RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Communication scholarship in our department is as varied as the discipline itself.
From the study of rhetoric and identity, the changing landscape of the media industry, collective memory and ritual, and public protest to performance and culture, transnational feminisms, post-coloniality and communication, organizing spaces of work and family, and conflict management, the Communication faculty approach research from critical, qualitative and quantitative perspectives and their scholarship takes the form of books, articles, films, and performances.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Raka Shome, PhD, professor and the Harron Family Endowed Chair in Communication at Villanova University, has received the 2020 Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from the National Communication Association, the largest association for the study of communication. The award is given annually to honor scholars who have executed research programs in rhetorical theory, rhetorical criticism, and/or public address studies.
In a 24-hour news cycle with rapidly evolving technologies, there’s no denying the disruptions happening in the field of journalism—including those that user comments have had and continue to have on digital journalism. Thomas Ksiazek, PhD, associate professor of Communications in Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, explores this in his new book, User Comments and Moderation in Digital Journalism: Disruptive Engagement (Routledge, 2020).
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Liam McIntyre ’20 CLAS won the 2020 Award of Recognition in the Best Shorts Competition for his film, King of Quarantine.
Kalin Schultz ’19 CLAS presented two papers, “Missing Narratives: A Rhetorical Analysis of the #MeToo Movement” and “Can a Razor Re-make the Man? Kenneth Burke, Gillette, and the Defense of Toxic Masculinity” at the 2019 National Communication Association convention in Baltimore. She has been accepted to the MA/PhD program in the Department of Communication, University of Maryland.