Professor Edits New Book

Dr. Shawn Long, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, is the editor of a forthcoming book, Virtual Work and Human Interaction Research. From the promotional flyer:

Virtual Work and Human Interaction Research uses humanistic and social scientific inquiry from interdisciplinary and international perspectives to explore how individuals engage in the new virtual work paradigm. This book explores a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, boundary management in virtual work, shadowing virtual work practices, creative workers’attitudes in virtual work, high-touch interactivity in virtual experiences, surveys, interviews experimental, ethnography grounded-theory, and phenomenology in virtual work contexts.

Professor Conducting Study on the Meaning of Marriage

Dr. Ebony Utley, Assistant Professor of Communications at California State University Long Beach, is part of a research team conducting a study on the meaning of marriage for African Americans. They hope to expand the literature with the quantitative and qualitative results from their study. The team is inviting anyone that self-identifies as African American and is at least 18 years old, to take approximately 20 minutes to complete their confidential online survey about the meaning of marriage to African Americans. The goal is to have 1,000 participants and upon completion of the survey, participants are eligible to win a $50 gift card. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Utley at ebony.utley@csulb.edu

Black Herstory: Rosa Parks Did Much More than Sit on a Bus

By Rachel Griffin
Ms. Magazine Blog

As a Black feminist scholar, every February I find myself troubled by the ways that we simultaneously remember and forget women who look like me. Not that I’m satisfied with the memory of Black women every other month of the year but February–Black History Month–can be especially disappointing. I find myself wanting to rant to anyone within earshot, “Rosa Parks did more than sit on a bus!!!”
My urge to scream is rooted in our common cultural practice of remembering Parks only as a demure and delicate old seamstress who sparked the civil rights movement. The common assertion is that Parks’ moment in history began in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala. But we must confront this assertion, because each time we confine her memory to that moment we erase part of her admirable character, strategic intellect and indomitable spirit.
Read the rest here

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS: Claiming a seat at the table: Feminism, Underserved Women Of Color, Voice and Resistance

 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 1, 2012 

Edited by 

Dr. Sonja M. Brown Givens 

SUNY Empire State College 

and 

Dr. Keisha Edwards Tassie 

Clayton State University 

"Class is much more than Marx's definition of relationship to the means of production. Class involves behavior, your basic assumptions, how you are taught to behave, what you expect from yourself and from others, your concept of a future, how you understand problems and solve them, how you think, feel, act." – bell hooks, 2000 from Where we stand: Class matters 

Project Overview 

If taken literally, representations of women of color in popular culture suggest that they are more empowered, more influential and wealthier than ever before. Minute-by-minute presentations of the lavish lives of celebrity women like Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé Knowles and Kim Kardashian arguably imply that class elevation and exorbitant consumerism afford women of color the privilege of voice.  By extension, women of color who are unable to acquire the commodity of voice (by means of their affluence) are relegated to a world of socio-political marginality and invisibility – a place often void of class consciousness with few avenues for active vocal participation (hooks, 2000). In this sense the terms poor and disprivileged provide limited means to understand the cognitive, behavioral, and psychological dimensions of class. In contrast, underserved women of color lack both material resources and acknowledgment – sometimes from within their own communities. This project illuminates the connections between class location(s) and communicative practices in relational, mediated, academic and interpersonal contexts.  

 

Objective 

This book will argue that (1) underserved women of color are virtually invisible in feminist scholarship; (2) their experiences communicating across class lines are challenging, at best; (3) their relegation is maximally institutional, and minimally material; (4) claiming voice for women of color is elusive because their role in feminist struggle is unclear. 

Target Audience 

The book is intended for use by scholars/professionals/practitioners in the areas of cultural studies, feminist/women’s studies, communication studies, sociology, psychology, community and human services, counseling and other related disciplines. 

Second Volume of the Writings of Henry McNeal Turner Due January 2012

Dr. Andre E. Johnson is pleased to announce the publication of "An African American Pastor Before and During the American Civil War: The Literary Archive of Henry McNeal Turner, Vol 2; The Chaplain Writings" (Edwin Mellen Press, 2012). This is the second of a proposed 12 volume series that aims at collecting the  letters, speeches, sermons and essays of Turner.  Volume 2 consists of 38 writings while Turner served as a Chaplain during the American Civil War from 1863-1865.

