SC&I Communication faculty and doctoral students will chair, present, and attend a variety of panels and presentations during the 93rd Annual Central States Communication Association Conference (CSCA), April 3 – 6, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The convention’s theme is “Incoherence: Failure, Futures, and Forgotten Messages.”

Associate Professor of Communication Kristina Scharp, who will begin her term as Second Vice President of the Central States Communication Association, will receive Top Paper and Top Panel awards from the Interpersonal and Family Communication Interest Group. Scharp’s top panel presentation, “Engaging Translational Opportunities for Interpersonal and Family Communication Scholarship,” is April 5 and includes Dawn O. Braithwaite, Kory Floyd, Samantha Shebib, Kate Magsamen-Conrad, Ph.D.’12, and Jody Koenig-Kellas. On April 6, Scharp and her collaborator Elizabeth Hintz will participate in the top papers panel with their award-winning paper, “Theory of Communicative (Dis)enfranchisement: Introduction, Explication, and Application.”

In addition to Scharp, SC&I participants include doctoral students Cimmiaron Alvarez and Haley Nolan-Cody. Visit the CSCA convention site for the complete program.

In explaining the convention theme, CSCA noted, “Our lives are filled with moments of incoherence. Some segments of incoherence occur at the individual level, as we explore how shared meaning is missed. Other sites of incoherence come from systems and structures working to obfuscate our understanding of ourselves, our relational partners, our communities, and our organizations. Sometimes, as our theories tell us, incoherence can be beneficial, illuminating, or productive.”

Central States Communication Association is an academic organization of communication professionals, including college and university professors, students, and K-12 educators. CSCA was founded in 1931 to promote the communication discipline in educational, scholarly, and professional endeavors. The organization has grown to become the largest regional communication association in the United States and the fourth-largest academic communication association in the world.