News and Events

February - Dr. Ambar Basu features with Alum Liahnna Stanley in the Journal of Applied Communication Research discussing MMT (methadone maintenance treatment) and its relevance to addiction recovery in the United States.

A new publication in the Journal of Communication titled, "A longitudinal analysis of involuntary job loss and communication resilience processes during the COVID-19 pandemic," by colleagues Steven Wilson, Josie Boumis, Dennis DeBeck, Patrice Buzzanell and alums Elizabeth Hintz and Timothy Betts!

Dr. Marleah Dean Kruzel and co-authors published their paper, ‘Applying the framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions to increase family communication about hereditary cancer,’ in PEC Innovation.

Dr. Patrice Buzzanell has been selected as a 2023 Distinguished Alumni Scholar @ Purdue University.

February - Doctoral student colleague Brianna Cusanno recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Communication & Performance at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. 

January 25 - Doctoral student colleague Evgeniya Pyatovskaya was recently interviewed by a Montreal newspaper Le Devoir about a new law that went into effect in December 2022 in Russia. The law covers so-called “traditional values” of Russia as a state – what they are, why it is needed. 

January 9 - Faculty colleague Dr. Patrick McElearney had his article, "A performative and dialogic approach to teach group roles, group conflict, and conflict management styles," published in Communication Teacher.

January - In a research study published in Communication Education, Dr. Steve Wilson has been named as one among the top 1% of Communication scholars who have published nine or more articles in Communication journals between 2017 and 2021. 

Doctoral student colleague Rana Elhendi's paper, co-authored by Patrice Buzzanell, “‘The Rubber Band is Already Broken’: An Extended Case Study of UNDP Transformative Resilience Framework in the Context of Palestine,” is one of the three top student papers in the Organizational Communication division @ ICA 2023. 

January 3rd - Dr Leon-Boys had her co-authored article, "The Teenage Latina Genius on Television: Netflix's Ashley Garcia" Published in Women's Studies in Communication.

Mariaelena Bartesaghi co-authored an article "Sharpiegate: Science, the state and professional vision in the constitution of weather" in the Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. 

December 2022 - Dr. Mariaelena Bartesaghi had her article, "It's not enough to hold that power." The gendering of advice in corporate discourse published in Advancing Women in Leadership Journal.

December 2022 - Dr. Mariaelena Bartesaghi had her article, "Considering Observation," published in Constructivist Foundations.

December 17th - Doctoral student colleagues Jonathan Baker and Brianna Cusanno and faculty colleague Dr. Marleah Dean Kruzel had their co-authored article, “Dilemmas in patient-clinician communication about do-it-yourself hormone therapy: A qualitative study” published in Qualitative Research in Health (a Social Science & Medicine journal).

December 2nd - Dr. Buzzanell was selected as one of the recipients of Purdue University's Title IX Distinguished Service Award. The award was presented in honor of the 50th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX to individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of gender equity in education.

October 2022 - Kevin was honored with a 2022 Global Excellence Award for the work he's in promoting global student success with study abroad programs in Florence, Paris, and Barcelona.

September 19th - Giorgia Meloni - the political provocateur set to become Italy's first far-right leader since Muccolini. was published in The Conversation. 

Dr. Aisha Durham’s essay, “Unmasking the Strongblackwoman in Mentoring,” was part of ICA’s forum titled, “Prying the Doors Open: Women of Color Mentoring in the Field of Communication,” which won the 2022 Apex Award for Publication Excellence in the category Magazines, Journals & Tabloids-Electronic. 

August 26th - Information Environments and Support for COVID-19 Mitigation Policies was published in the American Behavioral Scientist.

July 13th - Reframing performance's ontology: hybridity in contemporary performance art's ontology was published in the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media.

June 29th - Putin's propaganda is rooted in Russian History-and that's why it works was published in The Conversation.

June 27th - Dr. Aubrey Huber has been tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor!

May 30th - Dr. Ambar Basu and (PhD candidate) Parameswari Mukherjee had their article, "India's COVID vaccine gestures: From maitri to coloniality," published in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies.

Dr. Rachel Dubrofsky has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor!

Dr. Aisha Durham has been promoted to the rank of Full Professor!

