Opening Session

 

The NCA Opening Session is sponsored by Routledge, Taylor & Francis. With market-leading books and journals the Routledge, Taylor & Francis communication studies program brings you the very best in current teaching, thinking and practice. We are delighted to sponsor the NCA convention’s Opening Sessions.

 

NCA Opening Session:  Celebrating What Unites Us as a Communication Community
Kory Floyd, Arizona State University
Navita Cummings James, University of South Florida
Kathleen Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania      
November 15, 2012 • Dolphin Resort • Orlando, FL
View webcast

The opening general session offered views by three distinguished NCA scholars in response to the question: "What concepts and principles unite us in our study and application of human communication?"

---

NCA Opening Session: Rebuilding Community After Crisis
Jim Pate, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity
Andrew Shahan, Arise Academy
Larry Frey, Trinity University
November 17, 2011 • Sheraton New Orleans • New Orleans, LA
View webcast  

The NCA Opening Session: Rebuilding Community After Crisis featured speakers from inside and outside of the academy. The speakers this year will focus on the convention theme, Voice, discussing both its theoretical and applied implications.

Jim Pate is the current Executive Director of the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity. Since Katrina, he has been a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised and displaced citizens. He has also been in the forefront in rebuilding NOLA after Katrina and his stories of both despair and hope are captivating and provocative. Jim has been overseeing Musicians’ Village, an area in the Lower Ninth Ward, a new neighborhood where musicians live, learn, and play. The Village is the brainchild of musicians, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, who serve as honorary chairs of Habitat for Humanity’s National Hurricane Rebuilding Program.

Andrew Shahan is the principal at Arise Academy in the Upper Ninth Ward. With a background in special education/special needs, Andrew’s ability to connect with others is remarkable. After leaving a charter school in Harlem, Andrew worked at the American School of Guatemala. There, he was instrumental in establishing an all-inclusive school where no student was viewed as being “deficient.” Following this, Andrew wrote a charter to begin a school in New Orleans that offers full time music, art, and movement programs. Working with Grades K-3, Andrew is a strong believer that all students are invaluable, curious, and capable of receiving a college degree.

Dr. Larry Frey of Trinity University addressed the importance of scholarship and community engagement. Professor Frey is the Ronald K. Calgaard Professor of Communication and Social Justice at Trinity and is the (co)author of 16 books and over 80 published works. Much of his scholarship examines how communicative practices make a difference in people’s lives. Dr. Frey’s presentation bridged the applied and theoretical and offered audience members an opportunity to reflect on how communication can aid the marginalized and under resourced. 

---

NCA Opening Session: The State of the Discipline 
David Zarefsky, Northwestern University
November 14, 2010 • Hilton San Francisco • San Francisco, CA
View webcast 

In some respects these are encouraging times for the communication discipline; yet we also are plagued by disciplinary as well as economic anxieties. This paradox offers opportunities for advancing the discipline, but also presents us with significant challenges. Within this framework, the address will discuss whether it is sensible to think of communication as a discipline and, if so, how we should determine its agenda for the coming years. We must make sure that we refresh our roots at the same time we encourage many flowers to bloom.

David Zarefsky, Ph.D., is Owen L. Coon Professor Emeritus of Argumentation and Debate, and Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, at Northwestern University, where he retired in 2009 after 41 years on the faculty. His teaching and research center on argumentation and the history of U.S. public discourse. Among his publications are President Johnson's War on Poverty: Rhetoric and History and Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate. He is an NCA Distinguished Scholar and a two-time recipient of the Winans-Wichelns Award. He received Distinguished Service Awards from the American Forensic Association, NCA, and the Rhetoric Society of America. He has chaired both the Finance Board and the Publications Board of NCA. Zarefsky delivered the inaugural Carroll C. Arnold Lecture in 1995. He served as president of the Central States Communication Association in 1986-87, NCA in 1993, and the Rhetoric Society of America in 2006-07 and again in 2010-11.