What's New:

The Bloomsburg University Xi Omega chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Honor Society, has been named the 2019 Chapter of the Year by the National Communication Association.

Featured Student

Sydney Rimmer

My name is Sydney Rimmer, and I am currently a senior at Bloomsburg, double majoring in Communication Studies with a Leadership and Public Advocacy focus and Political Science with a Legal Studies focus, as well as a minor in Public Relations. This summer, I am beyond grateful to have participated in an internship at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in the Senate Republicans Communications Office, as it was an incredibly fulfilling experience.
The office had a group of employees designated to each area of communications. There were teams of employees for areas such as speech writing, webmasters, photography, film, social media, and others. I got to shadow and help complete assignments in each of these areas, and gain an appreciation for the importance of each specialty. This offered a unique opportunity to understand “a day in the life” of the employees in this office and their responsibilities, and it also gave me an opportunity to meet people outside of the office, and experience things many other people will never experience. Seeing the behind the scenes of these events was so interesting.
The brunt of my work was done in June, as that is when the Senate is in session and the budget is being passed. Once the budget passed, July slowed down and there were significantly less events occurring, therefore less events for me to shadow, as the Senators stay in their district offices as opposed to coming to the Capitol. This gave me an accurate representation of the job, both the hustle and bustle of June, and the relaxed nature of July.
This internship has also proven to be a vital step in my networking. I received a follow up luncheon with the lobbying firm who encouraged me to intern in the Capitol, as well as encouragement from my office to look for a career in the Senate when I graduate. I got a chance to work with several Senators, thereby networking with them, which was a personal goal of mine for the summer. Another strength of my internship was the bond I formed with my coworkers. I was the only intern in my office, however I fit in perfectly with the full time employees despite us being in all different walks of life. I had anticipated forming relationships with my coworkers, but I had not foreseen how close I would grow with them. I am so blessed to now call many of my coworkers my friends. We have spent time together in both the office, as well as our free time, and I am elated they have taken me under their wings, and I still stay in touch with many of them despite being many months post internship.
My internship was a wonderful experience, and truly turned out to be a highlight of my summer. I am able to walk away from this office confident that I completed assignments efficiently and to the best of my ability. I have grown from this experience, and I am excited to see how the things I have learned and the connections I have made will apply to my future endeavors.

Department News:
October 2017

Publications

Rumbough, T. B. (2017). Your life in 100 words or less: A PowerPoint activity for the basic course. In J. Seiter, J. Peeples & M. Sanders (Eds.) Communication in the classroom: A collection of GIFTS. New York: Macmillan.

Connaughton, S. L., Linabary, J. R., Krishna, A., Kuang, K., Anaele, A., Vibber, K., Yakova, L., & Jones, C. (2017). Explicating the relationally attentive approach to conducting engaged communication scholarship. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 45, 517-536. doi:10.1080/00909882.2017.1382707

Honors and Awards

Dr. Shuzhen Huang’s dissertation “Post-Oppositional Queer Politics and the Non-Confrontational Negotiation of Queer Desires in Contemporary China," has been awarded the 2017 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award from the International and Intercultural Communication Division (IICD) of the National Communication Association (NCA).

Scholarly Activity

Dr. Eric C. Miller interviewed a pair of authors during the month of October. His conversation with religious scholar Michael J. Altman appeared at Religion & Politics on October 2, and his conversation with social critic Kurt Andersen appeared at Religion Dispatches on October 20.

Drs. Erin Brummett and Kai Kuang presented at the 2017 Bloomsburg University Liberal Arts Symposium on October 6th. Their presentation was entitled, "How to Be an Effective Learner in a Culturally Diverse Environment: Strategies from Evidence." The session tailored strategies learned from the presenters' attendance at this year's Lilly Conference to students and explored how students could become more effective learners in and outside of their classrooms. A specific focus was given to strategies students could use to improve interpersonal and intercultural interactions on the college campus by exploring the fluidity and salience of their own cultural identities."

Dr. Kai Kuang presented at the 2017 Bloomsburg University Liberal Arts Symposium on October 6th. Her presentation titled "Strategies for Grant Proposal Writing" tailored strategies for grant proposal writing and application to undergraduate students and introduced various opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in and apply for funded research projects on campus, including the URSCA grant.

Dr. Mary E. King delivered a lecture via Skype for the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University on October 5th. Her talk was titled, “An examination of contemporary research and theory applying relational uncertainty and partner interdependence as contributors to perceived turmoil in relationships in transition."