May 2008 Vol. 26, #3
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Department of Communication Studies
225 Ford Hall, 224 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Editor: Beatrice Dehler
Secretary: Edward Schiappa
Senior Faculty
Professors Alan Gross and Art Walzer, currently housed in the Department of Writing Studies, will be joining the Department of Communication Studies effective July 1, 2008. Welcome to the Department!
Beginning May 15, 2008 Kirt Wilson will be passing the Director of Graduate Studies duties on to Mary Douglas Vavrus.
Under the direction of Professor Edward Schiappa, students in the spring 2008 seminar "Parents & Media Research" have created a website for "What Every Parent Should Know" about current research on media. Seminar students were Heidi S. Croatt, Thomas C. Johnson, Alyssa M. Isaacs, Kimberly Klietz, Ashleigh K. Shelton, and Kristine A. Weglarz. To visit the site, see: www.comm.umn.edu/cml/cml.html.
Ronald Greene has contracted to write two 3000 word entries for the Encyclopedia of Communication. Entry titles: Marxism and Modernity.
Ascan Koerner (with M. Rueter, Associate Professor of Family Social Science) presented "The Interaction between Family Communication and Adoption Status on Adolescent Adjustment" at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence.
Laurie Ouellette was interviewed by the Star Tribune, WCCO Morning Show, Boston Globe, Associated Press, WCCO AM Don Shelby Show, and the New York Times regarding her research on media.
Laurie Ouellette published a chapter in the book Feminist Television Criticism (Oxford University Press, 2008) and two encyclopedia entries in Battleground: The Media (Greenwood Press, 2008). Her article "Do Good TV" was selected (from more than 500 publications) as a Flow TV favorite by the television criticism website flowtv.org.
Amy Sheldon’s article, "You Can be the Baby Brother but You Aren’t Born Yet" which was originally published in Research on Language and Social Interaction, 29(1), 57-80, will be reprinted in the following collection: Ian Hutchby (Ed.), forthcoming for 2008. Methods in Language and Social Interaction. London. Sage Publications.
Amy Sheldon was an invited participant in the online blog discussion, "Interdisciplinarity in the study of communication, language, and gender." This is for a special issue of the journal Women & Language.
Amy Sheldon is participating in the Institute for Advanced Studies’ Planning Committee meetings for the Body and Knowing Symposium for 2008-09.
Amy Sheldon served at the invitation of CLA Interim Dean James Parente on the Linguistics Planning Committee, which submitted an advisory report with recommendations for the future status of the Program in Linguistics at the University.
New Faculty Books
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell & Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Presidents Creating the Presidency: Deeds Done in Words (University of Chicago Press, 2008).
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell & Susan Schulz Huxman, The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking, & Writing Critically (Wadsworth, 2008).
Laurie Ouellette & James Hay, Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).
Edward Schiappa, Beyond Representational Correctness: Rethinking Criticism of Popular Media (SUNY, 2008).
Graduate Student News
Casey Ryan Kelley and Matthew May both received Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships for the academic year 2008-09. Casey’s dissertation title is "The Rhetorical Culture of Red Power and American Indian Occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969-1971)." Matt’s title is "Class Composition and Rhetorical Culture: The Free Speech Fights of the Industrial Workers of the World (1908-1916)."
Thomas C. Johnson will receive a Graduate Student Teaching Award from the Instructional and Development Communication Division of the International Communication Association at the International Communication Association Conference, Montreal, QC, Canada, May 2008.
Amy Pason was part of the organizing collective for the "Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value" conference held at the University on April 11-13, 2008. There were over 150 people in attendance and speakers from all over the nation talked about issues related to the corporatization of the university and unionization.
