Happy Friday. Not that anyone particularly cares, but the last two days I have ridden my bike to school with only my sport coat for warmth. That hasn’t happened since last October. We must be heading fully into spring!

A short note with some cool information.

Elizabeth has a new essay out regarding her research on the Yarnell Hill fire. Ishak, A. W. & Williams, E. A. (2018). A dynamic model of organizational resilience: Adaptive and anchored approaches. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 23(2), 180-196.  https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-04-2017-0037

This next Tuesday and Wednesday, the department hosts its alumni panels. I have attached here a slide for you to show in class and bios of our presenters.

Tuesday, March 7, 9:30 am -10:30 am
Kendra Johnson (’02)
Thea Rounsaville (’08)
Madison Scruggs (’15)

Wednesday, March 28, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Kyle Coen (BA ’01, MA ’05)
Marty Lenz (’90)
Andrew Murillo (’14)

Once again, Elizabeth and Carol have done outstanding work finding amazing alumni. Please urge your students to go and, if you are a graduate student, take advantage of this great opportunity to hear what both BA and MA alumni have made of their degrees.

We are changing the name of our regular research conversations from research brown bags—a phrase that has a racist history—to research roundtables. We have two in the immediate future.

Today at 11 a.m. in BSB A217 Katie presents “The Women Take Over: Oral Argument, Collective Skepticism, and the Feminist Disruption of Abortion Law at the United States Supreme Court.”

Our affiliate faculty member Leonarda García Jiménez, Associate Professor and Vice-Dean of Journalism at the University of Murcía (Spain), will present our next Research Roundtable on Friday, March 30.  Her talk, “Communication, Identity & Technology: The Social Construction of “Otherness” in Europe,” will be at 3:30 p.m. in Eddy 100.  We will have a happy hour immediately following (location TBA).

Two of our faculty are traveling and giving keynote presentations. Tom has returned to his BA alma mater University of Richmond for a presentation today and Martínpresented last night in Santa Barbara at Westmont College. I understand that our good friend and former faculty colleague Andy Merolla was going to Martín’s presentation. Small world, right?

I hope all of you have wonderful weekends. For me lots of reading of rhetorical criticism drafts. But I am also going to spend some time refreshing a wild flower bed Elizabeth and I produce each year along our alley way. I am not excited about moving three yards of compost over the weekend. But, I love, love, love watching wild flowers pop up and bloom. By July when I push my bike down the alleyway and the sun is rising in the east, the plants are moving and buzzing with bees and butterflies. The joy in that sight and sound is immeasurable.

Yours,
Greg