University of New Mexico
Department of Communication & Journalism
UNM Lobo

Recent Graduate Student Honors


Top Papers at 2012 International Communication Association conference in Pheonix, AZ:
           Ph.D. student Dani Jones-Kvam earned a top student paper in the Environmental Communication Interest Group for her paper titled “It’s using nature for your own sake, for survival: ” Toward a theory of cultural re-orientation as cultural appropriation.
     2010 Ph.D. graduate Elizabeth Dickinson earned a top paper in the same Interest Group for her paper co-authored with C&J Assistant Professor Tema Milstein titled “Gynocentric greenwashing: The discursive gendering of nature.”

Top Papers at 2011 National Communication Association conference in New Orleans, LA:
           Ph.D. student Brandi Lawless and Professor Mary Jane Collier earned a top paper in the International and Intercultural Communication division for their paper titled “Understanding a ‘culture’ of poverty: Subjectivity and social justice in poverty training materials.”
     Ph.D. student the late Tatjana Rosev earned a top four student paper in the same division for her paper titled “‘Nazi porno’ or ‘Germany’s most significant contribution’: Analyzing audience reactions to the reader through co-optive reception theory.”

Top Paper at 2011 International Communication Association conference in Boston, MA:
           Ph.D. student Anjana Mudambi earned a Top Four Paper and Top Student Paper in the Intercultural Communication Division for her paper titled “Living in-between: The acculturation patterns of undocumented youth bloggers in the United States.”

Top Papers at 2011 Western States Communication Association conference in Monterey, Calif.:
      Ph.D. student Willow J. Anderson’s paper, “Drum in the House: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Canadian Government’s Apology for Residential Schools and the Public’s Response,” earned a top paper, the top student paper award, and the Top Rhetoric and Public Address Paper Award from the Rhetoric and Public Address division.
      Ph.D. candidate Claudia Anguiano and 2010 Ph.D. graduate Elizabeth Dickenson each earned top papers in the Environmental Communication division – Claudia for her first-authored piece with faculty member Tema Milstein and three Ph.D. students using a Latina/o critical theory approach to study Hispanic environmental meaning systems, and Elizabeth for her paper using critical ethnographic approaches to examine forest environmental education.
      Ph.D. candidate Sachi Sekimoto and Ph.D. student Anjana Mudambi earned top student papers in the Intercultural Communication interest group. Sachi's paper was titled "Theorizing identity in the globalized world: Toward a multimodal approach." Anjana's paper was titled "Another look at Orientalism: (An)Othering in Slumdog Millionaire."

Top Papers at 2010 National Communication Association conference in San Francisco, Calif.: Ph.D. students who earned top papers at NCA included Brandi Lawless (top student paper in Critical and Cultural Studies division for paper titled “Commies, aliens, and Nazis, oh my! Framing fear in the health care debate; top 10 paper in Great Ideas For Teaching Speech division for paper titled “Cleaning up your room to clean up communication: Using MTV’s Room Raiders to teach nonverbal communication”) and Lex Pulos (top paper in the GLBTQ division for paper titled “Social justice and the digital: A critical discourse analysis of GLBT sexuality in World of Warcraft”).

Top Papers at 2010 Western States Communication Association conference in Anchorage, Alaska: Ph.D. student Anjana Mudambi earned a top paper in the Intercultural Communication interest group for a paper second-authored with faculty member Mary Jane Collier titled "'Still not American enough for ya?': Decolonizing blog discourse on immigration." Ph.D. student Sara Holmes earned a top paper for “Transportation through visual media: A visual media model of narrative transportation.”

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Doctoral Fellow: Ph.D. candidate Claudia Anguiano received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Doctoral Fellowship in Social and Humanistic Studies at UNM to support her dissertation research for two years (2009-2011) to advance scholarship focusing on the historic and cultural dimensions of Latina/o communities.

Recent employment, publication, and honors:
     Ph.D. student Brandi Lawless has a recent publication: Lawless, B. (2011). More than white: Locating an invisible class identity. In Gonzalez, A., M. Houston, & V. Chen (Eds.), Our voices: Essays in culture, ethnicity, and communication. (5th ed.). (pp. 247-253). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
     Ph.D. student Santhosh Chandrashekar earned a top paper at the 2011 National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference.
     Ph.D. student Nicholas Noblet was recently appointed as a National Security Studies Program Scholar at UNM.
     Ph.D. candidate Sachi Sekimoto started an assistant professor position at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in fall 2010, and has a book chapter in press, “Materiality of the self: Toward a re-conceptualization of identity in communication,” in T. Kuhn (Ed.) Matters of communication/Matters of engagement. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
     Ph.D. student Lissa Knudsen was awarded the 2007 Trong D. Nguyen Memorial Award for Student Leadership by the Student Assembly of the American Public Health Association for her advocacy efforts through the New Mexico Breast Feeding Task Force, which 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.

Recent UNM, College of Arts and Sciences, and C&J Departmental Awards:
      Ph.D. candidate Iliana Rucker De Larkin earned the 2010 ICA Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award from the C&J department as well as the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Associate Award.
      Rucker De Larkin also received the UNM Alumni Association’s 2009-2010 Albuquerque Branch AAUW Graduate Women Scholarship.
      Ph.D. student Jessica Nodulman and M.A. student Marleah Dean earned 2010 C&J Teaching Assistant Awards.
      Yea Wen Chen was named 2010 C&J Outstanding Doctoral Student while Liesel Sharabi was named Outstanding Master’s Student.
      2010 Everett Rogers research scholars are graduate students Sara Holmes, Jennifer Sandoval, Claudia Anguiano, and Brandi Lawless.

Faculty member and Ph.D. student earn mentor awards: A C&J faculty member and graduate student have both won 2010 mentor awards through UNM's Office Of Graduate Studies. Dr. Karen Foss received the Faculty Mentor Award and Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Dickinson was the recipient of the Graduate Student Mentor Award. The awards honor an outstanding faculty member and graduate student who have provided excellence in mentoring graduate students.


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