NCA Inside & Out

Recent episodes of Communication Matters delved into a variety of interesting topics. On July 9, Robin Means Coleman, Professor of Communication and Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity at Texas A&M University, joined the podcast to discuss Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present, a book that was made into an award-winning documentary film in 2019. The episode delved into issues of race in American horror films. 

In a bonus episode on July 13, Vanessa Beasley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Associate Provost and Dean of Residential Faculty at Vanderbilt University; Marnel Niles Goins, Professor of Communication, Interim Dean of Academic Affairs, and Associate Dean in the School of Design, Arts, and Humanities at Marymount University; and Shawn Wahl, Professor of Communication and Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Missouri State University, discussed lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On July 23, Mary Gould, Director of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, an organization that works to promote high-quality higher education programs in prison by supporting both practitioners and students, discussed the Alliance’s work, the importance of promoting postsecondary education in prison, and the relevance of Communication research and teaching to expanding higher education programs in prisons. 

In a bonus episode on July 27, Rachel Alicia Griffin, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah, and Jonathan P. Rossing, Associate Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University, discussed a special issue of Review of Communication that focused on the film, Black Panther. The issue’s free-to-access articles offer a variety of perspectives on Black Panther, including critically examining the film’s lack of representation of Muslim Africans and the effect that the film had on teenagers. 

The August 6 episode of Communication Matters highlighted Major Decisions: College, Career, and the Case for the Humanities, which argues that the humanities are valuable for preparing students for careers and life. Co-author E. Michele Ramsey joined the podcast to discuss the book and the value of the humanities in today’s high-tech world. 

On August 20, Communication Matters focused on the 19th Amendment and women’s issues today and featured a conversation with Dianne Bystrom, Director Emerita of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University; Belinda Stillion Southard, Graduate Coordinator and Faculty Member at the University of Georgia; Ella Stillion Southard, one of the developers of Women in Politics; and Kristan Poirot, Associate Professor and Associate Head for Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. 

In the September 3 episode of Communication Matters, Leah Litman, Assistant Professor in the University of Michigan Law School, discussed the essay, “Muted Justice,” which examines how much time each of the Supreme Court justices was given to ask questions during May’s oral arguments, which were made over the phone because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

New episodes of Communication Matters are released every other Thursday. Upcoming episodes of Communication Matters will feature a variety of interesting guests, including: 

• September 7: In a bonus Labor Day episode of Communication Matters, two graduate employee labor activists, José G. Izaguirre III, a new Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and former Grievance Officer of the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Alicia Massie, a Coalition of Student Employee Unions Coordinating Committee member and Ph.D. candidate at Simon Frasier University, will discuss their experiences as labor organizers and the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on graduate employee organizing.
• September 17: Current and former NCA journal editors Deanna Dannels, Professor of Communication and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina State University; Kory Floyd, Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona; Shiv Ganesh, Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin; and Ronald Jackson II, Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati and a past NCA President, will share their experiences as editors and offer their thoughts on the rewards and challenges that aspiring journal editors can expect.
• October 1: This episode of Communication Matters will feature Armond Towns, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Studies at the University of Richmond; Maegan Parker Brooks, Assistant Professor at Willamette University; and Robin Boylorn, Associate Professor at the University of Alabama. The panelists will discuss a variety of issues related to the history and future of the nation’s civil rights movement. 

This fall’s public programs will be reimagined as a special series of Communication Matters entitled, “Communicating During a Presidential Election Year.” The three public programs will be: “The Politics of Health and Healthcare: Communicating about Health in Presidential Election Year,” “Communicating about the Role of Race and Social Change in Politics,” and “VEEPS 2020: Kamala Harris vs. Mike Pence.”

You can find the podcast by entering “Communication Matters” in the search bar of your favorite podcast app. Subscribe and listen today!