NCA Awards & Scholars

David A. Wendt, Keokuk High School, Iowa

Anne Marie "Reeze" LaLonde Hanson, Haskell Indian Nations University

Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Ted J. Foster, Ohio University

Kathleen M. Galvin, Northwestern University

M. Lee Potts, University of Colorado, Boulder

Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award

Edward Schiappa, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

John Fliter, Kansas State University, "The Impact of Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of University of Virginia on Public Forum Doctrine." Free Speech Yearbook, Vol. 37, 1999.

Ronald J. Pelias, Southern Illinois University

Lawrence R. Frey, University of Memphis

Stephen Howard Browne, The Pennsylvania State University, Angelina Grimke:: Rhetoric, Identity, and the Radical Imagination. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999.

John Durham Peters, University of Iowa, Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. University of Chicago Press, 1999

Golden Anniversary Monograph Award

Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado, Boulder, "Communication Theory as a Field." Communication Theory, 9 (May 1999): 119-161.

Stephen M. Haas, Rutgers University, "Relationship Maintenance in Gay Male Couples Coping with HIV/AIDS." Ohio State University, Dale E. Brashers and Laura Stafford, Co-Directors.

Garth E. Pauley, Calvin College, "The Modern Presidency and Civil Rights Rhetoric: Presidential Discourse on Race from Roosevelt to Nixon." The Pennsylvania State University, Thomas W. Benson, Director.

Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois," Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73 (May, 1987): 133-150.

Robert K. Newman, emeritus, University of Pittsburgh, currently at the University of Iowa

Ellen A. Wartella, University of Texas at Austin

Deborah F. Atwater, The Pennsylvania State University

Anita Taylor, George Mason University

This coveted award is presented annually to an NCA member who has given outstanding cumulative service in research, teaching and/or service to both NCA and the profession. The 2000 recipient is:

Anita Taylor has been active in the discipline of communication for over forty years. She received her B. S. in 1957, her master’s degree in Communication in 1959, and her Ph.D. in public address and history from the University of Missouri – Columbia in 1971.

Professor Taylor has been actively engaged in service to the profession. She has literally influenced the lives of hundreds and shaped directions for our profession. Beginning with her visibility as an emerging leader in the community college segment at the state and NCA level, Professor Taylor’s record spans an amazing range of activities and interests, including the thankless, hard work of organizing state events and conferences, to the highly visible leadership role as NCA President in 1981, to her more recent contributions to enhance the inclusiveness of the profession by serving as Co-Chair of the NCA Task Force on the Status of Women in Leadership in 1992-1993 and as Chair of the NCA Task Force to Revise the Affirmative Action Policy Statement from 1995 through 1997.

Certainly, as Second Vice President, First Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President, Professor Taylor provided the full range of commitment, energy, and service to NCA that fewer than one hundred other people have ever contributed. But, Professor Taylor’s service has been unique. At extraordinary high levels, her commitment, service, and energy began twenty years before she became NCA President. Moreover, rather than retire from an active role in NCA, Professor Taylor’s professional service to NCA has continued for twenty years after she served as NCA President.

Anita Taylor’s service has made such a profound difference in the lives of so many who never could have been active in NCA and the profession without her contributions. Indeed, Professor Taylor raised her voice strongly, clearly, decisively, and in profoundly humane ways, so that the voices of those who otherwise would have been silent might be heard. As one of her colleagues put it, "Her prominence in gender and women’s studies in the field has also shown her deep and abiding commitment to ensuring that multiple voices are heard. Her role—often not official and, thus, not on her vita—in the Women’s Caucus and the newer Feminist and Women’s Studies Division of NCA has given focus and energy to the development of each group and has served to weave these groups and their members into the larger NCA structure more fully than . . . would have been possible without Anita."

Another colleague was careful to note that Professor Taylor’s service was powerful and active in a host of areas that might easily be neglected. She served for over ten years as Editor of Women and Language. She was an active participant in critical NCA decisions and implementation efforts, including the selection of the NCA Executive Director, Nominating Committee, Commission on Governmental Communication, Committee on Committees, National Office Review Committee, and Conference on Long Range Goals. As another colleague described the quality of this service: "[Professor Taylor] thinks carefully and systematically through complex issues and provides articulate and rational perspectives on them. Her style is one of affirmation and support for others and their ideas, even if they are different from her own. She is a tireless collaborator and works toward the achievement of consensus."