December 15th - “Authenticating Whiteness: Karens, Selfies, and Pop Stars,” published with the University Press of Mississippi, is now available for pre-order. 

May 10th - “Narrating Estrangement: Autoethnographies of Writing Of(f) Family,” 

May 4th - "Conversations With My Son: A Poetic Autoethnography of Black Mothering Experiences," was published in Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies.

February 16th - Bodies in dialogue: offering a model for queer oral history

Dr. Josh  Scacco will receive the Central States Communication Association Judith S. Trent Award for 2022 for Early Career Excellent in Political Communication!

Doctoral student Rebecca Todd will receive this award for her top student paper in the Communication Education Interest Group!

Dr. Laurel Friedman has been selected to receive the 2020/2021 USF Provost’s Undergraduate Teaching Award!

Dr Kasandrea Sereno has been selected to receive the 2020/2021 USF Undergraduate Advising Award!

Ambar’s edited book Post-AIDS Discourse in Health Communication: Sociocultural Interpretations examines the discourse of a "post-AIDS" culture, and the medical-discursive shift from crisis and death to survival and living. Contributions from a diverse group of international scholars interrogate and engage with the cultural, social, political, scientific, historical, global, and local consumptions of the term "post-AIDS" from the perspective of meaning-making on health, illness, and well-being.

Co-Editor Dr. Patrick Dillon is a Ph.D. alumnus of the Department. The book has chapters written by current and former graduate students (Dr. Jaime Robb, Liahnna Stanley, Nivethitha Ketheeswaran, and Brianna Cusanno) and Department Affiliate Faculty colleague Dr. Nancy Romero-Daza. 

Aubrey’s book Communicating Social Justice in Teacher Education: Insights from a Critical Classroom Ethnography evolves out of ethnographic fieldwork. This text examines how ideas of social justice are articulated and communicated by pre-service teachers and graduate teaching assistants in the U.S. By positing the concept of "help" as a central tenet of social justice within teacher education, this volume offers a unique performative analysis of how the concept is communicatively constituted in teacher education and training. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in teacher education, critical communication studies, and the sociology of education more broadly.

Dr. Aisha Durham is the recipient of the 2021 Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award for her publication, “Wounded: Diagnosis (for a) Black Woman.”  

Dr. Durham will receive her award from the International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN) during the January conference. 

A copy of the book chapter is available online at the USF Library.

Statement by the NCA Woman's Caucus: The Women's Caucus mission is “to advocate for women's improved status, voice, and opportunities in the discipline. In doing so, we are committed to exploring the diversity and complexities of women's lives in terms of their academic and professional experiences. ” We feel Navita's life work is an exemplar of this kind of a difference.

The Women’s Caucus offers the Francine Merritt Award to someone who has made a difference in the field of communication through her/his mentoring, service, advocacy, teaching, and scholarship.

The Donald P. Cushman Memorial Award honors the top-ranked student-authored paper from all NCA units that competitively rank papers for programming at the NCA Annual Convention.

The John Warren Top Student Paper Award 2021 honors Anjuliet Woodruffe's "Conversations with My Son: A Poetic Autoethnography of Black Mothering Experiences"

The award honors Dr. Marsha Houston, noted African American feminist communication scholar, who was instrumental in helping raise and duly ensure recognition of the collective academic voices of African American women and other women of color in conventional feminist communication. This award will be given to a junior to mid-level career woman scholar whose scholarship and research, teaching, service and advocacy to academe and their local communities (especially as it pertains to activism) embodies critically examining social justice issues, diversity/inclusion, equity. Diversity would include any focus on marginalized or un(der)represented populations and initiative to problem solved improve local, regional, national, or global community.

The award is presented to the person judged to have made the greatest contribution to the association and to the profession during their career and is generally, but not necessarily, given to a person who has made a number of contributions during their career. The contributions may be in research, teaching, or service. In most cases, the individual selected will have made outstanding contributions in all three areas.

The Mark L. Knapp Award in Interpersonal Communication recognizes career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to the study of interaction and/or relational processes. This recipient will also have contributed to the quality of interpersonal communication through active involvement in the discipline, significant mentoring of students, and/or public service focused on interpersonal communication.