Because it promotes analytic and critical thinking, helps students refine their command of the written word, and provides students with an opportunity to develop their oral presentation skills, the Communication Studies department actively promotes student research projects. The publications, awards, University-supported research projects, and conference presentations listed below are the result of student-faculty collaboration arising out of course projects and/or faculty-supervised independent study projects.

  • Elliott Sawyer and Derek Buescher, “Tell the Whole Truth: Feminist Exception in WWII Wonder Woman” in Ten Cent War, eds. J.J. Kimball and T. Goodnow (Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, forthcoming).

  • Kristy Maddux, “Christianity, Homosexuality and the ‘Plain Sense’ of Scripture” Journal of the Northwest Communication Association, 30 (2001): 94-120

  • Megan Parker, “Memory, Narrative, and Myth in the Construction of National Identity: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Senate Debate Over Reparations for Japanese Americans” in Rhetorical Democracy: Discursive Practices of Civic Engagement, eds. Hauser and A. Grim ( Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004).

  • Jessica Ericson, top undergraduate student paper award, Northwest Communication Association convention, April 2012

  • Peter Campbell, top undergraduate student paper award, Northwest Communication Association convention, April 2006.

  • Lauren Gaither, top debut paper in media studies division, Western States Communication Association convention, February 2007.

  • Caitlin Quander, second place, top undergraduate student paper award, Northwest Communication Association convention, April 2005.

  • Kevin Patzelt, top student paper in media studies division, Western States Communication Association convention, February 2003.

  • Bryan Walsh, top three paper, Western States Communication Association Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference, February 2007.

  • Anna Sable, Summer Research Scholar 2013 (project: Examining Torture: A Look at Torture Discourse in Post-9/11 Animated Films).

  • Jessica Erickson, Summer Research Scholar 2010 (project: Does Choice Matter? The Generational Impact of Work-Life Balance on Low-Income Families).

  • Peter Campbell, University Scholar for summer 2005 (project: Representations of Women and the Death Penalty in Law and Order and Monster).

  • Maegan Parker, C.A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Scholar for summer 2002 (project: The Persuasive Power of Conspiracy Rhetoric in Contemporary Holocaust Denial Literature).

  • Maegan Parker, Carol Read Scholar for summer 2001 (project: The Senate Debate over Reparations for Japanese-Americans: A Study of Argument and Its Function in the Construction of Collective Memory).

  • Kristy Maddux, Carol Read Scholar for summer 2000 (project: The Christian Debate Over Homosexuality: Strategies of Interpretation and Argumentation).

  • LiAnna Davis, Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference, Western States Communication Association convention, Albuquerque, NM., February 2004.

  • Jeannie Stuyvesant, DePauw University (IN) National Undergraduate Honors conference in Communication, March 2002.

  • Ashley Biggers, DePauw University (IN) National Undergraduate Honors conference in Communication, March 2002.

  • Maegan Parker, DePauw University (IN) National Undergraduate Honors conference in Communication, March 2001.

  • Kristy Maddux, Penn State University Communication Honors conference, July 2000.

  • Kristy Maddux, DePauw University (IN) National Undergraduate Honors conference in Communication, March 2000.

  • Maggy Di Costanzo, “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby”: An Explorative Study of Sexual Communication Between Heterosexual Couples in The Netherlands presented at the Western States Communication Association Convention, Spokane, WA, February 2015

  • Jessica Erickson, “Analyzing the Vertical Domain: of Juridical Rhetoric: Judge Garza’s Rhetorical Situation and ‘Court of Reason’ appeal in Fisher v. Texas” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Zach Goldstein, “’We Will be Cruel to the Germans:’ Violence, Irony, and the Justification of War in Inglorious Bastards” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Erica Jolly, “She Made it After All: Representations of Second Wave Feminism in the Mary Tyler Moore Show” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Michael Leveton, “(de)Constructing the Real American, or How Vitamins, a Prayer, and 24-inch Pylons Reflect Self-conceptions of American Identity in the 1980s” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Elliott Sawyer, “Queering Comics: Kevin Keller and Queer Blindness within Archie Comics” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Juliet Witous, “Modern Family: A Critical Examination of the Masculine/Feminine Binary” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2012.

