Call for Papers

Creating Our Future Through Community Impact

First Vice President’s Special Programming

Planner: Jennifer Waldeck, Ph.D./waldeck@chapman.edu

Communication researchers and students have a unique opportunity to help shape the future of their local communities. Through commitments to socially relevant research, concern with the reflexivity of theory and practice, engaged scholarship, research or instructional partnerships with non-profit and for-profit community organizations, consulting/training and development work, service learning projects, and other community-oriented projects, communication scholars represent a practical discipline. We are well-positioned to contribute to the well-being of society and its institutions and organizations with our activities. 

Thus, the First Vice President is sponsoring a number of sessions dedicated to the ways in which we are Creating Our Future Through Community Impact. These sessions will showcase research, classroom projects, consulting projects, and other scholarly activity with direct, measurable impact on our local communities. 

Competitive paper and panel submissions should focus on the planning, execution, and assessment of projects intended to positively impact local communities. These projects should illustrate the best practices of what communication specialists have to offer the communities in which they live and work. Projects that involve undergraduate or graduate students are especially encouraged. Roundtable proposals will address the issues of community involvement and impact, reflexivity of theory and practice, and importance of addressing practical problems with our research, pedagogy, and other forms of scholarly outreach. 

Specifically, the following submissions are invited: 

• Papers or panels describing:
  • The genesis, execution, and evaluation of an ongoing or complete research, consulting, or class project that created positive community impact.
  • In-progress research, consulting, or instructional projects with the aim of positive community impact.
  • A detailed proposal for a fall (2018) or spring (2019) project that can be reported on at the 2019 conference.

Papers (of up to 30 total pages including references and appendices) and panel proposals (of up to two pages) will be evaluated for programming based on the extent to which they competently describe the development, execution and evaluation of an applied project that aims to create positive community impact. Reviewers will give preference to applied projects grounded in theoretical frameworks and/or driven by communication research findings. Please note the importance of discussing how you have evaluated or plan to measure/evaluate community impact using valid and reliable methods. 

Proposals of projects in progress or yet to be launched will receive full consideration if authors submit a complete and detailed plan that includes a rationale, concrete execution plan, and method of evaluation.  Proposals should also include a realistic timeline for project implementation that ensures the availability of some metric of the project’s impact by the 2019 conference. 

• Roundtable proposals of up to two pages in length that offer a variety of positions and reflections on the relationships among communication scholars/students, their work, and local communities. At least three academic institutions should be represented on these roundtables to enhance the diversity of ideas discussed. The proposal should be accompanied by a rationale that provides an overview of the purpose/theme for the roundtable. Each proposed discussant should provide a position statement and brief synopsis of his/her contribution to the discussion.
  • The intent of the roundtable is not to describe specific projects in detail (although they can be used as examples during discussion).
  • Roundtables should feature discussants’ reflections on why and how community involvement is important and mutually beneficial for communication departments/scholars/students and their localities.
  • Proposals will be evaluated on the clarity of each discussant’s position statement and the overall cohesiveness and relevance of the planned discussion focus/theme.

Submissions are due by 11:59 PM PST December 18, 2018. Paper submissions should be blinded with a title page saved as a separate file. All submissions should be emailed as MS Word or PDF files to waldeck@chapman.edu.