We present this award to Professor Taylor with a final observation about her: "She’s a diplomat when she needs to be and a fighter when it is appropriate. She knows more about the workings of NCA, both the politics and the administration, than anyone else. . . . Awards for service should be about excellence of achievement in service, and Anita Taylor is a model of effective service."

In all, Anita Taylor embodies, in striking ways, those qualities that the Distinguished Service Award seeks to honor.

The Kibler Memorial Award recognizes those with the personal and professional qualities of dedication to excellence, a commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, acceptance of diversity, and forthrightness. The 2000 recipient is:

Professor Deborah F. Atwater has been active in the discipline of communication for thirty years. She received her B. S. in 1970, her master’s degree in communication in 1972, and her Ph.D. in intercultural communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1979. During her thirty years of active service in the discipline of communication, one of Professor Atwater’s outstanding characteristics has been her commitment to excellence, the profession, and diversity as well as her vision and concern for others.

As a member of the Penn State faculty, she has--in addition to serving as a department head—been Senior Faculty Mentor in the Center for Minority Graduate Opportunities and Faculty Development, a responsibility that entailed working with faculty members and administrators in numerous disciplines across the many campuses of the university and furthering the professional prospects of those to whom she served as mentor. In 1991, she was recipient of Penn State’s Equal Opportunity Award.

In a joint communiqué, her colleagues at Penn State concluded: "That Dr. Atwater is committed to excellence and the profession is evident in her consistent involvement in scholarly activity, along with the incredibly large number of professional service responsibilities she has assumed throughout her professional career, not the least of which has been service as a President of the Eastern Communication Association."

Colleagues beyond Penn State have been as equally impressed by Professor Atwater’s dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, and her acceptance of diversity and forthrightness. One colleague wrote: "I have known Debbie for over twenty years. She is a person of many dimensions—passionate, humanist, generous giver, and steadfast and loyal promoter of the good . . . Her hard work has been revealed through her service as chair of the NCA Nominating Committee and member on several committees, including the NCA Educational Policies Board and Teacher on Teaching Series. As a member of the Educational Policies Board, Dr. Atwater was instrumental in developing the content and policy that now governs NCA’s position on minority inclusion in the communication curriculum. Her admirable achievements remind us of a compelling constant: the ability of a dedicated person to bridge the gap between where human beings are and where they are supposed to be."

Another colleague noted: As a member of the NCA Affirmative Action Committee, Professor Atwater "has helped others to see the beauty and elegance of human diversity . . . . All who encounter Dr. Atwater recognize that she is a decent and exquisite human being!"

In all, Deborah F. Atwater embodies so beautifully those qualities that the Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award seeks to honor.

The Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes and rewards a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of communication. Recipients of this award are individuals selected to showcase our profession. Since 1992, those recognized as NCA Distinguished Scholars nominate and elect members to join this select group. The 2000 recipients are:

James R. Andrews earned his Ph.D. at The Pennsylvania State University where his dissertation on the early British peace movement began his life-long interest in the ways in which rhetoric is brought to bear to promote or retard change, to deal with crisis, and to grapple with the human condition. As a critic of American and British public address, Professor Andrews has directed his attention to the careful scrutiny of situated discourse, attempting to discern through the smoke of rhetorical battle the outlines of clues to such enduring questions as: How can symbolic manipulation lead human beings to actions that may or may not be in their best interests? What do the persuasive appeals and cultural values instantiated in our rhetoric tell us about whom we are, where we’ve been, where we’re going? How does the way we talk and write about ourselves and our past serve to constitute our identity as a people, or, conversely, how does our talk work to fragment a culture into competing, sometimes hostile, subcultures?

In the course of his career, he has written over sixty articles, chapters, reviews, and books and directed forty theses and dissertations at Columbia University and Indiana University. While most of his research is historical, he also studied some contemporary issues first-hand. Because he joined the famous March on Washington and heard King speak, was an alternate delegate to the 1964 Democratic convention and heard Robert Kennedy’s moving tribute to his brother, and was at Columbia University during the revolutionary ‘60s and experienced first-hand the fiery SDS rhetoric, one of his graduate students dubbed him "the Forrest Gump of Speech Communication."