  • Kawika Huston, “Hawaii: Helping You Live the New American Dream” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Kawika Huston, “Insistence and Simplicity: Justice Scalia’s Use of Dramatic Language and Characterization” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Laura Kashiwase, “Understanding Emotional Labor in Prisons: Newjack: Guarding Sing-Sing” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Marie Kyle, “Taking the Easy Way Out (?): The Appeals Court Decision in ACLU v. NSA” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Michael Leveton, “The Wartime Effort; Torture as a Constitutional Act of War” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Michael Leveton, “This is Progress? Multiculturalism, Post-race, and the Extension of White Dominance” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • James Luu, “Compliance Gaining and Empowerment in How Starbucks Saved My Life” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Terra Mahmoudi, “Abu Ghraib’s ‘Gilligan’: The Icon and its Vernacular” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Terra Mahmoudi, “Argument, Constitutional Ethos, and Justice Kennedy’s Majority Decision in Boumediene v. Bush” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Jacquelyn Marcella, “Retrospective Sense-Making in the Meatpacking Industry: An Analysis of Fast Food Nation” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2010.

  • Alissa Jolly, “Starbucks: Green or Greenwashing? - An Analysis of Green Claims in Starbucks Artifacts” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2009.

  • Katie Lind, "Finding common Ground in Political Rhetoric: Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Democratic National Convention Speech" presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2009.

  • Emily Alm, "Marie Antoinette, Cultural Norms, and Interrogation of Historical Memory" presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2008.

  • Brain Cohen, "Dr. Strange How I Love Thee: An Analysis of the Ironic Trope in, Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2008.

  • Amy Polansky, "Dead Prez and the Pentad: Examining the Rhetorical Forms of Political Hip Hop" presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2008.

  • Felicia Flanders, “Cracking the Suburban American Dream (and not putting it back together again): An Ideological Analysis of Showtime’s Weeds,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Lauren Gaither, “Beloved: Trauma and Cultural Memory of the Slave Experience,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Tanya Horlick, “When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong: Stereotypical Constructions of Blackness in Chapelle’s Show,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Sonia Ivancic, “Reading Between the Headlines: Negative Depictions of Homelessness in the Tacoma News Tribune and its Affect of Public Perception,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Travis McNamara, “Ono & Sloop and the War on Terror: Can Anti-War Positions Ever Be Outlaw?” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Travis McNamara, “Sin, Salvation, and Stereotypes: An Ideological Analysis of ABC’s Lost,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Matt Oliver, “Hamden v. Rumsfeld: Majority and the Construction of the Public in Judicial Opinions,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Bryan Walsh, “Constitutive Rhetoric in Hamden v. Rumsfeld,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2007.

  • Lauren Gaither, “The Ambivalent Structuring of Homosexual Masculinity in Brokeback Mountain,” presented at Western States Communication Association convention, Seattle, WA, February 2007.

  • Bryan Walsh, “Rhetorical Analysis of Electronically-Mediated Games: An Extension of Burke’s Representative Anecdote,” presented at the Western States Communication Association Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference, Seattle, WA, February, 2007.

  • Peter Campbell, “A Rhetorical History of the ‘New Consensus’ Regarding the Second Amendment” presented at the Rhetoric Society of America (national conference), Memphis, TN, May 2006.

