Faculty members, students and alumni of the Department of Communication Studies and the Campbell Honors Program were well represented at the Southern States Communication Association Conference held in St. Petersburg, Florida, April 12–16.
Alumna Jaci Seymour (’22) and department chair Dr. Dean Farmer presented the paper, “Extending the 3D Gospel: Communicating our Future in Christian Missions through the Lenses of Co-Cultural Theory and Dominant Culture Theory,” which was recognized as a Top 3 paper in the Intercultural Communication division of the conference.
Farmer and Gracie Allen (’21) presented “Western Myth Corrupted, or the Trickster Masquerading as Town Marshal: Grotesquerie and Archetypal Criticism in Modern America” as a part of the competitive paper session “The Presence of the Past in Modern Conservative Rhetorics,” sponsored by the American Society for the History of Rhetoric. Ms. Allen also presented “The War on Mountain Dew: Visual Rhetoric in Documentary Portrayals of Appalachian” in the session Rhetoric of the South: Exceptional, Complex, Resilient sponsored by the Rhetoric and Public Address division.
Margaret Baker participated in the panels “Co-Creating a Bright Future: Reducing Barriers to Equitable Graduate Student Experiences” and “The Future of Communication and Public Scholarship,” (both sponsored by the Identity, Inclusion and Social Justice division). Lezi Truesdale (’22) presented “Autoethnographic Study: The Benefits and Advantages to Internships,” and Campbell junior and Honors Program participant Riley Cargile presented “Pentadic Criticism of Winston Churchill’s ‘We Shall Fight on the Beaches’ Speech,” both as part of competitive paper sessions sponsored by the Theodore Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference.
Caroline Wilson (’19) presented “This Is About You: Sensemaking a Parent’s Substance Use Disorder through Layered Autoethnography” as part of the Top Papers Session of the Ethnography Interest group. Farmer, Seymour, Allen, Wilson, Danielle Holquist, Tyana Ellis and Chelsea Woods presented the roundtable panel discussion “Undergraduate Research Foreshadows the Future: Creating Foundations for Emerging Scholars” in the Applied Communication division.
Professor Brian Bowman serves as secretary of the Applied Communication division. Both Bowman and Farmer were reviewers for the conference and chaired/responded to multiple paper sessions.
Photo: Dr. Dean Farmer, associate professor of communication studies; Dr. Tyana Ellis (’19), visiting assistant professor of health studies from University of Richmond; Danielle Holquist (’21), master’s student in clinical mental health counseling at Liberty University; Dr. Chelsea Woods (’10), assistant professor of communications at Virginia Tech; Gracie Allen (’21), master’s student at UNC Charlotte; Jaci Seymour (’22); student Riley Cargile; and Lezi Truesdale (’22) were attendees/presenters from Campbell University at the Southern States Communication Association Conference held in St. Petersburg, Florida. Not pictured: Brian Bowman, assistant professor of communication studies; Caroline Wilson (’19); and Margaret Baker (’15).
My quote about the conference:
I am pleased at the amount and quality of the scholarship our Department’s students and alumni continue to produce. It is especially gratifying to observe undergraduates participate in conference activities, interacting with many of the scholars they have read about in their coursework – and witnessing these students coming to the realization that they are becoming part of the scholarly communication community. I am grateful the University supports undergraduate research and that our Department makes such scholarly activities a priority. It sets us apart from our contemporaries and allows us to compete with other Universities and programs many times our size. These experiences can prepare students not only for graduate study, but also careers that require critical thought, writing, and public presentation.
Danielle Holquist could also give you quote material for a press release on her experiences at the conference.
Feel free to edit, rewrite, take out of context J any of the above – whatever it takes to make a good press release. Thanks for reaching out.
The Campbell University contingent representing at 2023 #SSCA St. Petersburg. From left: Dean Farmer, Dr. Tyana Ellis (CU BS/BA Comm Studies/MSPH 2019; PhD, Alabama 2022); Danielle Holquist (CU BA Comm Studies 2021; MS, CMHC, Liberty, 2024); Dr. Chelsea Woods
(CU Comm Studies, 2010; PhD, Kentucky, 2017); Gracie Allen (CU Comm Studies 2021; MA UNCC, 2023); Jaci Seymour (CU Comm Studies 2022; MA TCU, 2025); Riley Cargile (CU History, 2024); Lezi Truesdale (CU Comm Studies, 2022). Riley and Lezi presented as part of the Theodore Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference, and the others presented multiple papers and panels across the conference, including Jaci and Dean’s Top Three Paper in the lntercultural Communication Division and Caroline Wilson’s Top Three Paper in the Ethnography Division. Missed you at the photo op, Caroline Wilson (CU BA Comm Studies, 2019; PhD, Ohio 2023) and Brian Bowman who had to leave early. #RollHumps #cucommstudies