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WORD ON THE STREET The Department of Communication's Bi-Monthly Newsletter
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
A multi-interdisciplinary team of Wayne
State graduate students took home the top
prize in the Detroit Institute of Arts
Student Design Summit, two of the students
from the team are our very own---Gus
Navarro and Allison Elam (and PR Alumna,
Kristin Shaw)
Our warriors beat out 22 other teams from
the University of Michigan, University of
Detroit Mercy, College for Creative Studies
and Interlochen Center for the Arts. In
addition to winning the main Cultural
District Jury award, the Wayne State team
also received the People’s Choice award,
garnering the majority of the more than
1,500 votes from the public based on its
video.
Check out the video here:
https://vimeo.com/309317072
FACULTY & STAFF UPDATES
STUDENT & ALUMNI UPDATES
FORENSICS & DEBATE UPDATES
REMINDERS & UPCOMING DATES
I N T H I S I S S U E
Warriors Win Big!
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
Finally, scholarship season is in FULL SWING! Please encourage your communication majors and graduate
students to visit www.wayne.academicworks.com to apply for scholarships! They can also
visit http://comm.wayne.edu/students/scholarships.php to learn more about the process. Note that there are
scholarships available for both full and part time, graduate and undergraduate students in all
majors/concentrations.
P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
The Word from the Chair
Other changes are happening, too. As you all know, Kelly Young will be the new Director of Graduate
Studies in August. I am happy to announce that Ron Stevenson will be assuming the Director of Forensics
role, and we will be advertising for a new Director of Debate to start in Fall 2019. Starting in March, we
will have a new Academic Advisor, Mary Stanko. She is coming to us from Grand Valley State University,
where she has been an advisor in their business school for several years. With an undergraduate degree in
PR, and deep familiarity with the communication and business fields, she will be an excellent addition to
our wonderful advising team!
AND, we just posted our job call for the new Internship Coordinator (position #044188). From the call: “The
department seeks an exceptional teacher and experienced practitioner to coordinate our internship program
and teach journalism and mass communication courses. As internship coordinator, the successful
candidate will work with students and internship placement supervisors to ensure appropriate placement of
students; cultivate relationships with local and regional placement locations; and advertise internship
opportunities. The successful candidate will supervise the internship course and teach courses and the
following areas: news reporting; editing; online, broadcast or print news reporting and production; media
law; media history; media ethics; media literacy; entrepreneurial journalism; or news management.” Spread
the news!
The Word from the Kat-bird seat (collective groan)
It has been a long time since our last faculty meeting,
thanks to two well/ill-timed storms. Much is going on in
591, including forward progress on strategic planning. I
am pleased to announce that we have the start of our ad
hoc bylaws review committee: Donyale Padgett (chair),
Karen McDevitt, Rahul Mitra, Elizabeth Stoycheff, and
Jessica Greenwald .
We hope to add in the graduate student and part time
faculty representatives soon. Meanwhile, I will continue
working on the strategic planning document
from December to craft a full draft in the next couple of
weeks, and the executive committee will revisit and
propose revisions for our current workload policy,
(out)dated April, 2010
(see https://cfpca.wayne.edu/files/workload_comm.pdf),
in the coming weeks.
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
Students and Faculty Team Up
Susan Palazzolo, a long time PTF
for the department, was awarded a
University Part Time Development
Grant to support work on a film
project. Dr. Donald Ritzenhein,
another long time PTF for the
department, was awarded a
University Part Time Faculty
Development Travel Grant from the
Provost’s office in support of his
upcoming panel presentation at the
annual meeting of the Central States
Communication Association.
Congratulations to them both!
P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
REMINDERSIt is Early Academic Assessment season!
Remember that instructors who teach 3xxx and
lower-level course MUST complete EAA for all
of their students. The period is from Jan 22 to
Feb 25. Visit:
https://wayne.edu/registrar/faculty/eaa/
The College has collated several great sources
for our Part Time Faculty. Visit:
https://cfpca.wayne.edu/ptfres.php to learn more!
Faculty Updates
Juanita Anderson attended the
Sundance Film Festival, January 25-
30th. In addition to screening a range
of films and interactive
projects, Anderson, who was named a
2018 Detroit Creative Producing
Fellow for her current documentary
project Hastings Street Blues was also
invited to attend a number of panels
and discussions on documentary and
emerging media. And, to her surprise
and delight, she was a panelist on the
panel, Breaking the Frame: A New
Blueprint for Socially Engaged Media,
as part of her role as principal
advisor for the Detroit Narrative
Agency, who supported her travel.
Rahul Mitra and Kelly Donellan have launched their
engaged scholarship web platform, which features
research, community resources, and blog posts by the
research team. The team currently comprises PhD
students Kelsey Husnick and Mostafa Aniss, and MA
student Jacinda Gant . The project, titled "Detroit Water
Stories," adopts a humanistic trans-media approach to
gather and share oral histories of urban residents
impacted by and organizing to address water insecurity.
Please share widely among your personal and
professional contacts, and ask them to get in touch
with us, especially if they have been involved in or
impacted by this issue.
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
Rahul Mitra has joined an interdisciplinary team of
researchers (from engineering, computer science,
biology and communication) at Wayne State
University working to reduce microplastic
contamination in urban water supplies, which
received $929,000 in funding from the Great Lakes
Protection Funding. The project will, over the next
three years, monitor microplastic contamination and
engage community stakeholders in Williamston MI
and Pontiac MI. Rahul also published a book chapter
titled "Online performances of expertise by
sustainability practitioners: Tracing communicative
episodes of professional (de)legitimization"in an
edited volume (Routledge) by A.S. Ross, & D.J. Rivers,
"Discourses of (de)legitimization: Participatory
culture in digital contexts." Please email him if you'd
like a copy of the chapter.