  • Katie Azarow and Steven Hackett, “Lagasse’s Position in Hurricane Relief,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Peter Campbell, “The Constitutional Modalities of Evil Women: A Formalist Analysis of Arguments Concerning Women and the Death Penalty,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Peter Campbell, “The Third Persona, Activism, and the Ivory Tower: A Critical Examination of Philip Wander’s ‘The Third Persona: An Ideological Turn in Rhetorical Theory” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Peter Campbell, “Organizational Self-Representation and Hegemony in the Narrativization of Baseball,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Lauren Gaither, “Coming to Life: A Discussion of Homosexual Identity in Six Feet Under,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Tanya Horlick, “You Plat Like a Girl: Implicit Support of Sexual Inequality in ‘Bend It Like Beckham,’” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Jeff Katz, Carrie Clark, Julia Rogers, Amy Polansky, “Student Perceptions of Race in Media Coverage of Hurricane Katrina,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Matt Oliver, “Legislative Cooptation: Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, Patriarchical White Liberalism, and the Abandonment of a Progressive Narrative,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Bryan Walsh, “Is God an American? An Ideological Analysis of Quantum Leap,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Alex Westcoat, “Rescue Me: The Soap-on-a-Rope Opera,” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2006.

  • Peter Campbell, “The Myth of the Perfect Feminist Martini: An Ideological Critique of Darren Star’s Sex and the City” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Tyler Cox, “Playmakers: An Examination of Counter-Hegemonic Possibilities” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Mike Cuseo, “Proof of Ability: The Role of Photography in the Progressive Freeskirting Industry” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Brody Franklin and Caitlin Quander, “Does Technology Really Help? Communication Technologies Impact upon Female Work and Family Processes through First, Second, and Third Shift Perspectives” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Jacob Gaboury, “Essentially Queer: Homosexual Commodification in Queer as Folk” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Megan Hatschek, “A Dismal Future: Aspects of Ideology in Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Andrea Johnson, Jonathan Blum and Mary Larimer, “The Changing Workplace: An Analysis Regarding the Influence of Technology on Male Gender Roles and Responsibilities” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Courtney Kim, “Critical Analysis of Nixon’s ‘Checkers’ Speech” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Madeline Soboleff Levy, “Problematic White Female Gaze: ‘Thirteen’” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Caitlin Quander, “Discourses of Delivery: An Investigation and Analysis of Language in Obstetrics and Midwifery” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Heather Sarver and Quentin Flores, “Working Parents: Does Childcare Choice Impact Children as Adults? presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Cory Wynhof and Ted Meriam, “Constructing the Triangle: A Unity of Gender, Technology, and Work-Life Balance” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2005.

  • Ashley M. Biggers, “Emerging Identities: Judith Sargent Murray’s Rhetorical Construction of Republican Motherhood,” presented at Western States Communication Association convention, Albuquerque, NM., February 2004.

  • Kayla Bordelon, “Purifying in Ashes: Science and Faith as Explanation in Young Men and Fire” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Brooke Churchfield, “Vengeance and Self-Monitoring: The Role of Low Self-Regulation” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Tyler Cox, “Antwone Fisher: A Culturally Authentic Representation of the Struggles of Black Youth” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Tyler Cox and Marty Fitchen, “Normalizing Sexuality: The Presentation of Images in Retail Clothing Companies” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Robert Crandall, “An Analysis of George W Bush’s September 20th, 2001 Address to Congress” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Robert Crandall and Tara Wood, “American Eagle: Promotion of American Culture as Primary Appeal to Youth” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Mike Cuseo, “Vengeance and the Rhetorical Sensitivity, Rhetorical Reflector, and Noble Self Attitudes” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Mike Cuseo, “Survival in the Media Age: Family Guy and the Imperative of Cultural Literacy” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • LiAnna Davis, “From Headlines to the Screen: Genre and Justice in Law and Order” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Jon Fulwiler and Dave Scheinfeld, “What Do I Wear: Gender Bias in Outdoor Recreational Equipment” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • John David Graziano, “The Role of Vengeance in Assessing Legal Justice” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Andrea Johnson, “Vengeance Regulation: The Role of Negative Social Evaluation and Embarrassability” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Anna Karl, “The Boston Schoolmasters Controversy and the Reconstitution of American Society” presented at the Rhetoric Society of America (national conference), Austin, TX, May 2004.

