6/26 VLO: Expanding Public Scholarship: Harnessing Academic Freedom

Register now for the 6/26 Virtual Learning Opportunity: “Creating, Sustaining, and Expanding Public Scholarship and Community-Engaged Work by Harnessing Academic Freedom” 

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In today’s complex cultural climate, how do we protect and grow work that centers Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA). This VLO provides a strategic roadmap for experienced scholars and organizers dedicated to public-facing and community-engaged work. We will begin with a panel of established NCA scholar-activists from across the country who have successfully navigated the design, recruitment, and promotion of diverse community projects. They will share how they have strategically harnessed academic freedom to shield and sustain their mission-driven work. The second half of the session features interactive breakout rooms. Here, you will have the opportunity to workshop your own current or potential projects directly with our panelists, gaining personalized feedback on implementation and design. Whether you are currently leading community efforts or looking for effective ways to support them, you will leave with actionable strategies for building an engaged, resilient scholarly practice.

Learning Outcomes:

• Articulate the current challenges to public-facing and community-engaged work in relation to institutional and cultural climate during these times
• Articulate strategies for asserting academic freedom to preserve and continue public-facing and/or community-engaged IDEA scholarship and teaching
• Demonstrate an ability to design, implementation, promotion, and supportive role strategies for successful public-facing and/or community-engaged academic work from one’s personal context.

Speakers:

Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock, PhD
Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock (PhD University of Maine) is a Professor of Communication and Performance Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and an internationally recognized scholar, director, and performance artist focused on disability, intersectionality, and identity. She is the NCA IDEA Council Chair and the recipient of the IDEA Community Engagement Award, the Donald Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education, and the Lilla Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies. She is also the recipient of the Jim Ferris Award for Outstanding Achievement in Disability and Communication from the Disability Issues Caucus and the Best Book, Article, Book Chapter, and Mid-Career Award from the Ethnography Division. Her community-engaged pedagogy and research have been recognized with The UNC System Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching and the University award for distinguished scholarly engagement. Her most recent script performed in Wilmington, NC for community audiences received the Marion Kleinau Scripting Award. Her most recent book with Temple University Press, Stories of Raising Boys: Disability, Gender Expansiveness, and Anxiety, interweaves autoethnographic storytelling with narrative interviews to map the intersections of identity in daily life. She will be touring her solo show based on this monograph in Spring 2027

Leandra H. Hernández
Leandra H. Hernández (PhD, Texas A&M University) is an associate professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. She is a queer feminist health and media studies scholar with applied praxis contributions to teaching, research, and service. She utilizes Chicana feminist & qualitative approaches to explore Latina/o/x/e cultural health experiences and Latina/o/x/e journalism and media representations in reproductive justice, gendered violence, and social media contexts. Her teaching philosophy is informed by social justice approaches, and she is passionate about mentoring students through diverse and inclusive research projects. She is the co-author of one monograph and co-editor of six co-edited volumes. Further, her research is published in several books, as well as in the journals Health Communication, Communication Education, Frontiers in Communication, Communication Teacher, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Women’s Studies in Communication, Journal of Media and Religion, Communication Research, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, and Departures in Critical Qualitative Research.  Most recently, she is the recipient of the 2025 NCA Everett Hughes Holle Award for Social Justice and Community Engagement and the 2024 NCA Women’s Caucus Francine Merritt award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the lives of women in communication, particularly through mentorship, service, advocacy, pedagogy, and scholarship. She currently serves NCA as a member of the IDEA Council and as Chair of the Activism & Social Justice Division.

Dana Cloud 
Dana L. Cloud (PhD, University of Iowa, 1993) is Professor and Director of the School of Communication, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, she served on the faculties of Syracuse University and the University of Texas, Austin. Cloud is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association and was won a number of awards, including NCA’s recognition for social justice in 2018. A scholar of rhetoric and public culture, Cloud teaches and researches in the areas of rhetoric (Marxist theory, epistemology), public culture, social movements, and academic freedom. Her most recent book is Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulation of Truth Claims in U.S. Public Culture (Ohio State, 2018). In addition to teaching and conducting research, Cloud is a longtime activist for social justice.

