Sara Hauber, Ph.D. student, won one of the prestigious Bilsland Strategic Initiatives Fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year. The title of her project is "Purdue Women's Network: A Networking-Mentoring Program to Enhance Retention and Quality of Life for Women Graduate Students at Purdue."

Heng Xu, M.A. student, presented "Avian Influenza Risk Communication in China: An Exploratory Analysis of 31 Chinese Provincial-Level E- Governmental Websites" at the 2008 Conference "Communicating for Social Impact" of the International Communication Association in Quebec, Canada, and the 1st National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media in Atlanta, Ga. She also was the recipient of the Frederick N. Andrews Environmental Travel Grant 2008.

Lisa Hanasono, Ph.D. student, as a member of the Council on Asian American Studies (CAAS), has been actively working with faculty members and students to develop a proposal for an Asian American Studies program at Purdue University.  In January of 2008, the College of Liberal Arts officially approved the proposed curriculum for an Asian American Studies minor and program at our university!  The CAAS is thrilled about the new program and is looking forward to the development of future projects that focus on issues pertaining to diversity and multiculturalism at Purdue.

Suzy D'Enbeau, Ph.D. student, had her paper, "Sex, politics, and kitsch: A feminist analysis of the advertisements in Bust magazine" accepted for presentation as one of the Top Three papers at the Eastern Communication Association conference in May. Her presentation is scheduled to appear in a panel titled "Top Competitive Papers in Media Communication." She also earned a 2008 Alan H. Monroe Graduate Scholar distinction from the department for professional scholarship and received a $200 Purdue Graduate Student Association Travel Grant.

Deborah Leiter, Ph.D. student, named a DeKruyter Graduate Scholar in Communication by the Gainey Institute for Faith and Communication at Calvin College. This award comes with a stipend as well as a travel stipend to be honored at their workshop in July and free workshop tuition for that and other summer workshops. She also has been offered a SSHRC Summer Institute Scholarship to cover the majority of tuition for a workshop at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria in May 2008. She received a full travel award from ETRUS (the Electronic Text Research group at the University of Saskatchewan) to present a research poster at the ETRUS Day 2008 symposium in March.

Andy King, M.A. student, 2008 Ross Fellowship for incoming Ph.D. students.

Iccha Basynat, Ph.D. student, named a 2008 Alan H. Monroe Graduate Scholar for professional scholarship.

Baby Boom

Ph.D. student Jennifer Hall is shown with triplets Emily, Lucy and Sarah, born in January.

Rebecca Dohrman , Ph.D. student, and Suzy D'Enbeau, Ph.D. student, along with Professor Patrice Buzzanell published a book review of Belle Rose Ragins and Kathy E. Kram's (2007) "The Handbook of Mentoring at Work:  Theory, Research, and Practice" in Management Communication Quarterly.

Rebecca Dohrman also received a grant for $400.00 from the Community Service/Service Learning Projects Office for her COM 114H course. The project is called "Increasing the volunteer pool for the American Red Cross." And she earned the Bruce Kendall Award for Excellence in Teaching by a graduate student.

Mahuya Pal, Ph.D. student, along with Professor Patrice Buzzanell, published "The Indian call center experience: A case study in changing discourses of identity, identification, and career in a global context" in Journal of Business Communication.

Melissa Bridgewater, Ph.D. student, with Professor Patrice Buzzanell earned a Top Paper Award 2008 for "Caribbean immigrants' identities and identifications: Negotiations of opportunities, work ethics, racism, and the American Dream," from the Organizational and Professional Communication Division of the Central States Communication Association conference.

Claudia Janssen, Ph.D. student, had her paper "Branding the nation: 'Germany-land of ideas'.
The strategic creation of national images" selected for the Top Papers in Public Relations Panel at this year's CSCA conference.

Nadine Yehya, Ph.D. student, was to present "Facing the fear: Social activism during July
2006 War" at the Central States Communication Association conference in April and "Corporate social responsibility: Decision support system" at the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Montreal in May. She also was elected as the Vice President for the American University of Beirut Alumni Chapter in Indiana. This chapter is part of the Alumni Association of North America (AANA).

Graham Bodie, Ph.D student, accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. Bodie also was awarded the 2008 Bruce Kendall Award for Excellence in Teaching by a graduate student.

Ashley Jones-Bodie, Ph.D student, accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University.

Elizabeth Williams, Ph.D. student, received a Top Student Paper in the Organizational Communication Division at Central States Communication Association.

Colleen Arendt, Ph.D. student, along with fellow graduate students Rebecca Dohrman and Natalie Litera and Professor Patrice Buzzanell received a $1,000 Research Incentive Grant for their project: "Performing research: Generational stories of women's engineering careers."

Andrea Stokes, M.A. student, selected by the African American Studies program as the recipient of their H.H. Remmers Memorial Award, which recognizes students who are making good academic progress and have leadership potential. Recipients are recognized with a plaque and a check for $1,000 at an awards ceremony.

Suchitra Shenoy, Ph.D. student, full year Purdue Research Foundation grant for 2008-2009. Suchitra also was named a 2008 Alan H. Monroe Graduate Scholar for professional scholarship.

Carin Kosmoski, Ph.D. student, full year Purdue Research Foundation grant for 2008-2009.