Recent MA Degree
Kimberly Klietz
Plan B
Adviser: Edward Schiappa
Graduate Student Placement
Beth Bonnstetter, Adams State College, Alamosa, CO
(Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track)
Namoi Kagawa, University of Texas at Tyler
(Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track)
Michael Lee, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
(Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track)
Spring 2008 Convention Papers and Participant Activities
(Faculty, Graduate Students, Teaching Faculty)
Third Summit on Communication & Sport
Clemson University, Clemson, SC
February 2008
Thomas C. Johnson (Graduate Student)
"Endearing Branding: Peyton Manning as Pitchman"
Western States Communication Association
Denver, CO
February 16-19, 2008
Beth Bonnstetter (Graduate Student)
"Glamour and Glitter, Fashion and Fame: JEM and the Contradictions of Girl’s Product-Based Cartoons"
Jessica Prody (Graduate Student)
"Looking at the Local: The Importance of Structure in Social Movement Scholarship"
Southern States Communication Association
Monica Moore (Graduate Student)
"Disciplining the Self in Desperate Housewives"
and
"Recuperating Agency, Voice, and the Future of a Corporation on Marthatalks.com"
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Philadelphia, PA
March 6-9, 2008
Ronald Greene (Faculty)
"Taking the Audiences Temperature: Entertainment-Education and the Promotion of Reproductive Health"
Laurie Ouellette (Faculty)
"Citizen Brand: Neoliberal Governmentality and Post-Network Television Culture"
Julie Wilson (Graduate Student)
"Star Testing: Post-Feminism and Celebrity Gossip"
Telling Stories:? Building Bridges Among Language, Narrative, Identity, Interaction, Society and Culture
GURT Conference-- Georgetown University Roundtable
March 2008
Amy Sheldon (Professor)
"Narrative Text In Interaction: Interactivity, Coordination, and Attunement in Children’s Multiparty Narrative Construction"
Central States Communication Association
Madison, WI
April 11-13, 2008
Samuel Boerboom (Graduate Student)
"There Is No Bright Side: Feminist Breast Cancer Activism"
(Top paper overall in the Women’s Caucus)
&
"Epideictic, Enthymeme, and the Problems of Activism"
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (Faculty)
Class instructor at the "Rhetoric Young Scholars Master Class" where she served as a seasoned scholar in the discipline.
Meg Kunde (Graduate Student)
"Scapegoating in Political Apologia: Blaming the Media”
&
"Independence Party Candidate Peter Hutchinson’s Success in Setting The Agenda in the 2006 Minnesota Gubernatorial Campaign and His Failure to Part From It"
Amy Pason (Graduate Student)
"The Global Public Sphere as a Citizen Centered Network"
Jessica Prody (Graduate Student)
"Challenging Patriarchy: Martyring Susan B. Anthony and the Emergence of a Suffragists Doctrine"
William A. Kern Conference on Visual Communication: Rhetoric and Technology
Rochester, NY
April 11-13, 2008
Peter Gregg (Teaching Faculty)
"Student Produced Public Service Announcements as Civic Engagement"
Console-ing Passions: International Conference on Television, Audio, Video, New Media and Feminism
Santa Barbara, CA
April 24-26, 2008
Alice Leppert (Graduate Student)
Julie Wilson (Graduate Student)
"Living The Hills Life: Lauren Conrad as Reality Star, Soap Opera Heroine, and Brand"
Emanuelle Wessels (Graduate Student)
"Feminism in the Gendered Panopticon: Commander in Chief, Surveillance, and the Discursive Limits of Poststructuralist Feminism"
UC-Santa Barbara Music and Politics Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference
Santa Barbara, CA
April, 2008
Kristine Weglarz (Graduate Student)
"Performed Authenticity: Sub Pop Records and the Musical Capital of ‘Liveness’"
Experience Music Project Pop Conference
Seattle, WA
April 2008
Kristine Weglarz (Graduate Student)
"Lifting the Curse: Pearl Jam’s ‘Alive,’ ‘Bushleaguer,’ and the Marketplace of the Meanings"
International Association for the Study of Popular Music—Canada Annual Conference, St. Catherine’s
Ontario Canada
May 2008
Kristine Weglarz (Graduate Student)
"From Music to Voting Blocs: An Analysis of Popular Musicians and Political Persuasion"
International Communication Association Presentations/Activities
Montreal, Ontario
May 24-28, 2008
Alyssa Isaacs (Graduate Student)
Ascan Koerner (Faculty)
"Linking Familial Typologies: An Investigation of the Relationship between Parenting
Styles and Family Communication Patterns"
Thomas C. Johnson (Graduate Student)
"What are the Relationships between Televised Sports Viewing Habits and Conformity to Masculine Norms?"
