NCA Legislative Assembly Approves New Journal Editors and Affirms Foundational Communication Course as a Priority for Colleges and Universities
WASHINGTON, DC (April 21, 2023) In its meeting (virtual) today, the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Legislative Assembly (LA) approved three new journal editors, voted unanimously to affirm the inclusion of the discipline’s foundational Communication course in colleges and universities, and discussed ways the Association’s interest groups and affiliates’ activities can advance the new five-year strategic plan.
New NCA Journal Editors
The LA approved Marina Levina, Ph.D., University of Memphis, as editor-elect of the journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; and Kimberlee Perez, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Dustin Goltz, Ph.D., DePaul University, as co-editors-elect of the journal Text and Performance Quarterly. As editors-elect, they will begin processing manuscripts early in 2024 and will oversee the journals as editor and co-editors for 2025-2027. Learn more about NCA’s 12 journals.
Advocating for the Foundational Communication Course Across Higher Education
In a unanimous vote, the LA affirmed the fundamental value, importance, and role of communication theory and the foundational course—central to the teaching of Communication skills and the discipline—and will advocate for including this and other Communication courses in the core curricula of colleges and universities.
“The LA's passage of the resolution reaffirms how central the foundational communication course is in higher education settings, not just for those who major in Communication,” said Vinita Argarwal, Ph.D., who chairs the Teaching and Learning Council and is a professor in the Department of Communication at Salisbury University. “The course and those like it, underscore the value of learning communication theory and the importance of being taught by faculty trained in the Communication discipline,” added Argarwal, who proposed the resolution.
“As Communication experts, we can empower students to employ Communication as praxis in reflective, ethical, dialogic, and critical deliberation. Knowledge of Communication is a powerful tool students will need to engage impactfully with personal, professional, and global challenges in a rapidly changing and dynamic world.”
Advancing the Strategic Plan Journey
Working in small groups, LA members devoted a portion of their meeting to discussing ideas, recommendations, and activities for how interest groups and affiliates’ efforts can advance the new strategic plan and its goals. Read the strategic plan adopted by the LA in November 2022.
The Legislative Assembly is scheduled to meet again November 15-18, 2023, in National Harbor, Md.
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION
The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusion, diversity, equity, and access among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this inclusion, diversity, equity, and access.
For more information, visit natcom.org,
CONTACT
B. Denise Hawkins, M.A., Director of Communications at 202-534-1107 or bdhawkins@natcom.org