Over 50 SC&I faculty and students will present research at the 72nd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference from May 26-30. Held in Paris, France, this is the ICA’s first truly hybrid conference with over 3,400 in-person attendees and over 400 virtual participants. Please see the ICA program schedule for complete details and links. For a Rutgers-only schedule, please see our SC&I schedule. 

The conference’s theme—“One World, One Network‽”—will challenge attendees to reimagine communication scholarship on globalization and networks. According to the conference website, the use of the unconventional interrobang glyph (the combined question mark and exclamation point) seeks to “simultaneously celebrate and problematize the ‘one-ness’ in the theme.”

On Thursday, May 26, doctoral student Nikhila Natarajan is moderating and participating in the preconference session, “Digital Asia: Civic Engagement in the Connected Asia.”

The schedule for Friday, May 27, includes the following SC&I faculty and students:

• Doctoral student Matt Reichel, “Media and Digital Activism in the USA”
• Associate Professor of Communication Matthew Matsaganis, “Research Partnership and Opportunities between the Health Communication Division of ICA and EACH: International Association for Communication in Healthcare”
• Assistant Professor of Communication Shawnika Hull, “Community Engaged Health Communication Research”
• Associate Professor of Communication Matthew Weber, “Business Models in Journalism and Media Economics”
• Doctoral student Holly Avella, “Media Cultures and/as Therapy”
• Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Caitlin Petre, “Working It: Toward a Labor Turn in Journalism Studies”
• Associate Professor of Communication Lisa Mikesell and communication student Catherine Cuddihy, Health Communication Interactive Poster Session
• Doctoral student Luxuan Wang, Virtual Communication Studies Interactive Poster Session
• Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Chenjerai Kumanyika (chair), “ICA Presents: One Podcast Network”
• Doctoral student Robyn Caplan, “Practice-Based Panel: Building a Global Platform Governance Research Network”
• Calandra Lindstadt, post-doctoral associate in the Aspen Lab in Communication (chair), “Leveraging Social Media in the Face of an Infodemic: A Social Ecological Perspective”
• Assistant Professor of Communication Yonaira Rivera “Leveraging Social Media in the Face of an Infodemic: A Social Ecological Perspective”
• Stefanie Gratale, post-doctoral fellow, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, “Virtual High-Density: Communication and Risk Behaviors”
• Director of Undergraduate Studies in Information Technology and Informatics and Assistant Teaching Professor Warren Allen, “Framing Dynamics among Media, Public, and Political Actors”

On Saturday, May 28, Professor of Communication Galina Bolden, Research Professor of Communication Alexa Hepburn, outgoing Dean of the School of Communication and Information and Distinguished Professor of Communication Jonathan Potter, Professor Emerita of Communication Jenny Mandelbaum, Associate Professor of Communication Lisa Mikesell, and doctoral students Marissa Caldwell, Hee Chung Chun, Song Hee Park, Aleksandr Shirokov, and Kaicheng Zhan are participants in “Gestures, Repairs, Narratives, and Identities”: The May 28 schedule also includes these SC&I faculty and students:

• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Khadijah Costley White (chair), “Black Lives Matter: Activism against Racist Violence and Hatespeech”
• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Susan Keith (discussant), “Visual Communication Effects: New Media, New Methods”
• Assistant Professor of Communication J. Sophia Fu (chair), “Organizational Communication in the Age of Datafication and Artificial Intelligence”
• Associate Dean for Programs and Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Dafna Lemish, “One World, Many Ways Forward: (New) Feminist Manifestos for Media and Communication”
• Director of the Ph.D. Program and Professor of Communication Jennifer Theiss and doctoral student Deborah Yoon, “Advancements in Family Communication Research”
• Allyson Bontempo, “High Density: Health Communication and Providers I”
• Marya L. Doerfel and doctoral students Melanie Kwestel, Minkyung Kim, and Casey Randazzo, Environmental Communication Interactive Poster Session

After presentations finish for the day, Rutgers is hosting a reception to thank Jonathan Potter as he concludes his time as Dean of the School of Communication & Information.

