Department of Communication faculty and graduate students at NDSU participated at the National Communication Association Convention, held Nov. 11-15 in Chicago. In addition to serving as chairs, respondents and members of national committees and division, the following faculty presented papers:
Stephenson Beck, assistant professor, presented “The Use of Relational Messages to Accomplish Task and Relational Meeting Activities in Three Meeting Contexts,” “Predispositional Influence on the Interpretation of Meeting Conflict Interaction” and “Family Communication Patterns of Influence on Adult Children’s Romantic Rituals and Relational Maintenance.” He gave the third presentation with Michael Fowler from West Virginia University.
Beck also received the Laura Crowell Dissertation/Thesis Award from the National Communication Association Group Communication Division for his dissertation, “The Communicative Creation of Meetings: An Interaction Analysis of Meeting Thought Units and Meeting Activities in Three Natural Meeting Contexts.” The American Psychological Association, Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy Division also announced that Beck is a finalist for their Dissertation Award.
Elizabeth Crisp Crawford, assistant professor, presented “A Fractured Femininity: A Post-feminist Narrative Analysis of Ellen von Unwerth’s Commercial and Artistic Creative.”
Robert S. Littlefield, professor, presented “Dissemination as Success: Local Emergency Management Communication Practices” with Shari Veil from the University of Oklahoma and Katherine Rowan from George Mason University. He also presented “Spokesperson Credibility: Ethos and Identification of Food-related Crisis and Emergency Risk Messages by Culturally Diverse Groups” with NDSU graduate student Kimberly Cowden, Julie Novak from Wayne State University, Robert Ulmer from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and Nadra Curry from Mississippi Valley State University.
Zoltan Majdik, assistant professor, presented “Looking for Legitimacy: Deficiencies of Justification in Direct-to-Consumer Genetics.”
Paul E. Nelson, professor, presented “Five Years Out Basic Course Division Spotlight Panel.”
Amy O’Connor, assistant professor, presented “The Dilemma of NGO-Corporate Alliances in the Global Commons” with Michelle Shumate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Carrie Anne Platt, assistant professor, presented “Blogging in the Communication Technology Course,” “Cullen Family Values: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Twilight Series” and “Writing in Public: Blogging in the Classroom Technology Course.” She also presented “Green-Eyed (Step) Monsters: Parental Figures’ Experience of Jealousy in the Stepfamily” with Becky DeGreeff, an NDSU doctoral student.
Judy C. Pearson, professor, presented “A New Model of Relational Quality: A Mediating Relationship Between Privacy Management, Relational Uncertainty, and Relational Quality” with Michael Burns and Anna Carmon, both NDSU doctoral students. She also presented “Family Ties: Exploring the Impact of Family Communicative Culture and Parental Privacy Invasions on the Strength of Young Adults’ Parental Attachment Bonds” with Jeffrey Child from Kent State University.
Nan Yu, assistant professor, presented “Bloody Humor: A Comparative Study of Political Cartoons of the War in Iraq in the United States and the Middle East” with Weirui Wang and Worapron Worawongs from Penn State University.
Kimberly Beauchamp, a doctoral student in communication, was recognized with a top student paper award for “Maple Leaf Foods: Timely Responses During a Food-related Crisis.” Other NDSU communication department graduate students presenting at the convention included Laura Farrell, Katherine Gronewold, Amorette Hinderaker, Amy Miller, Nadene Vevea and Kai Western.