WFI Symposia and Events

Our most recent symposium was The 2016-17 WFI Symposium: The Just Transition Conference: Communicating Power in an Age of Climactic Change.

Rather than offering a traditional academic conference, in 2016-17, the WFI instead sponsored a series of events on April 7-8, 2017, all centered on on climate justice, the intersection of environnmentalism and racism, and just transition advocacy.

• The symposium kicked off with an interdisciplinary panel, “Science, Expertise, and Environmental Justice,” on Friday, April 7th. This panel brought together a rich diversity of perspectives on climate justice by featuring rhetorical scholar Phaedra C. Pezzullo from the University of Colorado, Boulder, professor of environmental studies Giovanna Di Chiro from Swarthmore College, and environmental chemist Amanda Grannas from Villanova. A spirited Q&A followed the presentations, focusing on what it means to engage questions of environmental justice in a political climate discouraging or denying climate science, and negatively sanctioning advocacy efforts.
• The next day, Saturday, April 8th, a group of students, faculty, activists, and Philadelphia residents embarked on a daylong Environmental Justice Tour of select Philadelphia sites. The Environmental Justice tour allowed us an opportunity to engage firsthand with Philadelphia groups engaged in the struggle for climate justice; we were able to both witness sites of environmental injustice and sites of amazing environmental activism.
• Following the conclusion of the EJ Tour, the WFI Symposium wrapped up with our KEYNOTE EVENT, a public address by Aaron Mair, the President of the Sierra Club, and José T. Bravo of The Just Transition Alliance. These two vital, engaging figures talked through their advocacy efforts, the obstacles that just transition activists face, and engaged with the audience about the pressing issues of justice surrounding climate change, racism, and workers' rights.

These events truly enacted the WFI’s mission to create and strengthen a global network of Communication scholars and professionals, and to generate new conversations about communication, social change, and climate justice.

• The 2015-16 WFI Symposium--Cross-Cultural Communication and Ethics: U.S. and Chinese Perspectives on Theory and Practice--was held on Villanova's campus on Saturday October 3rd, 2015. The WFI proudly hosted an interdisciplinary, international conversation regarding the complexity of ethics in intercultural engagement between the U.S. and China. Symposium sessions with scholars and professionals from the US and China addressed significant cultural, practical, and ethical dimensions of this complex issue. The events of the Symposium culminated with a scintillating lecture from renowned intercultural communication scholar, Dr. Stella Ting-Toomey. Her keynote was entitled: "Developing Intercultural Communication Competence: Ethical Issues to Ponder."

• The 2014-15 WFI Symposium: Communication, Postcoloniality, and Social Justice: Decolonizing Imaginations. From March 26-29, 2015, the WFI proudly hosted an exciting and innovative four-day event, a conference bringing together scholars from across the globe to chart some possible pathways for the future of Communication and Media Studies. This was the first event of its kind in the US, focusing on communication through the lens of postcoloniality. Check out our list of keynote and plenary speakers by visiting the Conference website.

• The 2013-14 Symposium: On July 16, 2014, the WFI presented the one-day event, “Diversity Through Dialogue: Living Diversity, Communicating Justice.” The daylong event was designed for faculty and staff interested in issues of diversity and inclusion, Diversity Directors/Officers, School Directors, Diversity Programmers at Independent and Religious Schools and Colleges. As K-12 schools, colleges and universities move past the first stage of diversity work—acquiring compositional diversity—it is important that we are ready to move on and think in holistic and meaningful ways about how we use the diversity we have to meet specific and current educational goals and outcomes. The WFI was proud to host an energetic and intellectually stimulating dialogue on these issues, headlined by a keynote from renowned Communication scholar, Dr. Brenda J. Allen.

The 2012-13 Symposium: On October 26-27, 2012, the WFI presented a two-day event, “Truth, Fact, & Communication in Complex Information Environments.” The conference began with an evening keynote address, "Deception and Distraction in the 2012 Presidential Election," delivered by renowned political communication scholar, Kathleen Hall Jamieson. The next day brought together a collection of leading Communication scholars and professionals from across the country, engaging the challenges of grappling with communication, advocacy, and social justice issues within the context of higher education institutions.

• The 2011-12 Symposium: On October 22, 2011, the WFI hosted a one-day event, “The Challenge of Communicating Truth.” This event, inspired by the work of the late pioneering communication theorist Barnett Pearce, brought together scholars and practitioners from across the country to engage in conversation about the nature and complexity of truth.

• The 2010-11 Symposium: our WFI Inaugural Symposium. On October 1st and 2nd, 2010, the WFI was officially launched! The program began at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and continued the next day on Villanova's campus, in a symposium connecting communication students, scholars, and professionals from around the country.