UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Alumni, faculty members and graduate students from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications will have a major presence at the 72nd annual International Communication Association conference in Paris later this month.
Embracing the theme “One World, One Network,” this year’s conference, scheduled May 26-30, will be hybrid with both virtual and in-person sessions. Nearly 20 faculty members from the Bellisario College’s four departments will take part as panelists and presenters. Two dozen graduate students will also participate, as well as many Penn State alumni who are now at other major colleges and universities.
This will be the first ICA conference to meet in person since 2019. Members of the Bellisario College will be a major part of the four-day event providing in-depth insights into important communications topics, including activism, artificial intelligence, crisis communications, diversity and inclusion, emotions, gaming, law, misinformation and more. Thousands of experts, researchers and scholars representing a wide range of communications areas are expected to attend.
Bellisario College graduate students Annie Dooley and Magdalayna Drivas will receive a “top paper” designation from the ICA’s Game Studies Division for their study titled, “It’s Called a ‘Controller’ for a Reason: The Role of Control and Identity in Mod Use.”
Donald P. Bellisario Professor of Media Studies Mary Beth Oliver is the ICA’s president. She is also an ICA fellow along with two colleagues from the Bellisario College — Homero Gil de Zúñiga, professor of journalism and media studies, and S. Shyam Sundar, the James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects.
The ICA is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching and application of all aspects of communication. The Bellisario College has been well-represented and active in the organization for years.
ICA was founded more than 50 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now an international association with more than 6,000 members from 80 countries. It aims to advance the scholarly study of human communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide. Since 2003, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations as a nongovernmental association.