Department News

Sankofa wins Gold at the Student Academy Awards!

Check out the article here

Presidential Citation from the National Communication Association

The Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society received a 2018 Presidential Citation from the National Communication Association in recognition of the WFI's commitment to facilitating NCA's vision of equity and inclusion.

Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance

Dr. Heidi Rose received the 2018 Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance from the National Communication Association.

Heidi M. Rose is the Chair of the Department of Communication at Villanova University. Dr. Rose has amassed many accomplishments in a twenty-plus year career as a Performance Studies scholar. Rose has consistently crafted performances aimed at illuminating how power impacts bodies, cultures, families, and theatre itself. At Villanova University, Rose’s impressive corpus of student-centered performances include pieces related to the AIDS crisis (i.e., Living with AIDS, 1994 – 2001), race relations (i.e., Dreaming the Beloved Community: Race, Relationships, and Reality, 1997 – 2002), and Villanova student experiences (i.e., Every Decision Counts, 2009 – 2013). Dr. Rose has published extensively, served as the editor of Text and Performance Quarterly, and received seven performance-related grants (among many other achievements). Rose’s most impressive work has come in the form of the Words and Music trilogy—a series of three auto/biographical plays (Mirror Image, Good Enough, and Twin) interrogating culture and family. In each, Dr. Rose animates family members through voice and body, demonstrating the possibilities of solo performance. Rose has performed from Words and Music at eight U.S. universities to date. As multiple eminent scholars attest, Heidi M. Rose’s body of work is distinguished in its excellent scripting, aesthetic quality, and focus on putting the performer’s body center stage. The breadth and quality of this work indeed situate Rose as an outstanding performer who will continue to carry the legacy of Leslie Irene Coger into the future.

Public Relations Awards

Congratulations to senior Communication major Milan Genovese for receiving the Anne Sceia Klein Award for Professional Promise in Public Relations! The award honors a college junior or senior who is a member of a PRSSA chapter affiliated with Philadelphia PRSA and has demonstrated dedication to the field of public relations. Milan was honored at the 50th Annual PRSA Philadelphia Pepperpot Awards, where she was lauded for her two terms as Villanova’s PRSSA chapter president, five internship experiences, and commitment to academic excellence. Dr. Bill Cowen, director of Villanova’s Public Relations Program, supported Milan’s nomination, and was also in attendance to showcase items from the PRSA time capsule he curated while chairing the Philadelphia PRSA chapter awards in 1999. Great work Milan!

Crisis Communication Collision: Where Core Concepts Meet Contemporary Channels - September 20, 2018

The Villanova Communication Alumni Network (VCAN) was proud to present its first professional development event of the season at Meredith Corporation in New York. We were so impressed by the engaging, dynamic panel discussion on Crisis Communication featuring our accomplished alumni in the field, and moderated by VCAN Founder, Dr. Bill Cowen.

Special thanks to our hosts at Meredith Corporation:

• Susan Parkes-Cirignano ’86 CLAS, Senior Vice President of Experiential, Partnerships and Corporate Marketing
• Cece Ryan CLAS ’88, Publisher of People Magazine
• Keynote Speaker Rosa M. Gatti ’72 CLAS, former Senior Vice President of Communications Counsel and Corporate Outreach at ESPN

Special thanks to our panelists:

• Claudia Russo ’04 CLAS, Director, Corporate Communications, Fox Television Stations
• Clare Cullinane ’03 CLAS, Head of Industry, Food and Beverage, Google
• Amy Pellicane ’03 CLAS, Executive Director, Consumer Engagement Marketing, Clinique
• Katarina Mayers ’11 CLAS, Press Secretary and Director of Digital Media for the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment for the City of New York
  

Heidi Rose, PhD, and  Bill Cowen, EdD, Serve as Expert Judges at Three Minute Thesis Competition

Heidi Rose, PhD, chair of the Communication Department, and Bill Cowen, EdD, assistant professor of Communications and coordinator of the Public Relations specialization, recently served as Communication expert judges for the Three Minute Thesis Competition at the IEEE International Microwave Symposium in June 2018. 3MT is a challenging contest where student researchers have up to three minutes, with just one accompanying visual, to convey clearly and creatively the relevance and uniqueness of their research project. This year's competition highlighted a diversity of projects and researchers from all over the globe.

Annual CNN/Turner Broadcasting Trip

Our annual CNN/Turner Broadcasting trek, co-sponsored by the Department of Communication and the Office of Undergraduate Students. Joe Dugan '87, Senior Vice President at Turner, sponsors the trip each year, and students have an opportunity to tour some studios and meet with VU alums who now work in various areas of the company, from production to marketing and client services.

Cameron Quevedo 2017 Artist Academy Acceptance

Cameron Quevedo, visiting assistant professor, has been accepted into the 2017 Artist Academy (https://www.filmlinc.org/filmmaker-initiatives/artist-academy/), a yearly mentorship event sponsored by the New York Film Festival and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.  His film, El tucán (The Toucan) has been selected to screen this month at the San Francisco Latino Film Festival, the 2017 Festival of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico City, and the DOQU Film Festival in Querétaro, Mexico.  El tucan was also recently awarded “Best International Latino Documentary” at the 2017 Latino Film Market.