The three Communications faculty members offered sessions, led workshops and chaired panels at the gathering in Puerto Rico.
Vanessa Bravo and Lucinda Austin, assistant professors in the School of Communications, and Brooke Barnett, professor of communications and associate provost, represented Elon University as presenters in this year’s International Communication Association (ICA) conference May 20-25 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Bravo presented the paper “Offline Social Networks in Information-Gathering Processes Among Latina Migrants in New York and North Carolina,” a qualitative study in which she interviewed 30 Latina migrants from Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, to learn how they gather information about jobs, health and education.
Bravo also chaired and presented in the panel “Emerging Publics in Government Communications: Domestic Publics and Diaspora Communities,” where five scholars from Elon, the University of Floriday, Florida International University, Syracuse University and DePaul University discussed the relevance of diaspora communities as strategic publics for local and host governments.
Barnett led a professional workshop titled “Teaching and Working Across the Generations,” which examined communication across the life span by bringing together scholars from various career stages to discuss teaching and research, with the goal of establishing relationships and possible collaborations across generational lines, work styles and identities. Barnett co-chaired this workshop with Meghan Shara Sanders from Louisiana State University.
Austin presented the paper “Media Professionals’ Views of Ethical Social Media Engagement During Crises” at a preconference on “Ethical Stakeholder Engagement: A Showcase of Projects from the Arthur W. Page Center.” Austin co-authored the paper with Yan Jin of the University of Georgia, and the research was made possible by a grant from the Arthur W. Page Center at Pennsylvania State University.