On Sunday, May 29, Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Melissa Aronczyk and Associate Professor of Communication Jeffrey Lane are co-chairs of the Blue Sky Workshop, “Digital Ethnography: Methods for Networked Worlds” and Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Caitlin Petre is a respondent. Also that day, SC&I participants include:

• Doctoral student Zhuozhi Shao, “COVID Cavalcade–Professional Communication: Working through the Pandemic”
• Doctoral student Taylor Goulbourne, “High Density: Health Communication for Closing Health Disparities”
• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Regina Marchi (respondent), “Patriarchy, Oppression and Masculinity: New Approaches to Old Themes”
• Professor and Chair of Journalism and Media Studies Amy Jordan and Associate Professor of Communication Vikki S. Katz (respondents), “Research Escalator l: Children, Adolescents, and Media”
• Professor of Communication Kathryn Greene, Associate Professor of Communication Maria Venetis, doctoral student Lauren Lee, and Alexandre Buckley de Meritens, MD and Katie Devine, Ph.D., MPH with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, “Communication and Health-Related Social Support”
• Doctoral student Sabrina Singh, “Setting a Critical Precedent: Situation Reproductive Justice as a Global Networked Advocacy Framework in Communication Scholarship”
• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Susan Keith (respondent), “Contemporary Solutions in Higher Ed for JMC Faculty and Staff”
• Associate Professor of Communication Vikki S. Katz (respondent), Journal of Children and Media Editorial Board Meeting
• Marissa Caldwell, “Presidents, Mao, Senators, and the Holocaust: Persuasion, Questions, and Representation across Discourse Types”
• Associate Professor of Communication Jeffrey Lane (participant) and doctoral student Robyn Caplan (chair), “Platforms, Society, and Governance”
• Assistant Professor of Communication J. Sophia Fu, “Entrepreneuring as Relation Work”
• Associate Professor of Communication Vikki S. Katz (discussant), “Marginalized Communities in CAM Research”
• Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Caitlin Petre, “Metaphors in Journalism and Journalism Studies: Critical Perspectives"
• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Todd Wolfson (chair), Activism, Communication and Social Justice Business Meeting
• Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Melissa Aronczyk (chair), Popular Media and Culture Business Meeting
• Assistant Vice President, Office of University Strategy and Director, Rutgers Center for Organizational Leadership Ralph Gigliotti and part-time faculty member Maria Dwyer, “Organizational Leadership and Crisis Communication”

On Monday, May 30, SC&I participants include:

• Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s Zhaomeng Niu, post-doctoral appointee with Heckman Laboratory (chair), and Associate Professor of Medicine Carolyn J. Heckman (participant), “Advances in Cancer Communication”
• Associate Dean for Programs and Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Dafna Lemish (respondent), “Research Escalator II: Children, Adolescents, and Media”
• Associate Professor of Communication Matthew Matsaganis, “Improving Patient-Centered Communication I”
• Associate Professor of Communication Jeffrey Lane (chair), “Policy and Politics in Authoritarian States and Beyond”
• Assistant Professor of Communication Shawnika Hull (chair), “Advances in Risk Communication”
• Doctoral student Robyn Caplan (respondent), “Competing Understandings of Value and Influence in the Platform Economy”
• Calandra Lindstadt, post-doctoral associate in the Aspen Lab in Communication (chair), “Interpersonal Communication, Relationships, and Health”
• Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Chenjerai Kumanyika (respondent), “New Avenues for Media Activism within Global Platform Capitalism”
• Rutgers Law School Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Special Projects, Professor of Law Ellen P. Goodman, “Fighting Misinformation: How Effective Are Veracity Labels and Factual Corrections?”

The ICA aims to advance the scholarly study of human communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide.

 Image credit: ICA Conference website