Robert P. Newman received his bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Redlands, studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School and Oxford University, where he received a master’s degree and second class Honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and his doctoral degree from the University of Connecticut. He served on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh for his entire academic career, until his retirement in 1984. Since 1995 he has been an adjunct professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa and an associate at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

Newman has authored five books and approximately 70 articles in communication, history, and for general periodicals. His 1989 book, The Cold War Romance of Lillian Hellman and John Melby was named Outstanding Book on Human Rights by the Gustavus Myers Center. His 1992 book, Owen Lattimore and the "Loss" of China, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and was a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Award competition. His 1995 book, Truman and the Hiroshima Cult, won NCA’s Diamond Anniversary Book Award. He has also been honored twice with NCA’s Winans-Wichelns Award, for rhetorical scholarship. He was given the International Society for the Study of Argument’s award for distinguished scholarship in 1994 and was named a Distinguished Research Fellow for the Eastern Communication Association in 1998. His recent work has continued to focus on the Cold War, including organizing "Point of No Return," a series of 14 lectures and symposia on the events of 1950.

Ellen Wartella is Dean of the College of Communication, Walter Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication and Mrs. Mary Gibbs Jones Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Minnesota in mass communication and completed postdoctoral research in development psychology in 1980-81 at the University of Kansas. She was a fellow at the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University in 1985-86 and she has held faculty positions at the University of Illinois, Ohio State University and visiting appointments at the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Munich.

She has conducted research on children and media since graduate school, including the application of cognitive development theories to studies of children's learning from television advertising and other television programming; and the history of public concerns and social science research about children and media. She was co-principal investigator on the National Television Violence Study, a comprehensive four-university research program examining violence on television between 1994 and 1998; she currently is reviewing research on children and interactive media.

She serves on the editorial boards of a half dozen journals and book series and is co-author or editor of nine books and dozens of book chapters and articles on media influences on children and other audiences, including MediaMaking (1998) and The Audience and Its Landscape (1996). She has been a consultant to the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and Congressional investigations of children and television issues. She is a trustee of Sesame Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street, and she serves on the advisory boards of the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the American Children's Television Center, the Center for Media Education, and the Hogg Mental Health Foundation.

The Diamond Anniversary Book Award is given to the author of the most outstanding scholarly book published during the last two years. The 2000 recipient is:

Angelina Grimke: Rhetoric, Identity, and the Radical Imagination. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1999.

In nominating Angelina Grimke, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell wrote that this book "is a significant contribution to studies of women’s rhetoric, the rhetorical criticism that enlarges our understanding of what rhetorical actions do for rhetors, and of the special character of speaker-audience interaction. What was begun with Richard Gregg’s important essay on the ego-function of the rhetoric of protest is expanded to make an important contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of social movement protest rhetoric. Similarly, what Kenneth Burke explored as the dynamics of martyrdom . . . is elaborated in this book to engage the persuasive impact of violence and the role that these dynamics played in the abolitionist movement. I consider this to be an original and highly significant contribution to rhetorical scholarship, a brilliant and highly perceptive analysis of the discourse of one of the most creative and influential of early U.S. women speakers."

And Susan Zaeske of the University of Wisconsin, in a separate letter of nomination, argued that "Browne gives us more than insights on this single, though significant rhetor, for his close textual analyses result in theoretical illuminations. [He] broadens our understanding of the relationships among rhetoric, moral reform, community, violence, and identity."

Created in 1964 to mark NCA’s 50th Anniversary, the Golden Anniversary Monograph Awards are presented to the most outstanding scholarly monographs published during the previous calendar year. Up to three awards may be given in any year. The 2000 recipient is:

"Communication theory as a field." Communication Theory, v. 9, May 1999, pp. 119-161.

This paper is remarkable for its conjunction of scope and detail. Its overview of the main strands of our discipline is valuable in itself. But Craig's careful working out of the relationships among those strands offers extraordinary value to scholars attempting to locate a particular kind of thinking within the field. Craig deals adroitly and insightfully with rhetoric, semiotics, phenomenology, cybernetics, social psychology, socio-cultural views, and critical theory, to show how a matrix of issues can be formed. His suggestion that theoretical discussion can profitably be focused by such a scheme is a special contribution. The committee believes that this paper is not only of exceptionally high quality, but has an unusually high degree of relevance to nearly everyone in the field.

