Charles H. Woolbert Research Award
NCA Awards for Outstanding Scholarship
The Woolbert Award is named in honor of one of the field's earliest and most distinguished scholars. The award is given to a journal article or book chapter that has stood the test of time and has become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of communication phenomena. The award will be reserved for an article or book chapter that at the time of the award is in at least its 10th year in print. Nominations will be considered for two years. Previous winners of NCA awards are eligible.
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Patrice M. Buzzanell, "Gaining a Voice: Feminist Organizational Communication Theorizing," published in Management Communication Quarterly in 1994 |
| 2022 | Ronald L. Jackson II, "Cultural Contracts Theory: Toward an Understanding of Identity Negotiation," published in Communication Quarterly in 2002 |
| 2021 | Lisa A. Flores, “Creating Discursive Space through a Rhetoric of Difference: Chicana Feminists Craft a Homeland,” published in Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1996. |
| 2020 | Mohan Dutta, “Communicating about Culture and Health: Theorizing Culture-Centered and Cultural Sensitivity Approaches,” published in Communication Theory in 2007. |
| 2019 | Sarah J. Tracy and Angela Trethewey, "Fracturing the Real-Self ↔ Fake-Self Dichotomy: Moving Toward Crystallized Organizational Identities,” published in Communication Theory in 2005." |
| 2018 | Denise Huanani Solomon and Leanne K. Knobloch, "A model of relational turbulence. The role of intimacy, relational uncertainty, and interference from partners in appraisals of irritations," published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21(2004): 795-816. |
| 2017 | Raka Shome, National University of Singapore, and Radha S. Hegde, New York University, “Postcolonial Approaches to Communication: Charting the Terrain, Engaging the Intersections," published in Communication Theory 12(2002): 249-270. |
| 2016 | Edward Schiappa, Peter B. Gregg, and Dean E. Hewes, "The parasocial contact hypothesis." Communication Monographs 72 (2005): 95-118. |
| 2015 | Erika L. Kirby & Kathleen J. Krone, "'The Policy Exists but You Can't Really Use it:' Communication and the Structuration of Work-Family Policies." Journal of Applied Communication Research 30 (2002): 50-77. |
| 2014 | Carolyn Ellis & Arthur P. Bochner, "Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject." In Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman B. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000), 733-768. |
| 2013 | Ronald Greene, "Another Materialist Rhetoric." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15 (1998): 21-40. |
| 2012 | John Louis Lucaites, "Visualizing 'The People': Individualism vs. Collectivism in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (1997): 269-288. |
| 2011 | Malcolm Parks & Kory Floyd, “Making Friends in Cyberspace.” Journal of Communication 46 (1996): 80-97. |
| 2010 | Dennis K. Mumby, “Modernism, Postmodernism, and Communication Studies: A Rereading of an Ongoing Debate.” Communication Theory 7 (1997): 1-28. |
| 2009 | Joseph Walther, “Computer Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal and Hyperpersonal Interaction.” Communication Research 23 (1996): 3-43. |
| 2008 | Kent Ono & John M. Sloop, “The Critique of Vernacular Discourse.” Communication Monographs 62 (1995): 19-46. |
| 2007 | Thomas K. Nakayama & Robert L. Krizek, “Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 81 (1995): 291-309. |
| 2006 | Carole Blair, Julie Brown, & Leslie Baxter, “Disciplining the Feminine.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 80, (1994): 383-409. |
| 2005 | Robert Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm,” Journal of Communication 43 (1993): 51-58. |
| 2004 | Lawrence Grossberg, “Cultural Studies and/in New Worlds,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 10 (1993) 1-22. |
| 2003 | Austin S. Babrow, “Communication and Problematic Integration: Understanding Diverging Probability and Value, Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Impossibility.” Communication Theory 2 (1992): 95-130. |
| 2002 | Joseph B. Walther, “Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction: A Relational Perspective.” Communication Research 19 (1992): 52-90. |
| 2001 | Raymie E. McKerrow, “Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis.” Communication Monographs 56 (1989): 91-111. |
| 2000 | Maurice Charland, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois." Quarterly Journal of Speech 73 (1987): 133-150. |
| 1999 | Robert Hariman, “Status, Marginality, and Rhetorical Theory.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986): 38-54. |
| 1998 | Judee Burgoon and Jerold Hale, “The Fundamental Topoi of Relational Communication.” Communication Monographs 51 (1984): 193-214. |
| 1997 | Michael Osborn, “Rhetorical Depiction.” In Form, Genre, and the Study of Political Discourse, edited by Herbert W. Simons & Aram A. Aghazarian (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1986), 79-107. |
| 1996 | Malcolm R. Parks, “Ideology in Interpersonal Communication: Off the Couch and Into the World.” Communication Yearbook 5 (1982): 79-107. |
| 1995 | Sally A. Jackson & Scott Jacobs, “Generalizing About Messages: Suggestions for Design & Analysis of Experiments.” Human Communication Research 9 (1983): 169-181. |
| 1994 | John O. Greene, “A Cognitive Approach to Human Communication: An Action Assembly Theory.” Communication Monographs 51 (1984): 288-306. |
| 1993 | Linda L. Putnam, “The Interpretive Perspective: An Alternative to Functionalism.” Communication and Organizations: An Interpretive Approach, edited by Linda L. Putnam & Michael E. Pacanowsky (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1983), 31-54. |
| 1992 | G. Thomas Goodnight, “The Personal, Technical, and Public Spheres of Argument.” Journal of the American Forensics Association 18 (1982): 214-227. |
| 1991 | John M. Wiemann, “Explication and Text of a Model of Communication Competence.” Human Communication Research 3 (1977): 195-213. |
| 1990 | Thomas B. Farrell, “Knowledge, Consensus and Rhetorical Theory.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 62 (1976): 1-14. |
| 1989 | Gerald Miller, Frank Boster, Michael Roloff, & David Seibold, “Compliance-Gaining Message Strategies: A Typology and Some Findings Concerning Effects of Situational Differences.” Communication Monographs 44 (1977): 27-51. |
| 1988 | L. Edna Rogers & Richard V. Farace, “Analysis of Relational Communication in Dyads: New Measurement Procedures.” Human Communication Research 1 (1975): 222-239. |
| 1987 | Karlyn K. Campbell, “The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation: An Oxymoron.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 59 (1973): 74-86. |
| 1986 | Daniel O’Keefe, “Logical Empiricism & The Study of Human Communication.” Speech Monographs 42 (1975): 169-183. |
| 1985 | Michael Leff & G. P. Mohrmann, “Lincoln at Cooper Union: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Text.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 60 (1974): 346-458; and “Lincoln at Cooper Union: A Rationale for Neo-Classical Criticism.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 60 (1974): 459-467. |
| 1984 | Roderick Hart & Don Burks, “Rhetorical Sensitivity & Social Interaction.” Speech Monographs 39 (1972): 75-91 |
| 1983 | Ernest Bormann, “Fantasy & Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social Reality.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 58 (1972): 396-407. |
| 1982 | Donald Cushman & Gordon Whiting, “An Approach to Communication Theory: Toward Consensus on Rules.” Journal of Communication 22 (1972): 217-238 |
| 1981 | Robert Scott, “On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic.” Central States Speech Communication Journal 18 (1967): 9-17. |