8, 2014.
Page, A. and Stephen Dillon. “The Haunting of Evidence.” Special issue of Cultural
Studies/Critical Methodologies, “From Emmett Til to Trayvon Martin.” Forthcoming
Page A. “Circulating Cuteness: Affect, Capital, and Cute Animal Videos.” In Visceral Media:
Interrogating Affect in Contemporary Media Culture, edited by Hollis Griffin. Forthcoming on
Routledge.
Allison Prasch
“The Significance of Place in U.S. Presidential Public Address”
“Doing Rhetoric at the U”
(Graduate Student Conference, University of Minnesota)
“Book Review: The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoricof American Power
by Mary E. Stuckey.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 17, no. 3
(Fall 2014): 553-558.
Jules Wight
Wight, J. (2014). "Considering Hall and Reconsidering Foundations of the Popular", The Popular
Culture Studies Journal. Vol. 2.
Wight, J. (2014). Saving Private Manning? On Erasure and the Queer in the I am Bradley
Manning Campaign. Paper Session: Now You See It, Now You Don’t: On Codes Screens,
Visibility, and Erasure. International Communication Association, Seattle, WA.
Wight, J. (2014). Moving Beyond the Limits of Authorship?: Michelle Obama’s 2012
Convention Speech.
Panel: Political Rhetoric and Discourse. International Communication Association, Seattle, WA.
Recent Dissertations
Mark Martinez: "Care of the Machine Self: Physiology, Cybernetics, Humanistic Systems in
Ergonomics" (Adviser: Ronald Walter Greene)
Dana Schowalter: Philanthropy as Gendered Global Governance: Philanthrocapitalism, Branded
Citizenship, and the Selling of Corporate Social Responsibility (Adviser: Mary Vavrus)
Shannon Stevens: “Revolution in the countryside”: Shifting Financial Paradigms Amid the Rhetoric of
the “Farm Crisis,” 1925-1933 (Adviser: Ronald Walter Greene)
Undergraduate Students
Under the direction of instructor Mia Fischer, the undergraduate students in her COMM 3201
Media Production class produced an excellent public service announcement on white privilege
and racism in light of the “BlackLivesMatter protests.
Peter Gregg and Mark Neuman-Scott's Comm 3204 sections worked with eight local clients to
produce public service announcements, including motivating people to volunteer with exoffender reentry (Amicus), seeking counseling after experiencing sexual violence (Sexual
Violence Center), installing recycling containers at convenience stores (Recycling Association of
Minnesota), stress management for students, employees, and faculty at the U of MN (PAWS),
adopting pets and changing the image of Minneapolis Animal Control and Care, Green Line
safety tips for U students (UofM Department of Public Safety and Transportation), UofM 624WALK and Academy of Whole Learning School serving children with Autism Spectrum and
Intellectual Disability Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID).
Peter Gregg and Mark Neuman-Scott's audio-only follow-up to their webseries Forsythia won
"Best New Original Ongoing Production" at the 2014 Audio Verse Awards. It was also
nominated for "Best Writing of an Ongoing Original Short-Form Production," "Best Audio
Engineering in an Ongoing Original Production," "Best Ongoing Original Short-form Drama of
the Year," "Best Ongoing Original Short-form Production of the Year," "Best Actress in an
Original Supporting Role," "Best Actor in an Original Leading Role." A number of U of MN
undergraduates worked on the series.
Raven Johnson (BA, 2014) has finished her first semester at New York University’s MFA Film
Program, and Erin Phipps (BA, 2014) has finished her first semester at the London School of
Film, also for her MFA.
The guest speakers for this year’s Communication Studies Association Alumni Panel Event were:
Carolyn Marinan
(Public Relations Officer for Hennepin County Communications)
Brian Numainville
(Principal of Retail Feedback Group)
Allison O’Neil
(Catapult Marketing)
Brooke Eibert
(Solution Design Group)
The Minnesota Debate Team recently concluded a very successful semester, including
elimination round appearances in all of the major invitationals. The team of Cody Crunkilton
(Political Science, Spanish) and Miranda Ehrlich (Communications, Political Science) performed
particularly well, with their performances earning an invitation to the prestigious Dartmouth
Round Robin in late January, where they will compete against top teams from Emory,
Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, and Northwestern.
Teaching Faculty
Nan Gesche (M.A. __) was selected to speak at the Women Entrepreneurs of Minnesota
Conference in October, 2014. She continues to teach leadership development at the Graduate
School of Banking in Madison, WI.
Alyssa Isaacs (Ph.D. ___) wrote an entry entitled “Teen Pregnancy” for The Encyclopedia of
Family Studies. This 5-volume reference work will serve to increase awareness of research
questions and findings across professionals in different fields and to introduce beginning scholars,
interested laypersons and journalists to key issues in the broad field of “family studies.”’
(description of the encyclopedia)
Alumni
Beth E. Bonnstetter (Ph.D. 2008) has been named a 2014 Faculty Fellow by the Academy of
Television Arts & Sciences. She will be spending a week in Burbank, CA attending an intensive
on the television industry. This is awarded to only 20 faculty nationally a year.
Mark Braun, Provost and Dean of the College at Gustavus, received the 2014 Council of
Independent Colleges (CIC) Chief Academic Officer Award at the 42nd Annual Institute for Chief
Academic and Chief Financial Officers on Saturday, Nov. 1 in Portland, Ore.
Marty Lewis-Hunstiger (MA, '83) is Managing Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of
Partnership Studies, a new open-access peer-reviewed journal launched November 18, cosponsored by Riane Eisler's Center for Partnership Studies and the University of Minnesota
School of Nursing. She continues as Editor of Creative Nursing: A Journal of Values, Issues,
Experience, and Collaboration, a quarterly peer-reviewed professional nursing journal, and is an
affiliate faculty member in the School of Nursing, teaching writing for publication and facilitating
small-group discussions in the Foundations of Interprofessional Communication and
Collaboration course sponsored by the Academic Health Center.
Wendy Introwitz Pareene (BA 2010) using pseudonym Wendy Wilde, News Director at KTOE
Radio News in Mankato, Minnesota, received eight First Place Awards for radio news in 2013.
They are:
Edward R. Murrow Awards Region 4
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin
First Place Best Newscast
Eric Sevareid Awards Northwest Broadcast News Association
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska
First Place Best Newscast
First Place Best Sound
First Place Best Website
Minnesota Associated Press
First Place Best Newscast
First Place Best Spot Hard News Reporting
First Place Best Feature
First Place Best Website News
_____________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your “bits and pieces” for COMMPOSTING. As your paper version COMMPOST
editor of 34+ years and a member of the Department of Communication Studies for almost 44
years, I thought it appropriate to send one final paper version of the newsletter as I permanently
sign off retiring on March 6, 2015. In addition to spending extra time with my siblings, nieces,
nephews, and great nieces and nephews I plan to do a little traveling (Shanghai, China in
September and maybe London, England in December). I also am going to try to retrain myself to
sleep later than 5:00 a.m., continue to have lunch with Joan Lund, and do lots of nothing, at least
for a while. During the reflecting part of my days, I will think of you all with fondness. My
commitment to the department and to the university has been because of you and I thank you for
all the wonderful memories. An informal reception (no speeches) and light lunch will be held on
Friday, February 26 from 11am-2pm in 200 Ford Hall. For more information, contact Jennifer
Hammer ([email protected]), Ron Greene ([email protected]), or Mary Vavrus
([email protected]). Please RSVP so we have an idea of how much food to order.
Bea Dehler