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Alumni Edition

Notes from the Chair:

Joan Lund, our Executive Secretary, will retire on April 30, 2009.  She began work at the University of Minnesota on May 1, 1966 and has worked in the department since the fall of 1967.  A reception will be held at the Campus Club in 412 Coffman Memorial Union on Thursday, April 23rd from 2:00-4:00 pm.  A short program will begin at 3:00.  Please join us for the event if you can!

—Ed

Senior Faculty

Karlyn Kohrs Campbell presented “The U.S. Presidency: Deeds Done in Words” at the Minne-College held at the Xona Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.  On Sunday, March 9th, she traveled to Tucson to make a similar presentation to the Alumni chapter located there.

Alan Gross published “The Continuity of Scientific Discovery and Communication:  The Example of Michael Faraday” in the Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration.  It is available through the Library’s website and at http://journals.uic.edu/jbdc.  It is his first venture into the world of peer viewed, open source online journals.

Kirt Wilson visited the University of Michigan in January, representing the University of Minnesota as part of the CIC Academic Leadership Program.  He and the other CIC Fellows discussed Michigan’s administrative structure and its current practices.

Kirt Wilson lectured at Pennsylvania State University on March 27, 2009 on the topic of Abraham Lincoln’s rhetorical mediation of emancipation.  He will present his research to Penn State’s Center for Democratic Deliberation.

Graduate Students

Kristine Weglarz presented the paper “Authenticating U2:  Zoo TV and the Authenticity Crisis in Rock” at the Western States Communication Association’s conference in Phoenix, AZ February 2009.

Emanuelle Wessels will present “Occasioning the Real: Lacan, Deleuze and the Cinematic Structuring of Sense” at the International Communication Association Conference in Chicago IL in May 2009.

Debate News

The University of Minnesota will be represented at the 63rd National Debate Tournament (NDT) by the partnership of Logan Chin (sophomore-Edina) and Arif Hasan (junior-Bloomington) who qualified for the championship tournament by finishing second in the upper Midwest’s regional qualifying competition, and will vie with the top debate teams from across the nation for the national title.  The NDT is the oldest and one of the most prestigious collegiate debate competitions in the country, and Chin & Hasan have the distinction of being the first Golden Gophers to qualify for the tournament since 1983.

Alumni/Department Friends

Beth Bonnstetter (Ph.D. 2008) Adams State College, Alamosa, CO, presented  “Unconventional Grief for an Unconventional Celebrity:  Fandom, Parasocial Theory, and Death—or How I Grieved for a Game Show Host” at the November 2008 NCA conference.

Jinbong Choi (Ph.D. 2005) Texas State University, San Marcos, gave invited lectures to congressmen of the Democratic Party at National Assembly and students at Kook-Min University on March 5, 2009 in South Korea.

Michael W. Pfau, Professor & Chair of Communication at the University of Oklahoma, passed away on March 12th after a brief illness. Michael was an alumnus of the University of Minnesota; his major was Political Science, but he was a debater and did study communication, hence he was well known in our department by faculty and students.  He taught and coached debate in high school in Minnesota, attended meetings of the Minnesota Communication Association, and then moved to graduate school; his Ph.D. was from the University of Arizona.  His son, Michael William Pfau, is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

Holly Windle (M.A. 1978) has written a biography of a remarkable Iraqi-Armenian woman who was a musical pioneer in her own country.  Baghdad Barcarolle: How Beatrice Ohanessian became Iraq’s foremost classical pianist was published by Nodin Press in 2008.  With a shifting cast of Arab princes, diplomats, and musicians, the book depicts Ohanessian’s role as informal musical ambassador for her country—through its revolution in 1958, the long Iran-Iraq War, and the hardships imposed by UN sanctions.

We are saddened to report that our friend and mentor, Professor Ernest G. Bormann, passed away in December 2008. A memorial service will be held on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in the Lakewood Cemetery Chapel, 3600 Hennepin Avenue South, Mpls., MN.  An informal reception will follow at his daughter Lisa and her husband Franz’ home near the cemetery. Maps will be available at the chapel with directions to their home. Please visit “In Memoriam Ernest G. Bormann 1925-2008” at www.comm.umn.edu

Please submit your "bits and pieces" for the September alumni edition of COMMPOST to Bea Dehler at dehle001@umn.edu.

March 2009 Vol. 27, #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