This annual award honors distinguished scholarship in rhetoric and public address. The 2000 recipient is:

The beginning of a new century is a good time to reflect on the core assumptions and identity of our field. John Durham Peters’ book, Speaking Into The Air: A History of the Idea of Communication, seems perfectly timed to help us with that self-reflection. This genuinely original and deeply learned book examines the traditions of dialogue and dissemination from classical antiquity to postmodern modernity. Peters follows the human quest for transparency and understanding through rhetoric and reading, lectures and conversations, philosophy and religion. Drawing upon the Socratic dialogues of Plato, the parables of Jesus, the writings of Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, and treating media as diverse as pamphlets, books, television, letters and e-mail, Peters continually extracts new insights from often-familiar materials. Moreover, he poses a radical challenge to the ideal of communication we have inherited. This work seems likely to recast the terms in which scholars think about discourse as well as the ways we conceive of how rhetoric and public address fit into a broader narrative about the limits of communication.

NCA recognizes individuals for outstanding dissertations completed during the previous academic year. Students are nominated by faculty by means of a letter written by the dissertation advisor or by the department chair. The 2000 recipients are:

Stephen M. Haas, RelationshiOhio State University, Dale E. Brashers and Laura Stafford, Co-Directors. Dr. Haas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Rutgers University.

Haas’ dissertation is a qualitative study of 40 gay men coping with HIV or AIDS. Recognizing the importance of the study, the National Institutes of Health provided fellowship support that enabled Haas to complete his project. The final product has both theoretical and practical importance. Theoretically, Haas applied existing principles of relational dialectics and relational maintenance in examining the couples’ communicative interactions. The study both confirms extant theory and establishes the basis for future research in the nuances of how relationships are managed and maintained. At the practical level, the project provides guidance for clinicians and other caregivers in how to develop and maintain relationships that may prove critical to the well-being and survival of HIV-positive patients.

Erina L. MacGeorge, The Influence of Situational Variation, Associated Attributions, and Emotions on Support Providers’ Interaction Goals, University of Illinois, Ruth Anne Clark, Director. Dr. MacGeorge is Assistant Professor of Communication at George Washington University.

MacGeorge developed a measuring instrument that allows researchers to probe communicators’ goals in situations in which messages emerge in response to the distress of others. Applied here, this innovative methodological approach yielded two important conceptual findings. First, conventional wisdom has it that individual difference in the crafting of comfort messages is solely a function of ability. On the contrary, this study reveals that particular situations evoke differing communicative goals in potential support providers, and that differences in goals as well as abilities help explain variations in supportive messages. MacGeorge’s study shows, second, that the analysis of messages, whether designed to offer social support or to perform some other instrumental function, is most productive when done in concert with an understanding of the goals of the author. MacGeorge’s work thus underscores the necessity of attending to goals in the analysis of messages for any instrumental purpose.

Garth E. Pauley, The Modern Presidency and Civil Rights Rhetoric: Presidential Discourse on Race from Roosevelt to Nixon, The Pennsylvania State University, Thomas W. Benson, Director. Dr. Pauley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Calvin College.

Thomas W. Benson writes that "Garth Pauley is one of the two or three most outstanding students I have ever worked with, and I believe that his dissertation on presidential civil rights rhetoric is a masterful accomplishment." The committee concurs with Benson’s assessment of Pauley’s thesis. Clearly motivated by the author’s deep moral commitment to civil rights, the dissertation combines the best of archival scholarship and probing critical analysis of the texts. The result is a work that merits the attention of the academic community and the larger public alike.

This award is given to foster and promote philosophical, historical, or critical scholarship in rhetorical and public discourse. Nominees should have completed the Ph.D. within the past ten years or are well advanced in doctoral studies in rhetoric and public address. The 2000 recipient is:

Raka Shome, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Arizona State University West, is the 2000 recipient of the NCA’s Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award. Professor Shome’s project, "Gender, Nation and Transnationalism: Media Spectacle and Princess Diana," was adjudged the most promising from among a strong field of proposals from younger scholars of rhetoric and public discourse. In contemporary social (and rhetorical) thought, the relationships that develop between national and transnational cultures are complex, seemingly both antagonistic and complementary, even reinforcing at times. Such relationships must be probed if we are to understand the cultural sources and directions of ideological force in the lives of citizens. Ideological criticism today must come to grips, especially, with the issues of race, imperialism, and colonialism as they impact upon both national and transnational discourses of place and power.

and de-centered in national and transnational representations—her construction as a symbolic marker of British nationhood. The divides in such constructions will be especially important to Professor Shome’s analysis. This project, which will be pursued in both British and American archives, is part of her book-length project, *White Femininity Between Nation and Colonialism*.

This award was created to honor individuals who teach on the kindergarten through twelfth grade level and who have exhibited both outstanding teaching and a commitment to the speech communication profession. The 2000 recipient is:

David Wendt started his teaching career in 1984, and according to one of his nominators, "David has had an exemplary teaching career." He began teaching at Burlington (Iowa) High School and is currently at Keokuk (Iowa) High School, where he teaches speech, drama, English, and coaches the speech team. David is an active member of the Illinois Speech and Theatre Association and is the incoming President of the Iowa Communication Association. He is a charter member of the Communication Education Association, a member of the Central States Communication Association, the National Communication Association, and is a member and planner for the Iowa Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts. One of David’s administrators wrote that David is a "tremendous force and influence at Keokuk High School. He is involved in numerous co-curricular activities and is always willing to ‘go the extra distance’ in order to help students and peers." A former student of David’s summed up her feelings with these words: "It is difficult for me to convey the impact Mr. Wendt has had on me and my friends. He connects so well to every type of person; this more than likely explains why he is such an excellent teacher. I cannot think of anyone who deserves this award more than David Wendt."

This NCA award is given to the Community College Section member, with a minimum of five years experience teaching at a community college, who most exemplifies excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service to the speech communication profession. The 2000 recipient is:

Dr. "Reeze" Hanson holds a bachelor’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, a master’s from Arizona State University, Tempe, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Dr. Hanson’s instructional experience is extensive. She teaches courses in speech communication, broadcasting, and theatre. She has an extensive list of presentations and awards spanning approximately twenty-five years. Dr. Hanson has been an active member of NCA and regular convention participant since 1985.

Recently, Dr. Hanson was instrumental in creating an innovative, multidisciplinary curriculum with English and Art that incorporates paradigms of Indian culture. She is currently developing a new course in Indian Oratory.

Those nominating Dr. Hanson describe her as "clever and creative," "one of a kind," "the most imaginative educator I know," and "making education relevant, rigorous, and exciting." Dr. Hanson is a true teacher-scholar.

Selection Committee: Deborah Borisoff, New York University (Chair); John Johnson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Lois Leubitz, Cedar Valley College.

This memorial award honors an NCA member who exemplifies superlative teaching in higher education, as evidenced by written recommendations of students, colleagues, and campus administrators. The 2000 recipient is:

What particularly impressed the selection committee about Lawrence Rosenfeld’s nomination for the Ecroyd Award was the breadth and depth of his abiding research and his ability to translate his knowledge of, and dedication to the discipline, to the classroom setting. The committee noted, in particular, that during the past fourteen years, Professor Rosenfeld has taught 10 distinct classes and seminars on the undergraduate and graduate levels; moreover, that with few exceptions, he taught with distinction courses with enrollments of between 100 and 200 students. The selection committee was further impressed that during this same period, students consistently appreciated his expertise, his accessibility, his ability to communicate the material effectively, his responsiveness to their work, and the relevance of these courses as a valued learning experience. To have achieved such consistent evaluations in courses ranging from interpersonal communication to quantitative research to managing the effects of disasters on families and children is most impressive.