Praise for the Volumes:

Dr. Andre E. Johnson’s scholarship on the life, work, and writings of The Henry McNeal Turner recovers an incredibly important aspect of African American history.  It is always an important occasion when a scholar goes beyond the study of well known historical figures to re-introduce a leader who lived beyond the limits of current life memories, and whose efforts paved the way for current benefits. The volumes that will follow, document Turner’s contributions to history through his copious writings. Dr Johnson, a rhetorician, theologian, professor and pastor, is uniquely suited to edit volumes that will enhance our understanding of Turner’s work and the political, theological, and legal issues of the antebellum and reconstruction period.-Barbara A. Holmes, Professor of Ethics and African American Studies, Memphis Theological Seminary

In this collection of writings and speeches Dr. Andre E. Johnson opens up an aspect of American history that has been unavailable to scholars and general readers, the history of African Americans during the last half of the 19th-century and early 20th-century revealed through the mind of a southern black man.  Johnson characterizes Henry McNeal Turner as a public intellectual of his time given the range of topics he addresses and the vast quantity of his published and unpublished writing.  We see American history from an uncommon angle, from the point of view of a black man striving to find freedom and equality for all people of color in a society that condoned racism and racist practices.-Sandra Sarkela, Associate Professor of Communications, University of Memphis

Thank you ever so much for the new scholarship on a mainstay personality of the nineteenth century. McNeal Turner was an unusual and intellectually stalwart human being.This kind of research will be of use not only to historians but to literary critics and so many others not to mention  people interested in his theology, his race insights even the ideas these volumes will lend to anyone wanting to do a psychoanalytic analysis of his work. Thank you ever so much for this.

-prramsey@starpower.net

To purchase the first volume now, click here

CALL FOR Submissions: NCA 2012-Orlando, Florida

Program Planner:

Andre E. Johnson, PhD

Memphis Theological Seminary

168 E. Parkway

Memphis, Tennessee 38104

ajohnson@memphisseminary.edu

(901) 334-5817

DEADLINE: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 11:59 Pacific Time

The African American Communication and Culture Division (AACCD) invites your competitive papers and paper session for the NCA 98th Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida on November 15-18, 2012. The theme for the 98th Annual Convention is “Celebrate COMMunity.”

Appropriate for a convention theme that seeks to “affirm the ideas that unify the communication discipline, as well as celebrate the diverse community of scholars, educators, and practitioners that constitutes the National Communication Association,” the AACCD feels particularly at “home” because much of what we teach, study, and research revolves around building, sustaining and empowering “community” across diverse audiences. Therefore, AACCD encourages you to submit competitive papers addressing issues that significantly contribute to our convention call but also ones that further the understanding of communication practices, processes, methods, discourse, and strategies involving and/or affect descendants of the African Diaspora.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

You must submit all papers and panel sessions electronically to NCA Submission Central linked at www.natcom.org/convention. In order to avoid unnecessary problems with submission and review, please carefully read the following guidelines:

SUBMITTING A COMPETITIVE PAPER

We will only consider fully completed papers. Each paper should include:

• A title

• An abstract (no more than 250 words)

• Maximum length of paper is 25, double-spaced pages, excluding references, tables, charts, and  appendices.

• No information identifying the author(s) may appear in the body of your abstract or your paper.

SUBMITTING A PAPER SESSION

Submitted paper sessions should include:

• A title for the session

• A list of presenters, their institutional addresses, and their email addresses

• The names of the chair and respondent, their institutional addresses, and their email addresses

• Titles and abstracts (350 words maximum) for EACH presentation or paper

• A session abstract (75 words maximum)

• A session abstract (250 words maximum)

If you wish to submit a Panel Discussion that deals with issues related to African American Communication or descendents of the African Diaspora, you are encouraged to submit those proposals directly to the Black Caucus. Please specify any audiovisual needs at the time of submission.

Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia

Part 1
This is the first part of "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK.



Part 2
Second part of a documentary called "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK. This part remembers the struggles that our people went through just to be able to go to University in the US. It also starts telling the story of our elders who came to the UK especially from the Caribbean in the 50s and 60s and their children's experience in the education system.



Part 3
Third part of a documentary called "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK. This section looks at how Black children in Britain in the sixties and seventies were pushed into certain kinds of blue-collar jobs. It also looks at the rise of African American in the radical late sixties America.



Part 4
Fourth part of a documentary called "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK. This section looks at some of the influence of those who came into Higher Education in the US in the post-Civil Rights era. In the UK, we are way,
way behind. We actually experience a brain drain, with so many of our academics and intellectuals heading abroad.



Part 5
Fifth part of a documentary called "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK. This section discusses the influence of music and urban culture on perceptions of education among our young people on both sides of the pond.



Part 6
Sixth and last part of a documentary called "Ebony Towers: The New Black Intelligentsia" by David Olusoga comparing the state of Black Academia in the US and with us here in the UK. This last part continues on the anti-intellectual mentality that plagues our young people and also makes the call for academics and intelllectuals to do their bit to address the socio-economic depravation within many of our communities.