About
Interest Groups
Members may choose to join up to three (3) Interest Groups as part of their membership. Interest Group membership benefits include:
- Leadership opportunities to serve as Interest Group officer
- Special mailings and emails from Interest Groups
- Opportunity to network with others whose research and teaching interests are similar
ECA formally recognizes its twenty Interest Groups to assist the organization in conducting its business and coordinating convention programs and panels.
For additional information regarding ECA's Interest Groups, please choose from the following list:
Applied Communication
Mission Statement
The Applied Communication Interest Group focuses on the application of theory and research to practical issues, problems, and situations.
Applied Communication research highlights the connection between theory and practice by demonstrating theoretical applications and the usefulness for potential users to understand and implement recommendations. Topics of interest to Applied Communication are contemporary social issues and the concerns of local communities that are addressed through projects grounded in communication theory.
The Applied Communication Interest Group is committed to help the general public solve socially relevant problems and to test the usefulness of communication theory in "real-world" settings.
IG Contacts
Chair 2026: Erin Craw, Chapman University
Secretary:
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2026/ends Thursday 2028): Mary Donato and Dana Borzea
Recent News
Argumentation and Forensics
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Argumentation and Forensics Division is to explore the various theories and practices associated with argumentation, debate, and forensics as they relate to scholarly research, classroom pedagogy, and community life.
- 2018 Business Meeting minutes
- 2018 Vice Chair Report
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
2026 Chair:
Secretary:
2027 Chair:
EC Rep: (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026: Robert Green, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Recent News
Communication Administration
Mission Statement
The mission of the Communication Administration Interest Group is to promote discussion, study, criticism, research, and the application of principles of education administration for the communication disciplines.
- 2023 Business Meeting minutes
- No minutes were taken in 2022
- 2021 Business Meeting minutes
- 2019 Business Meeting minutes
- 2018 Business Meeting minutes
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair/Planner 2026: Timothy Brown, Eastern University
Secretary: Mary L. Kahl, The Pennsylvania State University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Janie Harden Fritz, Duquesne University
Recent News
Communication and Technology
Mission Statement
To encourage the exploration and dissemination of information/communication technologies that influence our perceptions of human communication endeavors.
IG Contacts
2026 Planner: Joel Ward (jsward@geneva.edu)
EC Representative: Cathlin Clark-Gordon (cclarkgordon@setonhill.edu)
Recent News
None at this time.
Communication Law & Ethics
Mission Statement
Pending.
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws (pending)
IG Contacts
Chair 2025: Noura Hajjaj, Duquesne University
Secretary: Open
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): nourahajjaj80@gmail.com
Recent News
None at this time.
Communication Traits
Mission Statement
From the earliest days of ECA, our members have been concerned with the study of such communication traits as speech anxiety and avoidance behaviors. Beginning in the late 1960's, ECA members began researching other traits related to anxiety. But until the 1990's, many researchers thought that communication anxiety was learned and that it could therefore be reduced, if not eliminated, through speech classes. In the 1990's, this view was challenged significantly. We now know that these kinds of communication problems are caused to some extent by both learning and genetics.
To advance our knowledge of the causes and effects of communication traits, further research in this area needs to be encouraged and the findings disseminated throughout our field. The Communication Traits Interest Group seeks to fulfill this function. It is our hope that, through the efforts of this interest group, communication scholars will be able to identify more communication traits and understand how to control or influence them (if possible) and to apply the knowledge gained to various areas of the study of human communication.
Trait research is a thread that runs through and can potentially inform every area of study within our field. Therefore, we encourage scholars from all areas of study to consider joining the Communication Traits interest group.
IG Contacts
Secretary: Alan Heisel, University of Missouri-St. Louis
2025 Planner: Lynda McCroskey, California State University, Long Beach
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Lynda McCroskey, California State University, Long Beach
2026 Planner: Alan Heisel, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Recent News
Community College
Mission Statement
The mission of the Community College Interest Group is to promote the scholarship of teaching among community college communication professionals. The division explores a broad range of undergraduate, career training, and lifelong learning issues within the discipline.
Programs and initiatives focus on the ways in which communication theory, research, and skills can best serve the educational need of diverse learning communities. The division actively promotes instructional innovation and provides opportunities for professional collaboration.
