Five Communication Professors Honored with National Awards
L to R - Dr. Kurt Lindemann, Dr. Patricia Geist-Martin, Dr. Brian Spitzberg, Dr. Heather Canary, and Dr. Wayne Beach
December 4, 2017
By Anna Waletzko
It was a busy week for SDSU at the National Communication Association’s 103rd Annual Convention. The convention, held in Dallas Nov. 16-19, saw the recognition of five professors from the School of Communication. Awards are given annually to individuals whose scholarly research has significantly contributed to the field of communication studies.
Communications Professor Brian Spitzberg received the Mark L. Knapp Award in Interpersonal Communication. Spitzberg recalled his relationship with the namesake of the award, Mark L. Knapp, who gave him advice during the start of his career. Spitzberg’s latest research focused on the role of memes and messages in social media spheres.
Professor Kurt Lindemann received the NCA Disability Caucus’s Jim Ferris Award for Outstanding Achievement in Disability and Communication.
Professor Wayne Beach was award the NCA Language and Social Interaction Outstanding Publication Award for his 1993 article in the Journal of Pragmatics.
Another award went to Director of the School of Communication and Professor Heather Canary. The award, the NCA Organizational Communication Top Paper Award was given to Professor Canary for her paper “Conflict of interest policy process improvement: Engaging theory to inform practice.”
The NCA Health Communication Division Distinguished Article Award was given to Professor Patricia Geist-Martin for her article “Trailblazing healthcare: Institutionalizing and integrating complementary medicine.”
In recent years, the SDSU School of Communication has been recognized as a top producing research faculty by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship. The School offers only Masters- level programs, but produces research at greater levels than most U.S. and Canadian Ph.D. programs.
The SDSU School of Communication’s curriculum recognizes the importance of communication knowledge and skills in an increasingly complex world and is committed to cutting edge research and instructional innovation which advances understandings of culture, health, institutions, interaction, politics, relationships, and rhetoric in everyday life.
The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.
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