April & May 2020 College News

1 Dr. David Zarefsky, giving a presentation on one of Lyndon Johnson's speeches to Ann Burnette's Political Communication class 2 Melinda Villagran at the Austin Mayor’s Mobility Breakfast where she presented about the study on the efects of commuting on health 3 M.A. student Nancy Heise (top left) virtually and successfully defending her thesis project 4 | April & May | College News COMMUNICATION STUDIES Communication Studies, Health Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Leadership Studies, Organizational Communication, Persuasive Communication, Political Communication, & Teacher Certif ication in Communication Studies FACULTY ACCOLADES Susannah Bannon gave an interview with the Alliance for Higher Education in Prisons. Te video is part of a series of curated stories from advocates, educators, and researchers of higher education in prison called the “Alliance Story Center.” She explained her motivation to pursue advanced degrees in Communication Studies and the importance of higher education, specifcally in reentry. Te interview is posted on the Alliance website. Ann Burnette has been promoted to the rank of Professor and was just named a Piper Professor for 2020 by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. Each year, the foundation selects ten Piper Professors from across Texas for their superior teaching at the college level. Ann is one of only 24 Texas State faculty who have earned this honor. Ann was also featured as a Scholarly Interview on Political Communication for MastersinCommunication. com. Te interview touched on such topics as her introduction to the rhetorical analysis of political communication infuential course she took as a student, various recent publications, and courses she teaches. Ann also welcomed Dr. David Zarefsky to her Political Communication class to give a presentation on Lyndon Johnson's Speech where he discussed the Vietnam War and also announced that he would not seek re-election. Te Department of Communication Studies was the sponsor of the LBJ San Marcos Museum's Spring Lecture, where Dr. Zarefsky spoke on Te Rhetoric of LBJ's War on Poverty. [ 1 ] Michael Burns was featured in a University news story about best practices for faculty and students when moving to online courses during the COVID-19 crisis. He reminds us in the article that these are not ordinary circumstances and we have to set realistic expectations for ourselves as well as our students. Michael’s honors course, “Re-Humanizing Communication” will be featured in the University Star because of their assignment, "Spread Joy, Not Coronavirus." Students in the class found ways to spread joy while practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis. Examples include: fnished building a fence for an elderly neighbor, wrote handwritten letters to love ones, performed Instagram Live concerts, created original choreography and shared it online, tutored younger family members, grocery shopping for grandparents, cooked and delivered meals to people in need, sent letters and artwork to nursing homes, planned a virtual prom for high school seniors, hosted virtual dinner parties, sent fowers to people feeling depressed, and sang from afar to a mother who is an ER nurse fghting the pandemic. Te article can be found here. Stephanie Dailey has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Kristen Farris had “Parenting practices, autonomous motivation, and adolescent diet habits” accepted for publication in the Journal of Adolescence . Maureen Keeley had “End-of-life communication and coping” accepted for publication in Qualitative Research Reports . Te article was co-authored with M.A. alum Mark Generous . Maureen and Mark also published “End of life communication and growth following death,” in the journal Omega . She was also quoted in the article, “What are the stages of grief? How to process and deal with grief or loss,” featured on Insider.com. Maureen’s “Final Conversations” research was cited in a recent TEDx talk given by Heather Servaty-Seib entitled “Benefts of Making Death Talkable.” Manusheela Pokharel had “Te ‘discourse of derision’ in news coverage of education: A mixed methods analysis of an emerging frame” accepted for publication in the American Journal of Education . Melinda Villagran presented the fndings of a study on the efects of commuting on health at the Austin Mayor’s Mobility Breakfast. Te study was also presented to the Austin City Council and was featured on KUT. Data are currently being collected for a follow up study on changes in health due to telework among the same participants in the original study representing over 80 downtown Austin businesses. Te new study was also featured on KUT. [ 2 ] STUDENT ACCOLADES M.A. student Nancy Heise successfully defended her thesis project. [ 3] She analyzed Halsey's 2018 Women's March speech to provide important and timely insight into how women share their sexual violence experiences. M.A. student Alan Grant successfully defended his thesis project, “Te Concentric Circles of Privileged Speech: How Harry Edwards, Arthur Ashe, and LeBron James Established the Standard of Communication for the American Black Male Athlete.” Dr. Ann Burnette served as his advisor. Alan will begin his doctoral work at Texas A&M in the fall. Te Communication Studies Graduate Association (CSGA) hosted a virtual event called "Non-Academic Communication Studies Jobs" for its Master's students in March. Tree panelists of people with communication studies degrees who have spent time outside of academia developing their careers provided advice to M.A. students about how to develop their careers when they graduate. Te CSGA held its third professional development Zoom meeting in April. "So you want a PhD?" focused on providing students with advice about applying to PhD programs and picking programs that ft them. Six guests from around the country participated to share their insights with Master’s students. M.A. students in COMM 5303, Qualitative Research Methods, are interviewing Texas State University alumni to help the Texas State Alumni Association. At the end of the semester, the class will compile a report with research- based suggestions to better engage alumni. COMM 5303 is taught by Stephanie Dailey . M.A. students in the Diversity and Inclusion Training course created themes for each of their virtual class sessions. Some themes included Spooky/Halloween night, Traveler/Tourist night, and Glamorous night. Te course is taught by Jasmine Austin . ALUMNI ACCOLADES Kaitlyn Kirkhart (B.A., 2016) currently serves as Chief Communications Ofcer for BaCo Tech, a frm that has developed proprietary, patent pending solutions to help clients streamline their tax process, and forecast potential issues to improve year to year. BaCo Tech has developed a revolutionary platform to enable CPAs to work on client’s College of Fine Arts and Communication | 5