  • Adrienne Klopfenstein, Catherine Smith and Mary Larimer, “Victoria’s Secret and Branding Sexuality” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Madeline Levy, “Gender Roles and Vengeance: The BSRI and Vengeful Stereotypes” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Locke McKenzie, “The Cigar Shop Indian Lives: Race and Representation in the Teachings of Don Juan” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Travis McNamara, “Dehumanizing Modernity: Slavomir Rawicz’s Narrative Treatment of Modernism” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Lindsey Morck, “The Enduring Nation: Nationalism in Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Kasey Stanislaw, “Acid Rock Family Values and Reality TV: An Analysis of The Osbournes” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Cory Wynhof, “Verbal Aggression and Vengeance” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Cory Wynhof, “Vigilante Justice in The Shield” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2004.

  • Ashley Biggers, “Not the Right Kind of Girl: Feminist Themes in ‘Norma Rae’” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Ashley Biggers, “Investing American Values: Narrative and Metaphor in William Jefferson Clinton’s Northern Ireland Peace Process Rhetoric” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Lauren Daniels, “Blowing the Whistle on AOL Time Warner: Failure of the Mindguards” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Brook Irving, “Groupthink in the ‘Boiler Room’: Sterling Foster” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Stacy Nash, “Groupthink and the Study of Corporate Corruption: Conceptual Overlap” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • John Oldenburg, “The Cleansing Function of Groupthink: Tyco International” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Maegan Parker, “The Pragmatic Style: Mainstream Conspiracy and the Anti-Defamation League’s Counter-Conspiratorial Refutation of Holocaust Denial Literature,” presented at Western States Communication Association convention, Salt Lake City, UT, February 2003.

  • Kevin Patzelt, “Current Constructs and Resistant Images: Visual Representations of the Female Athlete,”, presented at Western States Communication Association conventions, Salt Lake City, UT, February 2003.

  • Caitlin Quander, “A Close Analysis of Indira Gandhi’s ‘Martin Luther King’ Speech on January 24, 1969” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Aaron Thomson, “Critical Analysis of John F. Kennedy’s 1962 Address at Rice University” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2003.

  • Ashley M.N. Allen, “Pope John Paul II’s Metaphors: Light, Journey and Fruit” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • David Anderson, “Technology and Trust: OIS and Library Integration” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Joey A. Barham, “Will and Grace (Network Broadcast Television)” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • James S. Conway, “Grosse Pointe Black (1997)” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Maegan Parker, “Memory, Narrative, and Myth in the Construction of National Identity: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Senate Debate over Reparations for Japanese-Americans” presented at the Rhetoric Society of America (national conference), Las Vegas, NV, May, 2002.

  • Kevin Patzelt, “Technology and Change: Adopting Online Registration at LA University” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Alexandra B. Peterson, “American Psycho (2000) & Flight Club (1999)” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Paige P. Ranney, “Six Feet Under (Premium Cable Television)” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Jeanne Stuyvesant, “Dawson’s Creek (Network Broadcast Television)” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2002.

  • Ashley M.N. Allen, “Rhetorical Exploration of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s Sermon, ‘The Practical Effects of Mediation’” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.

  • Kelly Ross Doxey, “Australia’s Land as Women: Metaphor Developed in National Narratives” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.

  • Kristy Maddux, “Once the Gender Battle is Won: Hilary Clinton’s Feminine Style for Audience Identification” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.

  • Maegan Parker, “Perceptions of the Past” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.

  • Jessica Stewart, “The Role that Gender Plays in Organizational Socialization: Examining Working Girl and October Sky for the Differentiation Perspective” ” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.

  • Jennifer Thiel, “The Ballot or the Bullet” presented at the Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, ID, April 2001.