April 2011 Archives

Spring 2011 Civic Engagement Public Speaking Contest

On April 26, 2011, six CAS 100A (Effective Speech) students competed in the bi-annual Civic Engagement Public Speaking Contest.  The event was held in the Nittany Lion Inn Boardroom.  It was sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, The Center for Democratic Deliberation, The New York Times, and Pearson Custom Publishing.  Each student delivered a speech advocating a policy solution to a significant social problem.  The speakers and their speech titles are listed below. 

First Place: Jared Smith "Food Labeling Reform"

Second Place: Jason Ester "Human Papilloma Virus"

Third Place: Paul Them "A Solution to Social Security"

Honorable Mention: Kevin Barth "Fraud in For-Profit Schools"

Honorable Mention: Robert Bezilla "Crime at College"

Honorable Mention: Michaela Dragalin "Interpretation to the 8^th Amendment"

Speaker:  Jonathan L. Zelner (Princeton).
When/where: 339 Davey, at noon, sandwiches at 11:45 am.

Title: Social connectedness can inhibit disease transmission: Social
organization, cohesion, village context and infection risk in rural
Ecuador

Abstract: Social network analysis has become central to understanding
the spread of infectious diseases and behavioral risks for chronic
disease. Networks are typically seen as conduits for spread of disease
or risk factors thereof. However, social relationships also reduce
incidence of chronic disease, and potentially infectious diseases as
well. Seldom are these opposing effects considered simultaneously. We
show how and why diarrheal disease spreads more slowly to and within
rural Ecuadorian villages that are more remote from the area's
population center. Reduced contact with outside individuals partially
accounts for remote villages relatively lower prevalence of diarrheal
disease. But equally or more important is greater density of social
ties between individuals in remote communities, which facilitates
spread of individual and collective practices that reduce transmission
of diarrheal disease.

The Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, the New York Times, Pearson Custom Publishing Company, and the Center for Democratic Deliberation invite you to the spring 2011 Civic Engagement Public Speaking Contest. Six of the top speakers from CAS 100A -- Effective Speech -- will speak on issues of civic importance.

The event will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, in the Nittany Lion Inn Boardroom. A reception will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

New search function unlocks Libraries' resources

The University Libraries will test a powerful new search function on March 21 that will allow users to find all library resources -- books, articles, newspapers, databases and more -- from a single search box. Called LionSearch, the new service is designed to mimic open Web search methods. Entering a search term in LionSearch will return, nearly instantaneously, a list of relevant physical and digital materials from the Libraries' collections. LionSearch can be accessed from the Libraries' homepage, www.libraries.psu.edu, and will debut initially in beta mode. Students, faculty and other users are encouraged to test the functionality of the service and leave feedback.

Penn State is one of a handful of universities around the world pioneering this service for their library collections. This simple and fast way of retrieving information will enhance the research process for students and unlock the wealth of resources available at Penn State.

"New search function unlocks Libraries' resources"

At the annual College of the Liberal Arts Awards Luncheon on April 6, 2011, Andy High won the Outstanding Teaching Award for Graduate Students. Here is the citation:

After demonstrating outstanding teaching in our introductory public speaking course, CAS 100, Andy High was chosen by the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences to re-design and serve as the lecturer for CAS 283, "Communication and Information Technology." He has taught the course for two years, consistently earning high praise from students. CAS 283 is a large class, with six sections serving 180 students, for which Andy has taken the primary responsibility as lecturer and leader. Andy instituted a core innovation for the course with a major emphasis on Social Informatics--the study of the social effects of communication and information technology. Students come into advanced classes full of enthusiasm for what they have learned from Andy High. In CAS 283 Andy lectures on computer security, censorship, and online communities, and engages students actively in learning how to use information technologies to gather, process, manage, and share information. Andy inspires his students with a genuine love of learning, helping them see the relevance of advanced communication research to everyday life, and modeling the sort of engaged, committed, and informed academic citizenship that he instills in his students. Andy High is an outstanding young scholar and a model Penn State teacher.

Please join us for the nineteenth annual Kenneth Burke Lecture, featuring Bryan Garsten, Professor of Political Science at Yale. The event will take place Saturday, April 16 at 7 pm at the Nittany Lion Inn's Faculty-Staff Club. We will also spotlight the winner of the Kenneth Burke Award for best graduate student essay in rhetoric, as well as the graduate and undergraduate winners of the new Birkle Award for student engagement. We hope to see you there!

 Debra Hawhee and Jeremy Engels

Interim co-directors

Center for Democratic Deliberation

 

Health Communication Doctoral Fellows Seminar

July 13-16, 2011, Denver, Colorado

 

Students completing their first or second years of doctoral coursework in departments or schools of communication, public health, or related fields are invited to apply to become a short-term Cancer Communication Doctoral Fellow.  Students interested in organizational and team communication, patient-physician interaction and shared decision making, intercultural communication, leader-member exchange, message tailoring, dissemination and diffusion and implementation of effective practices, systems science, and social ecological models of behavior change are especially encouraged to apply. 

 

Over a three-day immersion in Denver, fellows will learn about plausible topics that a fellow could later pursue for study in cancer communication research as it relates to healthcare organizations.  The objective of this program is for fellows to consider cancer communication topics as they plan their dissertation research.  This doctoral seminar is made possible with funding from the U.S. National Cancer Institute in an award to the Cancer Communication Research Center (http://www.crn-ccrc.org), an NCI-designated Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. 

 

Fellows will be paired with and learn from seminar faculty about professional, regulatory, organizational, team, and individual factors that affect communication in healthcare organizations.  Seminar faculty will be healthcare providers, prevention specialists, information technology experts, operations leaders, and researchers in Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit non-governmental healthcare system in the U.S.  Fellows and faculty will interact one on one in half-day shadowing as faculty go about their work, in seminar, and during social times.  The fellowship will pay travel-related costs of fellows including round trip flight to Denver, 3 nights hotel, and meals.  Fellows will receive a $1000 honorarium for a brief paper describing a research opportunity from their paradigmatic perspective based on what they have learned. 

 

Wednesday July 13^th fellows and seminar staff convene for dinner, orientation to the seminar, and assignment of fellows to faculty.  Thursday July 14^th fellows are taken to their faculty colleague's place of work, fellows accompany faculty to meetings, labs or clinics, offices, and any site visits that faculty have on their schedule for that morning, fellows ask questions throughout shadowing and have lunch with their faculty colleague, then fellows convene and with seminar staff leave as a group for field trip.  A group dinner for fellows, staff, and faculty finishes the day.  Friday July 15^th fellows report-out and discuss in full-day seminar what they have learned about communication in healthcare systems and how that may apply to cancer communication research.  Saturday July 16^th fellows convene in morning seminar to discuss the fit of research paradigms to the realities of healthcare organizations, and depart for the airport. 

 

Apply by sending (1) a cover letter of application with full contact information, (2) a letter of reference, (3) a one page statement of interest that identifies the applicant's research interests and what they would hope to learn, and (4) a vita.  Materials must be received by May 1, 2011.  Applicants will be notified by May 15.  Submit application materials to: sarah.madrid@kp.org.