The award, created by the Legislative Council in 1991, recognizes the teaching excellence of retired NCA members from any grade level: kindergarten through graduate. These scholars have exhibited a lifetime of dedication to distinguished teaching. The 2000 recipient is:

One of Ted Foster’s nominators wrote, "Throughout my career in Higher Education, I have never worked with a more dedicated professional than Ted Foster." For many years Ted Foster served as Ohio University’s debate coach and was a chief architect in the design of what became a nationally acclaimed forensics program. From forensics, he went on to direct one of the school’s basic courses and has trained dozens of teaching associates over an extended period of time. He is an outstanding person, an individual of integrity who has made a sustained and high quality contribution to his students and his profession. He has always demanded excellence from his students and was held in high regard by students and his faculty colleagues. From president of the Faculty Senate, to director of debate, to basic course director, and beyond, Ted Foster has excelled. He has given tirelessly to students, faculty, and our discipline.

The Brommel Award was approved in 1996 and recognizes published research and creative scholarship in family communication. Scholarship recognized by the award is to have been published during the previous six years. The 2000 recipient is:

Kathleen Galvin has made significant and overwhelming contributions to the family communication discipline. As apparent by her extensive vita and letters of support, she is a strong researcher, dedicated teacher, and committed to providing service to our discipline. She has been particularly influential in the development of the area of family communication, especially with her co-authored publication of the first key textbook on family communication entitled "Family Communication: Cohesion and Change" which was first published in 1982 by Addison Wesley Longman and has been revised four times, with the last revision in 1999. Dr. Galvin is truly a well-rounded scholar whose leadership, endless energy, and commitment to our discipline will be felt for many years to come.

This award is given to directors, producers, teachers or performers who have contributed an outstanding body of live performances. The award will normally be given for a body of work or an outstanding career in performance. It may in exceptional cases be given to performers of a single or a smaller body of performance. The 2000 recipient is:

The directorial work of Dr. Lee Potts exemplifies the kind of artistic scholarship that the Leslie Irene Coger Award is designed to recognize. For thirty years, Dr. Potts has been a disciplinary leader in the area of theatrical production, directing fourteen original adaptations of nondramatic literature and twenty-six productions of traditional plays. She has been instrumental in developing the Gender Theatre Project, has served as Artistic Director of the Colorado Caravan touring company, and worked as casting/participating director with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In addition, Dr. Potts work received international acclaim when she was invited to Sweden to direct Larry Shue’s play "The Foreigner," an honor that is rarely achieved by an American academic director-scholar. Dr. Potts is well known for her sensitive and insightful approach to young actors; in numerous workshops and national festivals, she has taught students and colleagues innovative rehearsal techniques and textual analysis strategies. Dr. Potts will be retiring this year after a distinguished 30 year career as a performance educator and theatre practitioner. Her talent, dedicated students, and the long legacy of her production work will continue to inspire scholar-artists across the nation.

The Ehninger Award honors scholars who have executed research programs in rhetorical

theory, rhetorical criticism and/or public address studies. The award is given to a person who, through multiple publications and presentations around a rhetorical topic or theme, demonstrates intellectual creativity, perseverance, and impact on academic communities. The 2000 recipient is:

It is, perhaps, appropriate that the recipient of the Ehninger Award for the year 2000 is one who has challenged traditional understandings of the ancient origins of rhetorical theory. Dr. Schiappa’s stimulating question, "Did Plato Coin Rhêtorikê?" unleashed an on-going conversation about the emergence of rhetoric and philosophy in Ancient Greece. His call to cut across a blanket treatment of the Sophistic Movement in favor of an individual examination of the Older Sophists was more than aptly met by his own book, Protagoras and Logos. This study and his more recent book, The Beginnings of Rhetorical Theory in Classical Greece, have had considerable interdisciplinary impact and influenced the way many in our own discipline approach early rhetorical theory. Although Dr. Schiappa is best known for his studies in classical rhetoric, his newer line of research in argumentation and cultural critique also promises to be very influential. In a recent project that revealed the pedagogical contributions of research, Dr. Schiappa organized a group of graduate students and guided them through a study of the campaign for a baseball stadium. This study resulted not only in a conventional, edited book but also in its publication online. Words that have been used to describe Ed Schiappa’s work include "productively controversial," "provocative," and "highly persuasive." Thus, Dr. Edward Schiappa is a scholar in the finest tradition of the Ehninger Award.

