2011 MCA Conference
Call for Abstracts
2011 Annual Conference “Communicating Politically, Engaging Civilly” Friday, Oct. 14-Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 Political and community leaders have at their disposal more options to communicate with their supporters than ever before. Likewise, citizens have been afforded more ways to engage with their leaders and each other utilizing new and traditional means of communication to create, build upon and sustain a democratic society. These communication avenues offer many opportunities for individual and collective voices to be heard by others throughout a community or a nation. However, many voices can create conflict and challenge individuals and groups to engage in that conflict with civility.
MCA’s theme, “Communicating Politically, Engaging Civilly,” is designed to promote discussion of the ways individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and nations engage in consciousness raising, communicate values and identities, and use persuasive appeals to mobilize actors and actions. Topics of discussion might explore how we communicate individual and collective political messages, how civil and uncivil discourse is upheld in society, how we foster or sever relationships and how we build or dismantle coalitions involving formal/informal, mediated/unmediated, interpersonal/organizational, or otherwise. Proposals for individual scholarly presentations, panels of scholarly presentations, or interactive workshops from any disciplinary perspective within communication studies are welcome.
Proposal Guidelines: To ensure a blind review, follow these guidelines when submitting documents. Submit as a Microsoft Word or .rtf file to Sheri Whalen at sawhalen@frostburg.edu by June 17, 2011. You will receive confirmation of receipt of your proposal, and acceptance of proposals will be indicated by August.
1. For individual presentations and workshops: On a separate cover sheet, include the title of the paper, your name and institutional affiliation, mailing address number, and email address. Indicate any audio-visual needs. Mark “Student” on this page if you are a student presenter. Beginning on a second page, include your title and an abstract of no more than 400 words with a bibliography of selected references that provide your proposal’s theoretical grounding.
2. For panel submissions: On a separate cover sheet, include the thematic title of your panel, your name and institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. Include names of the chair and respondents, if any, as well as names, institutional affiliations, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses of all participants along with their paper titles. Indicate any audio-visual needs. Mark “Student” on this page if your panel features student presenters. Beginning on the second page, indicate the thematic title and a 75-word abstract of your panel’s theme along with titles and abstracts for each paper or presentation (no more than 400 words each with a bibliography of selected references that provide your proposal’s theoretical grounding).
3. For G.I.F.T.S.: Your G.I.F.T.S. must be a classroom-tested activity, assignment, project, game, or simulation addressing a specific communication theory, concept, skill, or learning objective in the communication discipline. Submissions should be geared toward college communication courses (public speaking, intercultural, small group, etc.). On a separate cover sheet, include the title of the G.I.F.T.S., your name and institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. Indicate any audiovisual needs. Mark “G.I.F.T.S.” on this page. Beginning on a second page, include the G.I.F.T.S.’s 1) title, 2) goals and rationale, 3) directions, 4) explanation (how it addresses theoretical concepts or skills with cited sources as needed), and 5) typical results.
4. For student posters: On a separate cover sheet, include the title of poster, your name and institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. Mark “Student Poster” on this page. Beginning on a second page, include your title and an abstract of no more than 400 words plus a bibliography of selected references that provides a description of your poster and its theoretical grounding.
Deadline for conference registration: Sept. 30, 2011