Students, Faculty Participate in Conference

Nine faculty and three students in the School of Public Communication recently participated in the annual convention of the Southern States Communication Association in Birmingham, Ala.

The three students, who each presented papers at, and were honored by the concurrently held Undergraduate Honors Conference, were Kimberly Clinkenbeard, Samuel Pair, and Shaun Stoehr.

Five faculty members from the Speech Communication program took part in the convention. Frances Brandau-Brown presented two papers, one of which was judged a Top Paper in Communication Theory. The other was a competitive paper in Interpersonal Communication co-authored with J.D. Ragsdale.

Brandau-Brown also served as chair of the Communication Theory Division and was elected vice chair-elect of the Interpersonal Communication Division.

Ragsdale presented the paper co-authored with Brandau-Brown and one other in family communication. He also served as chair of the Interpersonal Communication Division, served as chair/respondent for an Undergraduate Honors Conference panel, and was Featured Scholar for the Communication Theory Division.

Mary Evelyn Collins was a participant in a roundtable panel on cultural studies, and served as chair/respondent for two other panels. Monette Ezell served as nominating committee representative for the Interpersonal Communication Division, and was elected secretary for both the Political Communication and Communication Theory divisions.

Terry Thibodeaux was primary planner for the Undergraduate Honors Conference, served as chair for one research panel, participated in a roundtable panel on the future of the organization, and ascended to the role of vice president in the organization. Thibodeaux will plan the association convention in Tampa, Fla., in 2004.

Four Radio-Television faculty members also participated in the convention. Tony DeMars served as secretary of the Popular Communication Division, served as chair of one research panel, and presented a paper in another panel.

Jason Balas and Jeff Porche also presented research papers, on TV news and newswriting, respectively.

Tommy Booras, DeMars, Balas and Porche were also a part of a panel discussion on "Ideologies, Approaches and Challenges in Teaching TV News."

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
April 16, 2003
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