Donyale Padgett was invited to speak
at University of Detroit Mercy on
Th., Feb. 7 on Microaggressions and
how they affect inclusive teaching.
The workshop is part of the
ReBUILDetroit series of professional
development (for faculty) regarding
diversity, equity, and inclusion of
underrepresented students. Wayne is
part of this consortium.)
P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
LARGE ENROLLMENT FOR INTERNSHIPSAs the search for a new Internship Coordinator
for the Department moves forward, our current
students are taking full advantage of their
opportunities. There are 40 students enrolled in
the COM 6190 Internship course this semester, a
mix of undergrads and grad students.
Our internship website is up and running with
more than 50 postings at the current time. Visit:
https://waynestatecom.wordpress.com/internships
to explore!
Additionally, the Spring-Summer Internship
process is underway, Interested students should
contact Kim Piper-Aiken, who is continuing to
fill in as the internship coordinator until August.
Faculty Updates
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
Inspired by a chance encounter with
panelists at 2018's AEJMC, Jade
Metzger-Riftkin is collaborating with
OTL to host a panel and a possible
workshop on Trauma Informed
Teaching practice. The panel will be
held on Wednesday March 6th from
2:30-3:30pm at OTL. Panelists will
discuss best practices for dealing with
traumatic events in the classroom,
preparing students for trauma in
their professions, and responding to
students who are facing crisis or
trauma events
P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
Student & Alumni Updates The department will be well represented at the MUG
conference coming up on the 22nd--they've released
the conference schedule and nearly half the
presenters are our MA students. Students presenting
include: DeJanay Booth, Ashley Teffer, Angela
Patton, and Rhea Juridico (with DeJanay being
accepted for two papers)!
WSU CONFERENCE SEEKS VOLUNTEERS
Tabitha Cassidy is helping to plan the annual Popular
Culture conference here at Wayne State this year, and
is looking for volunteers to help man some of the
desks. If you're interested, feel free to sign up using the
following link: https://docs.google.com/
…/1WnITVbpFHHW73HPaXn4uXLwPUHi…/edit
Elizabeth-Ann Pandzich is teaching a Social Media for
Business class at Walsh College this semester.
Roseann Mandziuk (B.A., 1981) was recently elected as the
Second Vice President of the National Communication
Association!
This year's conference has a lot of great speakers (Matt
Yockey, and potentially Boots Riley) as well as some
excellent paper presentations that most of the
department will find interesting (rhetoric, gender, race,
comic books, entertainment media, Italian and Russian
lit, the list goes on).
F E B . 1 5 , 2 0 1 9
The speech team has traveled to several tournaments since
the beginning of the year. On January 12 and 13, the team
traveled to Bradley University to compete against several of
the nation’s top teams. There, Alex Azzopardi had an
amazing finish, receiving 4th place in After Dinner
Speaking!
On January 19 and 20, the team decided Detroit wasn’t cold
enough, so it traveled to Chicago and Evanston, IL for
competition. At the College of Dupage, Spencer Haisha
finished in second place in Dramatic and at Northwestern
University, he finished 3rd in Dramatic.
On January 26 and 27, the team traveled further in Illinois to
compete at two tournaments at Northern Illinois University.
At the first tournament, Shannon Flory finished in 2nd place
in Informative. On day 2, Shannon won in prose, Hailei
Benedict finished 3rd in persuasion, and Spence Haisha was
4th in dramatic!
On February 2 and 3, the team returned to Michigan to
compete over two days at Eastern Michigan University. On
Day 1, the team finished 3rd in sweepstakes. The following
students received honors: Shannon Flory: Champion in
Informative and Prose, 4th in After Dinner Speaking, 5th in
Program Oral Interp. Spencer Haisha: Champion in
Dramatic, 3rd in Duo with Burklow. Alex Azzopardi:
Champion in Duo with Benedict, 3rd in Informative. Hailei
Beneditct: Champion in Duo with Azzopardi. John Burklow:
4th in Dramatic, 3rd in Duo with Haisha.
On Day two, the tam was 4th in team sweepstakes. Several
students received honors on day two. Flory: Champion in
After Dinner Speaking, 3rd in Program Oral Interp. Burklow:
Champion in Dramatic, 3rd in Informative. Azzopardi and
Benedict: Champions in Duo. Haisha: 3rd in Prose. Miranda
Sadik: 3rd in Dramatic. Marlee Home: 5th in Persuasion. The
debate team makes its first outing of the winter semester to
Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
SEND US STUFF! As always, please send your good
news, rumors, updates, and
information to Dr. Maguire for
our bi-monthly newsletter!
Forensics & Debate Updates
Upcoming EventsOfield Dukes Diversity Summit
In/Civility in the Professional Field:
How do we promote civility in our communication
practices without losing our authentic voices?
March 6th - Student Center 9 - 11:30 am
(Public Relations AND Journalism Students)
Prospective Doctoral Student Visit
February 22
Research Showcase: 10:30-12:00
Open Faculty Office Hours: 1:00-4:00
Spring Break!
Mon March 11-Sat March 16
Brock Lecture Visit: Dr. Cara Finnegan
Wed March 27 – Friday March 29
Michigan Assoc. of Broadcasters Career Fair
Thursday, April 4- Student Center Ballroom 9 am – 6 pm
FREEP Film Festival
Wed. April 10-Sunday April 14
Please send your photos and social
media content to Allison at:
[email protected] to be featured
on our social media pages!