Eunsoon Lee (Graduate Student)
Ascan Koerner (Professor)
"Clustering Effect within Families and the Role of Power in Family Communication:
A Revised Analysis on Sillars et al.’s (2005) Article"
Laurie Ouellette (Professor)
"Remaking Citizens in the New Television Culture"
&
"Women’s Work: Affective Labor, Media Convergence and the Dr. Phil Brand,"
(co-authored with Julie Wilson, Graduate Student)
Laurie Ouellette is also chair/co-organizer of the Theorizing Labor in the New Labor Economy and chair of The Class, Gender, and Geopolitics of Reality TV.
Emanuelle Wessels (Graduate Student)
"Exploring the Ethical Possibilities and Limits of Visual Culture: Levinas’ Face of the Other and the Minnesota Science Museum’s Race Exhibit"
Julie Wilson (Graduate Student)
"Women’s Work" Affective Labor, Media Convergence, and the Dr. Phil Brand
(co-authored with Professor Laurie Ouellette)
&
"The Emerging Politics of Celebrity Consumption"
Rhetoric Society of America
Seattle, WA
May 23-26, 2008
Tim Behme (Teaching Faculty)
"Plato’s Description of Words as Kids"
Eli Brennan (Teaching Faculty)
"Resisting Scientific Authority: Science and Common Sense in the Science of Consciousness"
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Edward Schiappa (Faculty)
"Notable Scholars" who will be leaders in a special session titled
"Research Network: Sharing Work in Progress"
Casey Ryan Kelly (Graduate Student)
"Difference Matters: Color-Blindness, Equality, and American Indian Identity"
Jessica Prody (Graduate Student)
"A Rhetorical Approach to Collective Identity: Connecting and Constructing and International Suffrage Community"
Kirt H. Wilson (Faculty)
"Rhetoric’s Responsibility to Collective Memory and Social Justice:
Slavery, Guilt, and the Reparations Debate"
International Association for Relationship Research
Providence, Rhode Island
July 17-20, 2008
Ascan Koerner (Faculty)
Alyssa Isaacs (Graduate Student)
Heidi Croatt (Graduate Student)
"The Impact of Family Communication Patterns During Adolescence on Emerging Adults’ Psychological Adjustment and Their Risk Taking Behaviors during Adolescence."
Department News
The Department Spring Reception honoring all graduates was held on Friday, April 25th. A short program followed and these department awards were presented:
Arle and Billie Haeberle Undergraduate Award
Alexia Jade Franco
Marguerite Garden Jones Award
Justin Killian, Graduate Award
Pamela Nettleton, Graduate Award
Liliya Kosovan, Undergraduate Award
George Montgomery and Anna Florence Frizelle Reid Memorial Graduate Awards
Julie Wilson
Samuel Boerboom
Old Buffalo Graduate Award
Jessica Prody
Krauch Lund Undergraduate Scholarship
Will Wright
Brad Serber
Stuart A. Lindman Undergraduate Award
Maureen Ly
Nick Schoen III Undergraduate Scholarship
Jennifer Stiles
Under the direction of Professors Mary Vavrus and Gilbert Rodman, our weekly Wednesday Noon Research Meetings invited several special guests this past academic year, one of which included Professor Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His talk title: "Saving Economics from Economists: Imagining a Cultural Studies of Economics."
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Please submit your "bits and pieces" for the September alumni edition of COMMPOST to Bea Dehler at dehle001@umn.edu.