News and Events
NCA Mid-Career Scholars' Writing Retreat 2021
The NCA Mid-Career Scholars' Writing Retreat (MCSWR) is designed to provide the opportunity for intensive writing time. Retreat participants will have uninterrupted time to work towards the completion of scholarship and/or a creative project. The goal of the retreat is to support significant progress on the completion of an in-progress project that will help toward promotion to Full Professor. The MCSWR is specifically targeted to faculty who have been Associate Professor for at least 5 years (that is, tenured in 2014-2015 or prior).
Welcome Letter and Schedule
You should have received a welcome letter and schedule from our Department Chair, Dr. Patrice M. Buzzanell. If you need an additional copy of either, you can find the letter and schedule here.
Virtual Meeting Space
USF officially uses Microsoft Teams for all virtual meetings and communications. All sessions for the MCSWR will be held using MS Teams. The user experience is much more fluid with the program installed on your device; you can download Teams here.
All session links will be emailed out in advance. If you need meeting links and have not received them via email by Sunday 7/25, please contact Aaron Castillo, castillo3@usf.edu.
MCSWR Mentors
Travis L Dixon
Professor Dixon is a media effects scholar who specializes in investigating the prevalence of stereotypes in the mass media and the impact of stereotypical imagery on audience members. He has been honored as a faculty fellow with UIUC's Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society and he was the 2013 Visiting Philanthropy Faculty Scholar at the Clinton School of Public Service. Dr. Dixon has received 7 top paper awards from the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association. He has also received a top article award from the National Communication Association. Dr. Dixon serves on the editorial boards of Communication Research, Howard Journal of Communications, Media Psychology, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Much of Dr. Dixon's work has been focused on racial stereotyping in television news. His more recent investigations examine the content and effects of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in major news events, online news, and musical contexts.
Laura L. Ellingson
Laura Ellingson's research focuses on gender in extended families, feminist and qualitative methodologies, and interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork in health care organizations. She also publishes extensively in the field of qualitative methodology, on topics such as ethnography, embodiment, and envisioning a continuum approach to social science methodologies. Currently, Laura is collaborating with Photographer and Visual Artist Renee Billingslea, SCU Art & Art History Dept., and SCU alumna Kristian Borofka, on a project exploring communication in the lives of long-term cancer survivors, entitled "Voicing Survivorship." A website highlighting the "photovoice" phase of the project shares participants' photos, their thoughts and stories, and information on survivorship. Laura also is the author of Communicating in the Clinic: Negotiating Frontstage and Backstage Teamwork (2005, Hampton) and Engaging Crystallization in Qualitative Research (2009, Sage), and co-author with Patty Sotirin of Aunting: Cultural Practices that Sustain Family and Community Life (2010, Baylor University Press) and Where the Aunts Are: Family, Feminism, and Kinship in Popular Culture (2013, Baylor University Press).
Retreat Coordinator
