From the Executive Director: We press on with IDEA 

We press on with IDEA 

I moved to Washington, DC in 2012 when NCA hired me as the Academic and Professional Affairs Associate. I consciously decided to live within the city limits, partly to spend my weekends exploring the fantastic Smithsonian museums throughout the District. I can’t tell you how often I have ridden my bike down to the Mall and walked through the American History Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian (DC pro tip: the NMAI has the best cafeteria on the Mall). Likewise, outside of my home and the National Office, I’ve probably spent more time hanging around the Lincoln Memorial and enjoying everything the National Park Service (NPS) offers than any other place in the DMV.  

You can guess that I wasn’t exactly pleased (or surprised, for that matter) when I read in the Washington Post that the NPS has begun changing its website to, let’s say, re-configure or re-describe key moments in American history involving slavery and the Jim Crow era. From my DC bubble, it’s baffling to me when thinking how we got here.  

The scrubbing of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has also begun on college campuses. The Chronicle of Higher Education has been keeping track of higher ed’s dismantling of DEI. In its latest update, the Chronicle reported that 320 college campuses in 39 states have made some form of change to its DEI efforts. These efforts started well before Inauguration Day, but it’s not hyperbole that efforts have ramped up since that cold January 20 afternoon.  

So what about NCA? Will the current political climate affect how the National Office moves forward with the convention and the development of resources? These are great questions.  

My vision from a National Office perspective is one of Communication Community. Within that community are five points:  

• Building and maintaining a dynamic National Office staff 
• Innovative communications strategies 
• Enhancing member value 
• Reimagining the convention  
• Optimizing the budget 

I will get more in-depth in future Spectra articles about the five points of Communication Community, but I can confidently say that none of the above is possible without Goal 3 of NCA’s Strategic Plan to embrace and enact inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) as well as NCA’s IDEA Strategic Plan. You can read both here.   

I also recognize that IDEA is not easy. NCA has a history of being a sounding board for those who identify as cisgender straight males, while the rest are thrown into the margins and either discredited or forgotten. I highly recommend you take some time and read Changing the Players of the Game by Jack L. Daniel with Afterwards by Lucia S. Hawthorne, Dorthy L. Pennington, Melbourne S. Cummings, Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, and Venita Kelley. Published in 1995 by the Speech Communication Association (now NCA) this work recalls the origins of the Black Caucus. I try to re-read this work at least once a year as it reminds me of where we came from as an Association and that, in many areas of IDEA, the work has just begun.  

How is the National Office moving forward?  

NCA proudly supports not just the field of Communication but, more broadly, social sciences, humanities, and other learned societies that share in the importance of research, scholarship, and pedagogy.  

As Executive Director, I serve as a board member for the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA). The team at COSSA works tirelessly to advocate for Social Science funding, and they invite all NCA members to act. You can go to COSSA’s Action Center to learn more about advocacy, how to take action, and to stay informed.  

NCA is also a longtime National Humanities Alliance member (NHA) member. The NHA team actively works with other associations to take action against the Federal Government’s targeting of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). You can read NHA’s statement on Threats to the NEH here.  

Likewise, NCA is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Its mission is to support advancing knowledge in humanity and human endeavors to improve the human experience. The ACLS recently released statements in support of the Smithsonian Institution and on cuts to NEH.  

As for the National Office, we are continuing down the path of IDEA with ongoing discussions. I invite you to join us on Friday, April 25, for a transformative Virtual Learning Opportunity. Per the announcement that went to members on April 7, this VLO:   

“aims to examine the rapid rise of authoritarianism in the United States as the problem of power, but also of culture and communication. That is why the field of communication studies has a unique responsibility in developing communicative strategies to counter authoritarian rhetorics and fictions. To do that, however, we need to understand the thorough line between the current authoritarian turn in the US, the rise of authoritarianism in Europe, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This virtual learning opportunity will feature Ukrainian, European, North American, and Russian scholars who will address and analyze the ways in which rhetorics of land, peace, and identity have been weaponized by Russia against Ukraine; translated into the larger European geo-political contexts, and strategically adopted to organize the authoritarian thought in the United States. We will argue that understanding the Ukrainian invasion and Russian neo-imperialism within a larger European context is essential to creating a robust response to authoritarianism in North America.” 

Be on the lookout for a registration email in the coming days. I hope to see you there.