Honoring accolades and accomplishments of the Department of Communication faculty
By Allison Brock
As the Spring 2021 semester comes to a close, faculty in the Department of Communication were asked to share notable publications, honors and awards from academic year 2020-21.
In Publishing
Sandra Braman, Ph.D.
Published in 2020 by MIT Press, “The irony of Internet governance research: Metagovernance as context” as a book chapter in Research Methods in Internet Governance: Methods, Frameworks, Futures edited by Laura deNardis, Nanette Levinnson, Francesca Musiani and Derrick Cogburn.
Addressing changes in media cultures and transitioning to streaming services.
Patrick Burkart, Ph.D.
Published in 2021 by Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, “White Supremacist Terrorism in Charlottesville: Reconstructing ‘Unite the Right’” (with Emily L. Blout).
Published in 2020 by Routledge, “Spotification of Popular Culture in the Field of Popular Communication.”
Heidi Campbell, Ph.D.
Published in 2020 by Routledge, “Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority.”
Published in the 2020 issue of the Journal of Communication Inquiry, “‘In my own opinion’: Negotiation of Rabbinical Authority Online in Responsa.”
Tasha N. Dubriwny, Ph.D. and Kate Siegfried, Ph.D. student
Published in the spring 2021 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, “Justifying abortion: The limits of maternal idealist rhetoric.”
Jennifer Lueck, Ph.D.
Published in 2021 by Social Science & Medicine, “Correlates and disparities of intention to vaccinate against COVID-19” (with Timothy Callaghan, Ali Moghtaderi, Peter Hotez, Ulrich Strych, Avi Dor, Erika Franklin Fowler and Matthew Motta).
Scheduled for release May 14, 2021.
Srividya Ramasubramanian, Ph.D.
Published in 2021 by Routledge, “Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: The Power of Numbers for Social Justice.”
Published in 2020 by Journal of Communication, “Critical media effects framework: Bridging critical cultural communication and media effects through power, intersectionality, context, and agency” (with Omotayo O Banjo).
Sebastian Scherr, Ph.D.
Published in 2021 by Journalism, an international, peer-reviewed journal that provides a dedicated forum for articles from academic researchers and critical practitioners with an interest in journalism, “The news expectation predicament: Comparing and explaining what audiences expect from the roles and reporting practices of reporters on right-wing extremism” (with Philip Baugut).
Published in 2021 by The Social Science Journal, “Investigating the negative-cognitive-triad-hypothesis of news choice in Germany and South Korea: Does depression predict selective exposure to negative news?” (with Florian Arendt, Michael Prieler and Youngkee Ju).
Published in 2021 by Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, “Investigating suicide-related subliminal messages on Instagram: A frame-by-frame analysis of video posts” (with Floriann Arendt and Antonia Markiewitz).
Published in 2020 by Social Science & Medicine, “COVID-19 pandemic, government responses, and public mental health: Investigating consequences through crisis hotline calls in two countries” (with Florian Arendt, Antonia Markiewitz and Manina Mestas.
Published in 2020 by Social Science and Medicine, “News-stimulated public-attention dynamics and vaccination coverage during a recent measles outbreak: An observational study” (with Florian Arendt).
Randall Sumpter, Ph.D.
Selected for publication in the summer 2021 edition of Journalism History “The Mutual Life Insurance Scandal: Making Public Opinion.”
Awards
Sandra Braman, Ph.D.
2020-25 Recipient of the John Paul Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts
2021-23 Fellow, Center for Democracy and Technology
2021 Visiting Fellow, Center for Quantum Computing, University of Arizona
“Religion in Quarantine” by Heidi Campbell, awarded the 2020 Spiritual Communication’s Division Outstanding Book award.
Heidi Campbell, Ph.D.
Received Lived Religion in Digital Age Project 2020-21Research Fellow’s Grant, $1,000 stipend.
Appointed Arts & Humanities Fellow at Texas A&M, $15,000 stipend, 2019-2022.
Winner of the 2020 Spiritual Communication Division’s Outstanding Book award for “Religion in Quarantine: The Future of Religion in a Post-Pandemic.”
Appointed Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Internet Studies, Ruhr University-Bochum, Germany, Spring 2020.
Awarded Center for Advanced Internet Studies Research Grant-Ruhr University, Germany, $4,000 stipend, Fall 2020.
Received Glasscock Center for COVID-19 Micro-grant, Social Distancing in a World of Memes, $500 stipend, Fall 2020.
Charles Conrad, Ph.D.
Recipient of the 2021 Texas A&M University Betty M. Unterberger Award for Outstanding Service to Honors Education.
Jennifer Lueck, Ph.D.
Winner of the 2021 Top Faculty Paper Award from the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association Annual Conference for “Which Beliefs Predict Intention to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19? A Mixed-Methods Reasoned Action Approach Applied to Health Communication.”
Jennifer Mercieca is the first Texas A&M faculty member to receive the PROSE award for “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.”
Jennifer Mercieca, Ph.D.
Recipient of the Professional and Scholarly Excellence Award for “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump” published in 2020 by Texas A&M University Press. Mercieca is the first Texas A&M faculty member to receive the PROSE award.
Srividya Ramasubramanian, Ph.D.
Selected as editor-elect for National Communication Association flagship journal, Communication Monographs, the first scholar of color to serve in the role.
2021 Chancellor’s Gold Medal for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Texas A&M System
2020 Gerald M. Philips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship, National Communication Association.
Science Direct’s top 10 highly relevant and authoritative publications in social sciences; in 2020, Ramasubramanian and Murphy 2014 piece was featured in three categories: “Social Identity Theory,” “Stereotyping,” and “Ethnic Identity.”
2020 Association of Former Students Distinguished Award for Teaching, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University.
2020 Outreach Award for commitment to making the world a more livable and just place, particularly for the most marginalized students, Southern States Communication Association.
Dr. Ramasubramanian serves as an advisory board member for the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute.
Lu Tang, Ph.D.
Winner of the 2020 Informatics Implementation Best Paper Award at the American Medical Informatics Association Summit for “‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ of Vaccine Misinformation on Youtube: Network Exposure Study” published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
David Tarvin, Ph.D.
2019-20 Aggies Celebrate Teaching Award
Anna Wolfe, Ph.D.
Awarded a Ray A. Rothrock ’77 Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University
Awarded a Glasscock Internal Faculty Fellowship, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Texas A&M University
Awarded Outstanding Monograph Book Award, Organizational Communication Division, National Communication Association for “Sex and Stigma: Stories of Everyday Life in Nevada’s Legal Brothels.”
Leadership
Sandra Braman, Ph.D.
Appointed to the Association of Computing Machinery TechBriefs Committee, one of two key international associations in computer science publishing policy briefs for the technical, lay and policy communities.
Sara Rowe, M.A.
Will serve as the 2022 Caucus Leader for the College of Liberal Arts in the Faculty Senate.