Andre E. Johnson
Dr. Andre E. Johnson is a Professor of Communication at the University of Memphis, where he is an Orlando Taylor Distinguished Scholar of Africana Communication and a Douglas R. Ehninger Distinguished Professor of Rhetorical Studies. He also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Rhetoric, Race, and Religion and editor of the Journal of Communication and Religion. In addition, he is a Distinguished Professor at Memphis Theological Seminary and an Andrew Mellon Just Transformation Satellite Partner with Penn State University’s Center for Black Digital Research. Dr. Johnson’s research explores the intersections of rhetoric, race, and religion, offering critical insights into public discourse, social justice, and societal change. His scholarship centers African American prophetic traditions and contemporary movements for racial equity, including Black Lives Matter. He is the award-winning author of The Forgotten Prophet (2012), The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter (2018), and No Future in this Country (2020), which received top book awards from the Religious Communication Association and the National Communication Association. His most recent co-authored book, The Summer of 2020 (2024), examines the resurgence of Black Lives Matter and spotlights the perspectives of participants who contributed to the movement’s renewed impact and global success in 2020. A sought-after preacher, lecturer, and social justice advocate, Dr. Johnson’s work bridges scholarship and community engagement.

Stevie Munz
Stevie M. Munz (PhD, Ohio University) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Utah Valley University where she serves as the department chair. She also serves as the Interim Director for the Center for the Study of Ethics and General Education Assessment Chair. Her teaching and research interests include intercultural communication, critical communication pedagogy, narrative and ethnography, as well as communication ethics. Stevie has published several co-edited books and handbooks, numerous articles and chapters, and received national teaching and scholarship awards including the Pearson Nelson Teaching Award (2021), OSCLG Feminist Teacher-Mentor Award (2024), and numerous distinguished article awards from the National Communication Association and the Central States Communication Association. She is the incoming 1st Vice-President for the Central State Communication Association.

Michelle Rodino-Colocino
Michelle Rodino-Colocino (PhD University of Pittsburgh) is an award-winning scholar. She is an associate professor of media studies in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State, where they have taught for the past 15 years and worked with many wonderful colleagues and friends. She is also an affiliate faculty member in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Rock Ethics Institute in the College of Liberal Arts. She studies the relationships between media, labor, and social justice and draws on over 30 years of experience organizing for a more just world. Inspired at a young age to understand systems of exploitation in which a few people with great wealth and political power take advantage of others, nations, and regions, she seeks truth and justice through her creative work, activism, and organizing. Her research, teaching, service, activism, and creative endeavors span feminist media and critical cultural studies, with a special interest in labor, new media, and social movements. Since earning tenure, she has been learning critical race and ethnic studies, labor history, and trans and queer studies, and is integrating this into her research, teaching, service, activism, and creative works with an intention to contribute to social justice and work with mindfulness and empathy and to support an engaged scholarly community.

Andrea Terry
NCA IDEA Council Workshop Facilitator
Andrea Terry (PhD, Texas A&M University) is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Communication Studies Department at Sacramento State (CSU Sacramento), where she also serves as the Chair of the Faculty Senate. Her research focuses on rhetoric at the intersection of political activism and religion, and has been published in several edited volumes and journals. Her current focus area of community organizing takes place within the labor movement. A delegate to the Sacramento Central Labor Council and Political Action & Legislation Chair for the Sacramento State chapter of the California Faculty Association, Andrea works to build relationships with local labor leaders and community members. In addition to working on cross-union actions, she organizes for political candidates who will fight for ALL of labor. Following Lisa Corrigan’s description of “politics as harm reduction,” she has represented CFA as a key witness on Title IX, CSU Executive Compensation, and leadership transparency legislation in California. Her work with the labor community in Sacramento emphasizes labor solidarity, uplifting the needs of service worker unions as fundamental to building stronger communities. 

Kelsy-Ann Graham
Kelsy-Ann Graham (PhD, University of Florida) is an independent scholar-practitioner and the founder of The Reformed Academic, a consulting firm dedicated to student wellness and holistic balance. For the last decade, she has partnered with non-traditional, immigrant, and neurodivergent students to co-create sustainable systems for navigating the complexities of higher education. A committed advocate for equity in the field, she currently serves as the Chair of both the Caribbean Caucus and the LGBTQ Caucus within the National Communication Association (NCA).

Her work is rooted in the belief that true self-efficacy requires addressing the “whole person”, integrating social justice, mindful pedagogy, and alternative wellness practices. She investigates how intergenerational trauma and sociopolitical forces impact interpersonal communication, often acting as unseen barriers to thriving for marginalized communities. By taking a critical-cultural approach, Dr. Graham identifies how these populations can best harness digital landscapes and new media to find authentic community, economic opportunity, and resource sharing. She is dedicated to fostering an empathetic, engaged scholarly community that prioritizes healing and collective care as much as academic achievement.