The New York State Communication Association Conference has named Professor and Chair of the Department of Library and Information Science, Marie L. Radford as recipient of the 2022 Neil Postman Mentor's Award.

The NYSCA chose Radford for the award “for her continuous encouragement of students and junior faculty and her great support of our annual conference."

"I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious mentoring award from NYSCA,” Radford said. “I am a past-president of NYSCA, and the award is meaningful to me as it is given in recognition of my mentorship of doctoral students and early-career faculty members of the organization, several of whom are Rutgers University School of Communication and Information alums.”

Radford received the award in person from Thom Gencarelli, a faculty member and founding Chair of the “Next Generation” Communication program at Manhattan College, and a former NYSCA president, at the NYSCA conference held from October 14-16, 2022 at the Villa Roma Resort and Conference Center in Callicoon, NY. This year was the 80th year of the conference, and the theme was “Junctures: Celebrating 80 Years of New York State Communication.” 

Radford is also past Director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program at SC&I and a past leader of NYSCA, having served as co-president from 2001-2002 with her husband, Gary Radford Ph.D. ’91, a faculty member at Fairleigh Dickenson University. NYSCA past-presidents also include SC&I Ph.D. alums Brad Crownover ’05, Corey Liberman ’08, and Anastacia Kurylo ’06.  

During the conference, Radford and SC&I Professor of Journalism and Media Studies John Pavlik co-hosted the Saturday night (10/15/22) annual Rutgers reception that was sponsored by the SC&I Communication Department, the Ph.D. Program, the Master of Communication and Media (MCM) and the Master of Health Communication and Information (MHCI) Programs.

Congratulating Radford for her award, Pavlik wrote, “Hearty congratulations to Marie for a much-deserved award!”

Reflecting upon the significance of its 80th year, the NYSCA wrote, “we will have navigated–and will continue to navigate–the most significant period of personal, public, social, political, cultural, and economic unrest collectively faced by our nation to date. The current historical moment, coupled with NYSCA’s 80th anniversary, provides a unique juncture for reflection, examination, celebration, and reimagination of the communication discipline’s pivotal and transformative role in solving today’s complex issues—and from intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, public, organizational, and mass perspectives. We sit at an exigence, simultaneously filled with discomfort and hope, underscoring the work undertaken by NYSCA scholars, educators, practitioners, and students as integral to the advancement of the communication discipline.”

"I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious mentoring award from NYSCA,” Radford said.

To prepare for this year’s conference, the NYSCA suggested participants “address issues and ideas related to their fields of communication, with particular focus on questions, challenges and/or the role of communication in addressing contemporary issues. Submitters also may consider how the dynamics of COVID-19, political unrest, social injustice, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are evolving and reshaping their scholarship and pedagogy, as well as disciplinary practices, in new, unexpected, and productive ways.”

The NYSCA’s mission, according to the website, is to “encourage human communication scholarship and education in New York State, to serve the interests of the members of the Association, to foster student interest in the academic and applied fields of communication, to nourish a community of students, scholars, and practitioners, to promote cross disciplinary connections, and to promote close relations with other educational organizations in the field of communication.” 

More information about the Rutgers School of Communication and Information is on the website.

Photos:

Caption: The photo shows Pavlik and Radford at the podium at the conference providing an update on SC&I.

Photo credit: Gary Radford Ph.D. ’91