December 01, 2004
Speech communication department wins awards
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Seven members of the speech communication department of Southern Illinois University Carbondale earlier this month brought home awards from the National Communication Association (NCA) conference in Chicago.
The faculty and students of speech communication gave more than two dozen papers, performances and presentations to the conference, held Nov. 11-14.
"This is outstanding recognition of the strength of our program. The awards given to our graduate students, as well as the many competitive papers presented by students and faculty, indicate the excellence of their fine work. I couldn't be more pleased," said Nathan P. Stucky, associate professor and chair of speech communication.
Stucky received the Performance Studies Distinguished Service award, the highest distinction offered by NCA in performance studies. The award recognizes Stucky's many contributions to the profession, including: serving as editor of Theatre Annual from 1999 to 2001, his roles as a founding member of Performance Studies International and of the performance studies division of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, his service as chair of the performance studies and theatre performance studies division of the Central States Communication Association and his work as chair of the national performance studies division of NCA, as well as service on "every committee in the division."
The following speech communication students received the remainder of the awards:
• Jonathan Bender, former student, from Albany, Calif., won the top Debut Paper Award for his paper, "A Call to (Non)Action: The Intersection(s) of Performativity and Buddhism," completed while he was finishing his master's degree at SIUC.
• Jay S. Brower, graduate student, from Oroville, Calif., won "top-four" debut paper award.
• Amy L. Darnell, doctoral candidate, from Lebanon, Ohio, received the first Robin Scholarship in Performance Studies. This award carries a $1,000 scholarship for graduate student work.
• Rachel N. Hastings, graduate student, from Sacramento, Calif., won "top-four" debut paper award.
• Lesli K. Pace, doctoral candidate, from Monroe, La., won a "top-four" award in the "contributed paper" competition.
• Amy M. Pinney, doctoral student, from, Sweet Springs, Mo., won the Norman K. Denzin Qualitative Research Award. Pinney is the first recipient of this national award sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research.
Seeking and celebrating faculty excellence and student achievements are among the goals of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint for the development of the University by the time it celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019.