New Orleans

I spent the weekend in New Orleans for the annual gathering of the National Communication Association. There I presented two academic papers. The first, "The people's parody: An exploration of colonial mimicry," examined rhetorical issues related to parodic communication. The second, "A Burkean poetic frames of the 2008 presidential ads," looked at the tone of attack ads during the 2008 presidential general election. During the convention, I also received the Bruce E. Gronbeck Political Communication Research Award from the Carl Couch Center for Social & Internet Research for my book Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics. Past winners of the award have included top political communication scholars like Denise Bostdorff, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites, and Mary Stuckey. The gathering was also a great chance to see former colleagues and professors.