Preconferences

Spend a day in Chicago with leading scholars as you explore new approaches to teaching and research that will enrich your career. Preconferences are half-day or day-long sessions held on Wednesday, November 11.

Faculty Development Preconferences (PC01 - PC05) explore an applied research theme, topic, or methodological approach; or an applied pedagogical issue related to teaching, classroom management, and/or course construction. There is an additional registration fee to attend a preconference.

Development Preconferences (PC06 and PC07) are sponsored by the NCA Research Board and help attendees learn how to better compete for funding and polish funding/grant proposals. There is an additional registration fee to attend a preconference.

This interactive preconference will bring together organizational communication scholars, students and members of Chicago based organizations to articulate and refine the multiple forms of engagement that are possible when scholars and practioneers work together. Participants are encouraged to bring examples of their own engaged scholarship (research, teaching and service) to address the following three questions: What are we doing? How can we do it better? How do we share this with others?

Time: 8:30a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenters: Paaige K. Turner, Saint Louis University; Lexa Murphy, DePaul University; Kevin Barge, Texas A & M; George Cheney, University of Utah; Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Sarah Tracy, Arizona State University; Lynn Harter, Ohio University; Deborah Ballard-Reisch, Wichita State University; Renee Houston, University of Puget Sound; Steve May, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Erika Kirby, Creighton University.

This preconference invites scholars to join in an exploration of stability and change at the intersection of risk and crisis communication. The recent publication of the Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication is a notable development in this enterprise, outlining the beginning of a convergence between risk and crisis communication. The first half of the preconference will focus on presentations and conversations based on reaction papers outlining the current state of the field and future directions. In the second half of the day, all participants will be invited to take part in a series of roundtable discussions. These discussions will range from theory building in risk and crisis communication to opportunities for publishing and conducting funded research. Several representatives from funding agencies will be on hand to answer questions.

Time: 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenter: Timothy Sellnow, University of Kentucky

In this half-day preconference, two Featured Scholar panels will challenge the audience to think about how morality is expressed and negotiated in personal relationships. The first Featured Scholars session will address theorizing morality in personal relationships and the second Featured Scholars session will focus on moral applications in relational contexts. The preconference will conclude with the featured scholars responding to audience-generated questions.

Time: 8:30a.m. - 12:30p.m.
Presenters: Douglas Kelley, Arizona State University; Vincent Waldron, Arizona State University; Sandra Metts, Illinois State University; Brian Spitzberg, San Diego State University; Thomas Socha, Old Dominion University; Andy Merolla, Colorado State University; Dayna Kloeber, Arizona State University; Billy Catchings, University of Indianapolis; Sandra Petronio, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis; Shuangyue Zhang, Sam Houston State University

Reflexivity as a theoretical concept and methodological strategy maintains its position as an essential component in contemporary conversations about, and uses of, ethnography. Diverse and contested understandings persist, however, regarding what it means to “be reflexive,” thus, requiring further consideration. This day-long preconference of presentations and discussion explores how various ethnographers, representing a range of traditions, assumptions, and tactics, reconcile the roles and uses of reflexivity in ethnographic inquiry.

Time: 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenters: Keith Berry, Univ of Wisconsin, Superior; Bryant Alexander, California State University, Los Angeles; Donal Carbaugh, Univ of Massachusetts, Amherst; Robin Clair, Purdue University; Gary Allan Fine, Northwestern University; Sarah De la Garza, Arizona State University; Harold Goodall, Arizona State University; Robert Krizek, St. Louis University; D. Soyini Madison, Northwestern University; Lisa Tillmann, Rollins College; John Warren, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the NCA-Campus Compact project to integrate service-learning pedagogy, an important form of experiential learning, into the communication curriculum. The panelists will reflect on the contributions of service-learning to making communication an “engaged” discipline that, at its core, attempts to connect theory and practice with communities. Moreover, they will examine NCA’s role in promoting engaged pedagogy and scholarship, especially service-learning, thus setting an agenda for 2014.

Time: 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenters: Michael Woeste, Univ of Cincinnati; Michael Smith, La Salle University; Sherwyn Morreale, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Sara Weintraub, Regis College; James Applegate, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Ed; W. Bradford Mello, National Communication Association; Margaret Finucane, John Carroll University; Donna Pawlowski, Creighton University; Rozell Duncan, Kent State University; Toni Whitfield, James Madison Univ; Clark Friesen, Tomball College; Julie Gowin, University of Maryland; Candice Thomas-Maddox, Ohio University, Lancaster; Karen Roloff, DePaul University

Russell Wyland, Assistant Director for Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities, will lead this all-day workshop in three parts. 1) The first half of the morning will include an overview of NEH programs and initiatives of interest to teachers and scholars working in Communication and related disciplines.

2) The second half of the morning session will be devoted to a mock panel in which a group of NCA members demystify the NEH peer review process by discussing sample proposals. Participants will discuss application-writing practices and strategies that have worked for others in Communication. Sample proposal will be circulated to participants in advance so that everyone can follow the fine points of and participate in the discussion.

3) The afternoon will be devoted to work-shopping drafts of proposals from participants. Each participant is strongly encouraged to prepare, in advance, a draft proposal using guidelines at www.neh.gov/grants/grants.html. Participants will spend the afternoon working in small groups led by Dr. Wyland and by NCA members who have been successful in getting funding from the NEH. The object is to polish member proposals so that every participant has an application ready to submit for an upcoming funding cycle. This preconference is subject to cancellation if enrollment is insufficient, so interested members are urged to register early.

Time: 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenter: Russell Wyland, Assistant Director for Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities

This half-day workshop will be led by staff from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the NIH. Participants will be introduced to the range of programs at the NCI to which communication research might be relevant, and strategies for writing successful funding proposals will be discussed.

Time: 1:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
Presenters: James Darsey, Georgia State University; Susan Morgan, Purdue University; NCI Representatives