Publications, presentations and awards

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C&J graduate student news for 2007
      Chris Brown, a Ph.D. candidate in communication, won the department's 2007 teaching award, and he has received information he is a recipient of one of the 2007's UNM outstanding graduate teaching associate awards from the Department of Arts and Sciences. Earlier in 2007 he won the Rocky Mountain Conference's outstanding graduate teaching associate award.
     C&J doctoral student Lissa Knudsen, MPH, CHES, has been awarded the 2007 Trong D. Nguyen Memorial Award for Student Leadership by the Student Assembly of the
American Public Health Association. Lissa's advocacy efforts through the New Mexico Breast Feeding Task Force (NMBFTF) led to the Southwest region’s first law on breast pump use in the workplace, providing women with a clean, private space to breast pump at work and ensuring that their employers provide flexible break times to accommodate their needs. The award was presented at the 135th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5, 2007.
      C&J doctoral student Holly Kawakami, along with her colleagues, received the 2007 Ernest Bormann Research Award (for Distinguished Scholarly Book) from the Group Communication Division of the National Communication Association for their book entitled: “Facilitating Group Communication in Context.”
      C&J doctoral student Elizabeth Dickinson received the Top Student Paper Award for her submission to the Theory Division of the Western States Communication Association's Conference, to be held in Denver/Boulder, Feb. 15-19, 2008. “New Directions in Action Based Environmental Theorizing: Emerging Perspectives on the Natural World, Communication, and Social Change”
      Lynn Walter’s organization, Cooking with Kids, Inc., received a national award from the US Dept of Health and Human Services. The Hands-On Food and Nutrition Education Program was honored by HHS for promoting healthy lifestyles. The award was presented on Nov. 27, 2007 during the Innovation in Prevention Awards Luncheon in Washington, D.C.

      Four C & J graduate students presented their Top Papers at the National Communication Association’s Annual Convention held in Chicago Nov. 15-18, 2007:

• Dr. Elizabeth M. Root,"The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning," Top Three Paper Panel
• Chie Torigoe with YeaWen Chen, “Dominant Ideologies and Intersecting Identities in the Discourse of Intercultural Heterosexual Romantic Relationships: A Critical and Interpretive Perspective,” Top Student Papers Panel in Intercultural Communication
• Melissa Curtin, Top Student Papers Panel in Intercultural Communication.

Some of the C&J graduate students gather at their Spring Fling in May 2006

C&J grad student recognized for teaching
Melissa L. Curtin has earned a 2006 award as Teaching Assistant of the Year from UNM's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Teaching and Language (CASTL). A C&J graduate student, Curtin is to be honored at a ceremony on May 3.

C&J grad students win top RMCA honors
A group of UNM students recently went to the Rocky Mountain Communication Association's (RMCA) conference held in Greeley, Colo., hosted by the University of Northern Colorado. UNM had several competitively selected undergraduate and graduate papers in this year's program, but two UNM graduate students won both top graduate paper awards. This is the second time in two years UNM has swept this honor. The UNM papers that won the top graduate awards are: Adolfo José Garcia, "Situational influence on conflict communication: The relationship of third party help and ingroup/outgroup membership on conflict style and face concern," and Melissa L. Curtin, "Expert reviewers and promising topics: Strategic facework in academic journal editors—Letters to authors." To see other UNM participants at RMCA, view the entire program here.

Grad student helps coordinate Michael Lerner program
C&J graduate student Bhavana Upadhyaya was the program coordinator for a presentation by Rabbi Michael Lerner in the Continuing Education auditorium April 2, 2007. Lerner was on a national tour to promote his book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. C&J broadcast engineer Sean Solowiej provided a live Webcast.

Seven grad students to present at Western
Seven C&J graduate students presented papers in Feburary 2006 at the Western States Communication Conference. Their abstracts can be seen here. Presenting were Melissa L. Curtin, Ashley Grisso, Kris Kirschbaum, Benjamin Mabe, Chad Perry, Matthew D. Petrunia and Misato Yoshikawa.

Western States Communication Conference 2004
Several faculty members and graduate students presented papers at the Western States Communication Conference in March 2004. A total of eight graduate students presented eight papers, with three Top Paper Awards. Special congratulations to each of the following graduate students: