Fall 2010 News

Connaughton receives CIBER Curriculum Development Award

Associate Professor, Stacey Connaugton has received a curriculum development award from the Center for International Business, Education and Resarch (CIBER).  This award will fund efforts to integrate work on "multinational virtual teams" into her classroom curriculum.

Connaughton named Director of Graduate Studies 

Professor Connaughton will assume these duties of Graduate Director for the school following Dr. Dutta's appointment to the Dean's office.  

Dutta appointed CLA Associate Dean for Research 

Professor Mohan J. Dutta of the School of Communication has been appointed to serve as the next Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts.  In this role, he will work with facutly and graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts in identifying, creating, and fostering structural resources for promoting research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Buzzanell presented the Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture

Patrice M. Buzzanell presented the Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture, entitled Seduction and Sustainability: The Politics of Feminist Communication and Career Scholarship, to the National Communication Association. Available at:
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/394897/b55625f227/1714500491/886b4deb98/
 

Dutta PI on $1.5 million AHRQ grant

Professor Mohan Dutta is Principal Investigator (Co-Investigators are Bart Collins from Communication/RCHE and Titilayo Okoror from Health and Kinesiology) on a research project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the $1,499,427.00 project titled "Application and dissemination of a culture-centered approach to tailoring comparative effectiveness research summary guides (CERSGs)" is a culture-centered partnership between the Indiana Minority Health Coalition (IMHC) and Purdue University.  See story at:  http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100902DuttaHealth.html .

Faculty collaborate with Copenhagen Business School

Faculty from Purdue University met with colleagues from Copenhagen Business School and corporate business leaders earlier this year in Denmark to discuss collaborations.  To veiw a video from the meeting with some reflections of IKL and Purdue faculty members about internal communication click here http://www.levendekommunikation.dk/  and page forward to slide 4-5. 

C-SPAN Video Library wins 2010 Golden Beacon Award

The Association of Cable Communicators (ACC) presented the 2010 Golden Beacon Award to the C-SPAN Video Library, the association's highest honor. The Beacon Awards honor a public affairs initiative that has made an impact within the cable industry while enhancing cable's image nationwide. The finalists and winners achieve peer, industry and local market recognition for their work while setting a standard for their colleagues to emulate.  For more information on the award or ACC go to http://www.cablecommunicators.com/awards_beacon.php  or contact Dr. Robert Browning, Director of C-SPAN Archives and Associate Professor of Communication and Political Science. 

CSPAN founder and COM Alumnus Lamb visits campus 

September 23rd CLA Alumnus Brian Lamb, founder and CEO of C-SPAN, will be visiting Purdue to interview Professor Carolyn Curiel as the first in a series of interview and lectures titled "Women of the White House".  This series is sponsored by Project IMPACT, The School of Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence.  Professor Curiel is also a CLA alumna and a current faculty member in the Dept. of Communication.  All are invited to attend the interview on September 23, from 5:30-6:30 pm in Lynn Hall room 1136.

MacGeorge awarded NSF grant

Erina MacGeorge (Associate Professor of Communication at Purdue) is Co-PI on a new National Science Foundation (NSF) award of $199,999, entitled "Cultural similarities and differences in meanings and consequences of advice."  The research is being undertaken under the direction of Georgetown University Professor Yulia E. Chentsova Dutton (PI) and Erina MacGeorge (Co-PI).

School reception and open house at NCA San Francisco

Our annual alumni social gathering is from 9-11pm Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at the Hilton San Francisco and Towers in the Cityscape on the top floor of the hotel, contact Darla Gordon for details at gordonds@purdue.edu.  The Graduate Student open house will be Sunday, November 14th, 2010 from 1:00pm - 4:00pm in the Grand Ballroom - booth #40 (also in the Hilton San Francisco and Towers) contact Stacey Connaughton for details at sconnaug@purdue.edu.

School co-sponsors Shanghai conference

The Communication School at Purdue co-sponsored (with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Copenhagen Business School and the International Communication Association) The Fourth Global Communication Forum...Theme: "Global Cities in eTimes: Urban Design, Creativity, Collabration" in Shanghai, China September 29th - 30th, 2010.  Contact Stacey Connaughton for details.

School co-sponsors visit by US Ambassador

Ambassador Carmen Lomellin, permanent U.S. Rebpresentative to the Organization of American Stated, will speak on Oct. 21 as part of the "Women of the White House" series.  The talk is 6-7 p.m. in Lynn Hall, Room 1136.  A reception will begin at 5 p.m.  The Communication School along with the Susan Buckley Butler Leadership Center and the College of Liberal Arts are co-sponsors of this visit.  Contact Carolyn Curiel for more details and/or see:  http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/events/2010/101011CurielSpeaker.html .

Graduate program ranked highly in NRC study

The School of Communication was highly ranked across a number of areas in the recently released NRC study of doctoral education.  The NRC data were collected five years ago and released in September 2010.  See:  http://cla.purdue.edu/news/uploads/CLA_Rankings_Article.pdf  .

In Memory of Brant Burleson

Brant Burleson, Professor of Communication and Affiliate Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, passed on December 10, 2010 after battling cancer.  He was preceded in death by his father, Robert Bruce Burleson and is survived by his wife Erina MacGeorge and children Jesalyn and Carson all of West Lafayette, Indiana, as well as his mother Ethel Claire Burleson of Lubbock, Texas, his sister Dr. Janet Oressa Dehler of Berthoud, Colorado, and his brother Robert Carl Burleson of Houston, Texas.

Brant was born in Boise, Idaho on December 9, 1952.  He grew up in Boulder, Colorado, graduating from Fairview High School in 1971.  He graduated Summa cum Laude with a B.A. in Communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1975, and an M.A. in 1977 and Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Illinois in 1982.  After spending two years on the faculty at SUNY Albany, Brant came to Purdue University in 1980 where he spent the next 30 years.

Brant was a prolific scholar who published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in scholarly books; he also edited five scholarly volumes including Communication Yearbook and the Handbook of Communication and Social Interaction Skills (with John Greene).  Along with his mentor Jesse Delia and several colleagues, Brant was an early proponent of the "constructivist" perspective which focused on explaining individual and developmental differences in communication skills.  His primary research focus was on the communication of social support, for which he became recognized as the leading authority in the communication discipline.  Using scientific methods, Brant showed that social support matters - that the support we receive from others during difficult times has consequences for our health and well being , and that specific ways of providing emotional support are more effective at relieving distress and facilitating coping.

Brant received numerous awards and honors in recognition for his scholarship.  He was elected a fellow of the International Communication Association as well as a distinguished scholar of the National Communication Association, and was recipient of the Mark L. Knapp Award for career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication from NCA as well as the B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award from ICA.  Brant was especially proud of this latter award as it recognized his work with graduate students.  Brant directed 20 Ph.D. dissertations during his years at Purdue and co-authored with and helped launch the professional careers of many more students.

As Brant said during a recent award acceptance talk, he found incredible joy in studying communication and being part of the communication discipline.  Let us remember him as an outstanding scholar, a devoted mentor to his advisees, and a faculty member who always stood by his convictions.  His joy in scholarship and mentoring was matched only by his love for his family. Let us also remember him as a loving husband, and a devoted "Papa" to his children.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Brant R. Burleson Memorial Fund at the Department of Communication, University of Illinois, 1207 W. Oregon St., Urbana, IL, 61801. This fund will be used to support research by graduate students.

Steven R. Wilson, Professor
School of Communication
Purdue University

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