February 2010 Archives

Please join us for the Colloquium of the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences

Friday, February 26, 2010
3:30-5:00
367 Willard Building
University Park, PA

Kristin Mathe, "The Rhetorical Foundation of the Troubling Legacy of the Great Society"

Lindsey Aloia, "Stressors within Marine Corps Families: A Qualitative Study of Discourse within an Online Forum"

Frank Stec, "Trying to Understand What You Never Cared About: Recovering Social Knowledge with This American Life's Economic Coverage."

Andrew High, "The Power of Person-Centeredness: A Meta-Analysis of Person-Centered Social Support Systems."

Congratulations to our colleagues Jim Dillard and Mike Hogan, who have been appointed Liberal Arts Research Professors of Communication Arts and Sciences.

The Department of Communication Arts & Sciences congratulates Robin Orndorff, administrative assistant for Philosophy and Communication Arts & Sciences, who is one of this year's winners of the LASER award, the Liberal Arts Staff Employee Recognition award. According to the College website:


Congratulations to Robin, and thanks for the work you are doing for our department!

The award will be presented at the Liberal Arts ceremony at the Nittany Lion Inn on February 24, 2010.

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In 1969, President Richard Nixon attended the Texas-Arkansas football game and, on his own initiative, awarded the national championship to the winner, Texas. But Penn State also had an unbeaten team that year and has always felt that it was unfairly denied the championship.

Maureen Minielli sent me a photo (from her iPhone!) of this document from the Nixon archives -- apparently a suggestion from William Safire, a Nixon speechwriter, for how Nixon might answer a question about the award, and Penn State's likely reaction, at an upcoming press conference.

Some time later, Nixon offered a sort of consolation award to Penn State. Joe Paterno, Penn State coach then and now, replied, according to a story in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, "You tell the president to take that trophy and shove it."

In a Penn State commencement speech in 1973, Paterno said: "I'd like to know," Paterno asked the graduates, "how could the president know so little about Watergate in 1973 and so much about college football in 1969?"

Shelly Anderson, "Research Shows Nixon Hurt '69 Lions," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 17 November 2006. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06321/739083-198.stm#ixzz0g58snQVI

Thanks to Maureen Minielli (PhD 2006) for the document from the Nixon archives and the link to the story in the Post-Gazette.

Assistant Professor Jeremy Engels recently participated in a Digital Dialogue with Chris Long, professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, to discuss Jeremy's recent Quarterly Journal of Speech article on invective. The dialogue is at:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cpl2/blogs/digitaldialogue/2010/01/digital-dialogue-25-uncivil-speech.html

The Department of Communication Arts and Sciences congratulates CAS major Cathy Quilico and her teammates on their national championship women's volleyball victory. Cathy was also among 72 Academic All-Big Ten honorees.

The Interdisciplinary Rhetoric Group, the Center for Democratic Deliberation, and the Dept. of Communication Arts and Sciences invite you to join us for two events featuring Professor Nathan Stormer, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Maine.  On Friday, February 19, Professor Stormer will present a paper at the CAS Colloquium Series.  The title of his paper is "Remembering Secrets: Collective Memory and Biopower in U.S. Medical Rhetoric on Abortion."  On Saturday afternoon, from 4-6:00 p.m., Professor Stormer with meet with the Rhetoric Reading Group at the home of Professor Jeremy Engels.  If you wish to join us for that event and have not already received the readings or need directions, please email Professor Engels at jdengels@gmail.com.  Thanks.

Welcome to our department's new web front page. We are making some changes in our web site, which will unfold over the next months. Let us know what you think about the site and how it can be more useful to you.

Tom Benson
Department Head
t3b@psu.edu

The Drug Resistance Strategies Project, led by professors Michael Hecht and Michelle Miller-Day, has won this year's Penn State Award for Community Engagement and Scholarship, an award established in 2008 by the Vice President for Outreach in collaboration with the University Council on Engagement and the Faculty Senate Committee on Outreach.

J. Michael Hogan, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State, has been appointed Scholarly Advisor and Moderator of The Exchange: A Marketplace of Student Ideas.  Created by the National Constitution Center with support from the Annenberg Foundation, The Exchange uses Internet 2 videoconferencing to bring together high school students from around the country for live discussions of controversial public issues.  The program is hosted by SuChin Pak, MTV News correspondent and co-host of Planet Green's G-Word.  For more information, videos of previous programs, and a schedule of this year's programs, visit the NCC's Web site at: http://constitutioncenter.org/ncc_edu_TheExchange.aspx.

Fellows of the Center for Democratic Deliberation

Where: 367 Willard Building

Date: 1/29/2010
Time: 3:35 to 5:30.

There will be a blood drive in 7 Sparks building.

Date: 1/28/2010
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM