Communication Studies
Our Students are Competitive and Active Scholars…
Students in the Communication Studies (COMS) division at the University of Montevallo (UM) are encouraged to conduct independent research projects and to present the resulting papers at professional conferences. One such conference where our students have been particularly successful in representing the university is the Theodore Clevenger Jr. Undergraduate Honors Conference at the Southern States Communication Conference (SSCA), a regional conference that includes work by scholars from various universities in the southern United States. Student papers are judged competitively and it is an honor for an essay to be accepted. COMS majors who have presented papers at the Undergraduate Honors Conference at SSCA include the following:
Josh Barronton, (2007), “The Rhetorical Significance of the Debates Between Pushmataha and Tecumseh.”
Kristina Kuzma, (2007), “Framing Morality: A History of Metaphor and the Future of Progressive Language in Modern Politics.”
Lindsey Sherrill, (2006), “’Bitch, Get In My Car’: 50 Cent, Hip-Hop, and the Patriarchal Dividend.”
Eva Hammock, (2005), “Relational Dialectics: Making Connections Within Opposition.”
Emilee Weatherspoon, (2005), “Education for Health—A Fair Trade?: Corporate America’s Support of African-American Youths and the Advertising Strategies and Products they Promote.”
Lindsey Sexton, (2004), “Opposing Rhetorics: How Two Female Country Singers Attempted to Create Community and Justice for All Women in Second Wave Feminism.”
Linda R. Thomas, (2004), “Use of Metaphors in Sun-Tzu’s Art of War: A Metaphoric Criticism.”
Quotes from students who have attended and presented papers at SSCA:
I think the conference experience is kind of one of the best kept secrets of college, so to speak -- for all the effort so many students put into academic papers, it's surprising how little attention the conference experience gets! I was really lucky Dr. Ford and Dr. Bell are so encouraging for the Communication students; I met a lot of really interesting people, and getting a chance to present an academic paper on a topic that was really near and dear to my heart meant a great deal to me. I learned a lot attending the SSCA conference, and I'm hoping I can attend again next year. –Kristina Kuzma
The SSCA Conference was an amazing experience! Going allowed me to meet with some of the top people in my field, and learn about the different types of research going on in the world of Communication Studies, as well as to interact with students my own age who were working on very similar projects to my own. Perhaps most importantly, I was able to meet professors I might one day be studying with in graduate school. –Josh Barronton