This award is given to the author(s) of published research on freedom of expression. The Free Speech Yearbook serves as a model for broadly defining the scope of eligible scholarship; however, the award may also recognize published scholarship in other journals, books or monographs. The 2000 recipient is:

"The Impact of Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of University of Virginia on Public Forum Doctrine." Free Speech Yearbook, 1999

A consensus choice of the committee members, this article is worthy of the Haiman Award because of its singular quality. It should have a significant impact and is likely to constitute an enduring contribution to scholarship in freedom of expression.

Vital scholarship in this area ought to engage compelling questions about these freedoms and provide answers and explanations as to the state and direction of American jurisprudence. Fliter’s article clearly fulfills this purpose. His essay offers an in-depth examination of the impact of the Rosenberger decision on lower-federal court rulings in public forum cases. In doing so, Fliter focuses our attention to a context that is often overlooked in our literature. Rather than simply outlining the Supreme Court’s decision and offering a theoretical discussion of how this decision might influence future cases, the author carefully explicates the varying results of the lower-court rulings to identify the role of this decision in cases wherein public forum and establishment clause jurisprudence conflict.

The Haiman Award honors not only the accomplishments of NCA’s scholars of freedom of expression, but the power and vitality of Haiman’s own work as a model of rigorous, insightful and engaging scholarship. The members of this committee believe that John Fliter’s essay is an exemplary manifestation of Haiman’s legacy

The Heston Award was created to honor outstanding scholarship in interpretation and performance studies. The 2000 recipient is:

Ronald J. Pelias is an exemplary role model for professional colleagues and eager students interested in performance scholarship. Perhaps no single performance studies essay has been more widely quoted than his 1987 Quarterly Journal of Speech co-authored piece with James VanOosting titled "A Paradigm for Performance Studies;" and his 1999 books, Writing Performance; Poeticizing the Researcher’s Body and Performance Studies: The Interpretation of Aesthetic Texts, are surely cutting-edge in their inventive perspective on understanding the unique relationship between scholar and scholarship, artist and art and performance and textuality. While most are content to talk about performative scholarship, Ronald J. Pelias is focused on translating "theory" into a "practice" that is richly informed by the pedagogical history of oral interpretation and the more current trends in performance studies. He is, as Francis Bacon suggests, ". . . . a man of purpose and passion. . . whose vision lights the pathways of others."

This award recognizes the author of a body of published research and creative scholarship in applied communication. The 2000 recipient is:

Lawrence R. Frey is a distinguished scholar with an exemplary record in defining, promoting, and conducting applied communication research that has had substantial impact across the contexts of scholarly research, pedagogy, and service. His record of professional achievement shows an enduring commitment to applied communication research. While many scholars are known for their accomplishments in applied communication research, few have had Professor Frey’s impact on the direction of research for an area of the field. One indicator of his impact on applied communication research is the remarkable ascendance of social justice research, which is largely due to his informed, passionate advocacy of research that aims to help those who are especially vulnerable. Frey’s work reflects the value of using communication inquiry to make a difference in the lives of individuals, organizations, and communities—the premise upon which Gerald M. Phillips based his professional life. He is a nationally prominent scholar who has changed the character of scholarship in applied communication and who will continue to influence the nature and direction of scholarship for years to come.

The award is presented to an NCA member who has published a journal article or book chapter that has stood the test of time and has become the stimulus for new conceptualizations of speech communication phenomena. The 2000 recipient is:

Maurice Charland's essay "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois," first published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1987, has become a landmark in the recent history of rhetorical studies.  The essay offers a brilliant synthesis of concepts developed by Kenneth Burke, Michael McGee, and Edwin Black and blends this earlier work into a new and original notion about how rhetorical discourse constitutes subjects.  Charland demonstrates how rhetoric can function not just as an instrument to persuade an audience but also as a medium for generating a sense of identity.  Developing this approach through a careful analysis of the independence movement in Quebec, Charland both illustrates an important theoretical position and presents a critical case study of considerable interest.  Hence, the essay nicely blends theory and criticism and reveals how the two can and should reinforce one another.  The essay has been reprinted twice, surfaces regularly in reading lists for courses in rhetoric, and appears as a frequent and important source in the scholarly literature.  The essay has become a touchstone for critical scholarship on such topics as the constitutive function of public discourse, the construction of national identity, and the role of narrative in political movements.  The persistent influence and heuristic value of this essay mark it as worthy of the Woolbert Award.