CFP: 6th Annual Doctoral Consortium of the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association (ICA)

Call for Proposals

The consortium brings together PhD candidates working on Communication and Technology to give them the opportunity to present and discuss their research in a constructive and international atmosphere. The goals of the event are to provide feedback and advice to participating PhD candidates on their in-progress research thesis. Moreover, the doctoral consortium will provide the opportunity to meet experts as well as fellow PhD candidates from different backgrounds working on related topics.

During the consortium, students will be invited to present their work, following which they will receive feedback from their fellow students and faculty participants, all of whom will have read the proposals in advance of the Doctoral Consortium. In addition, at least one faculty participant will be assigned to respond in detail to each proposal. Besides the presentations of proposals, there will also be discussion of other topics such as ethics, research methods, publishing the thesis, and positioning one's work for the job market.

Submission Process

Applicants must be advanced to candidacy, and have their dissertation proposal topic previously approved by their committee. Ideally, students will be in the early stages of their dissertation, where feedback would be helpful in refining and advancing their work. To apply, students must submit a proposal describing their research.

Submissions must be related to the working area of the Communication and Technology Division of ICA. A description of the division's primary interests can be found in the last section of this call.

Proposals must identify a significant problem (or problems) in the field of research, briefly outline current knowledge of the problem domain, and clearly formulate a research question, or specify hypotheses to be tested.

Proposals should outline the research approach, methods, and any results obtained so far. Submissions should be between 3000 and 4000 words (excluding references and appendices), and must include name and affiliation of the PhD candidate.

Applications should be accompanied by a short letter of recommendation from the advisor or member of the dissertation committee stating how the PhD candidate can benefit from participation in the Doctoral Consortium.

The proposal and letter of recommendation must be submitted as one PDF document and sent as an attachment in an email to Benjamin Detenber at tdetenber@ntu.edu.sg. The deadline for submission is 1 February 2014. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the members of the program committee based on significance of research, specificity of research topic and/or questions, clarity of writing, and degree to which student can benefit from expert guidance and feedback.

To help ensure the consortium best meets the needs of its members, limited financial assistance is made possible by the CAT Division. Please note in your application if you would like to be considered for financial support to cover your costs for participation in the CAT Doctoral Consortium (this support would cover only the $75 participation fee and not travel to the conference).

About the Communication and Technology Division within ICA

The Communication and Technology (CAT) Division is concerned with the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the process of communication. It is committed to enhancing theory and methodology pertaining to adoption, usage, effects, and policy of ICTs. Areas of research include human-computer interaction, computer-mediated communication, mobile communication, and other technologically mediated social interaction and networking in all contexts (interpersonal, group, organizational, societal/cultural) and at all levels of analyses. CAT invites papers that make an innovative and original contribution to our understanding of ICTs, with the primary focus on communication aspects of particular technological characteristics. Papers in which technology is not a specific object of investigation but is instead the context or backdrop for a communication study should be directed to other ICA Divisions.

As part of CAT, the Doctoral Consortium welcomes papers that follow any and all disciplinary approaches (psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and policy studies, among others) and all methodological orientations (quantitative, qualitative, critical, cultural, historical, legal, and institutional, among others).

Organization

Once a proposal is accepted students can register through the ICA website. Costs for participation are 75 US$ per person. After acceptance, students are encouraged to submit updated proposals (maximum 5000 words, excluding references and appendices) for review and comment.

Program Committee (faculty mentors)

Benjamin H. Detenber, Nanyang Technological U, Singapore (Program Director)
Marjolijn Antheunis, U of Tilburg, Netherlands
Jesse Fox, Ohio State U, USA
Lee Humphreys, Cornell U, USA
Klaus Bruhn Jensen, U of Copenhagen, Denmark
Veronika Karnowski, Ludwig-Maximilians U, Germany
Nicole Krämer, U of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Louis Leung, Chinese U, Hong Kong
S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State U, USA
Sabine Trepte, U of Hohenheim, Germany
Joseph B. Walther, Nanyang Technological U, Singapore
Mike Yao, City U, Hong Kong

Congratulations to Jesse Fox and Courtney Anderegg on their recently published article in CyberPsyc.

Fox Jesse and Anderegg Courtney. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. November 2014, 17(11): 685-691. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0232.

Hiring

The School of Communication is hiring in 2014. There are two positions that may be of interest to faculty doing work in communication technology.

1. Tenure-track assistant professor whose research and teaching focuses on the implications of social media for strategic and/or organizational communication. Candidates should employ an empirical, social scientific research approach, and may ground their research interests in any of a variety of areas of communication, such as health, political, interpersonal, or mass communication. Candidates may also be interested in the university’s emerging programs in Data Analytics and other university initiatives, including the new undergraduate major in Data Analytics (https://data-analytics.osu.edu/) within the College of Arts and Sciences, OSU Discovery Themes (http://discovery.osu.edu/), and the Behavioral Decision-Making Initiative (https://bdm.osu.edu/) See https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/4402 for more information.


2. Tenure-track assistant professor or tenured associate professor in the area of Communication Technology. Candidates may focus on computer-mediated communication (CMC), human-computer interaction (HCI), or specific subareas of communication technology, such as psychological aspects of user experiences, the effects of digital representations, or research specific to certain contexts of digital communication. See https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/4401 for more information.

Lee, Fox receive top-paper awards from ICA Communication & Technology division

Congratulations to OSU School of Communication Assistant Professors Roselyn Lee and Jesse Fox on their award-winning papers.  Lee's paper, "Virtual Stereotype Lift: Effects of Arbitrary Gender Representations on Quantitative Task Performance in Avatar-Represented Virtual Groups" (with Nass and Bailenson) and Fox's paper, "Immersive Virtual Environments That Promote Environmental Behaviors Also Encourage Indulgent Eating via the Licensing Effect" (with Ahn and Park) were both named top-four faculty papers by the Communication & Technology division at this year's ICA.   

Jodi Whitaker accepts position at U Arizona

Congratulations to Jodi Whitaker, who has just accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the U of Arizona.  Jodi will be continuing her fascinating work on video games there starting in August 2014.

Lee authors two Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking articles

Congratulations to our own Rosalyn Lee for her strong presence in the January 2014 ahead-of-print issue of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.  Roselyn is the lead author on a piece titled "Does the mask govern the mind" (with Cliff Nass and Jeremy Bailenson) and she coauthored "Can 'The voices in the car' persuade drivers to go green?" (with Yeon Kyoung Joo).  Check out the journals site for more information, or to download the articles.

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2013.0358

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2013.0157

Brad Bushman presents "Blood, Gore and Video Games"

The Criminal Justice Research Center (CJRC) is sponsoring a talk by our own Brad Bushman, titled "Blood, Gore and Video Games.  The talk will be held at noon on Thursday, February 6 in the Journalism Building, Room 217.  More information here:  http://cjrc.osu.edu/events/blood-gore-and-video-games