- 2019 Business Meeting minutes
- 2018 Business Meeting minutes (revised)
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2016 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair 2026: Victoria Nabors, Malcom X College City College of Chicago
Secretary: Jenny Warren, Collin College
Chair 2027: Ellen Santa Maria
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2025): Christi Saindon, Queensborough Community College
Community College: G.I.F.T.S.
Chair 2026: Ellen Santa Maria
Vice Chair 2026: Laura O'Connell
Planner 2027: Laura O'Connell
Recent News
Health Communication
Mission Statement
The Health Communication Interest Group of ECA studies the processes, practices, and policies related to human and mediated communication in health care and health promotion. Research presented within this division evolves from a wide range of theories and methodological approaches that often address the ways individuals seek, interpret, and respond to health information. The interest group promotes scholarship that examines communication in health education and promotion, health care consumer-provider relationships, caregiving, healthcare organizations, health policy, health campaigns and interventions, communication and aging, lifespan development, risk communication, and e-health applications. The interest group welcomes submissions from scholars at all stages in their academic career, especially those interested in exploring and applying new theoretical perspectives to health communication.
IG Contacts
Chair 2026: Athar Memon, Ohio University
Vice Chair 2026: Katie Dunleavy, LaSalle University
Secretary: Shatakshi Semwal, Ohio University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Jennifer Allen-Catellier Gannon University
Recent News
Instructional Communication
Mission Statement
The Instructional Communication Interest Group is concerned with research and its applications related to Instructional Communication and Communication Education. Instructional communication is the study of the role communication plays in the teaching and learning process in traditional classroom settings, corporate training settings, mediated settings, and other applied contexts. Research in this area typically has examined teacher/trainer and/or student/learner communication variables or modes of instruction to better understand their influence on teaching and learning. Unlike instructional communication, communication education is focused solely on the teaching of communication concepts. Research in this area, such as that related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, focuses on the ways in which communication concepts can be taught most effectively. Together these two areas of study complement each other and provide a rich contribution of scholarship to the Eastern Communication Association.
- 2025 Business Meeting minutes
- 2024 Business Meeting minutes
- 2023 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
2026 Chair: Stephen Kromka, The University of Tampa
Secretary: Katherine Armstrong, Missouri Valley College
2027 Chair: Carly Densmore, University of Idaho
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2026/ends Thursday 2028): Dana Borzea, Grand Rapids Community College
Recent News
Intercultural Communication
Mission Statement
The Intercultural Communication Interest Group is dedicated to the study and practice of representing, performing, and negotiating cultural identities in face-to-face interaction and mediated communication in cross-cultural and international contexts.
- 2018 Business Meeting minutes
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair 2026: Freda Lakey, Salisbury
Co-Chair 2026: Angela Putman. Penn State Brandywine
Secretary: Jennifer Shamrock, Monmouth University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2026/ends Thursday 2028):
Recent News
Interpersonal Communication
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Interpersonal interest Group is to focus on research topics including, but not limited to personal relationships as well as relationships in the workplace. Personal relationships encompass families, friendships, romantic relationships, the way messages are designed and interpreted, conflict, and contexts. Organizational relationships explore culture in the work environment, friendships, and small group communication. Theoretical and applied studies are welcomed.
- 2022 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2021 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair 2025: Meredith Harrigan, SUNY Geneseo
Secretary: Elizabeth Glowacki, Northeastern University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Mary King, Bloomsburg University
2025 Planner: Open
Recent News
Interpretation and Performance Studies
Mission Statement
The Interpretation and Performance Studies Interest Group of the Eastern Communication Association is committed to scholarship that encompasses a range of themes, methods, and presentational outcomes that include both publication and performance. Interdisciplinary diversity and collaboration between multiple participants is advocated. The Interpretation and Performance Studies Interest Group is broadly focused on visual culture, audience experience and reception, performance, and interpretive outcomes from a variety of perspectives.
- 2016 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
- Follow us @ECAperformance and join us on Facebook!
IG Contacts
Chair 2025: Evan Schares, Villanova University
Secretary: Christi Saindon, Queensborough Community College
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Jennifer Shamrock, Monmouth University
2025 Planner: Evan Schares, Villanova University
Recent News
Kenneth Burke
Mission Statement
The Mission of the ECA Kenneth Burke Interest Group: Kenneth Burke is considered among the foremost "thinkers" (many would argue THE foremost literary and social critic) of the twentieth century. Known for both the breadth and depth of his understanding and explorations, Burke has been influential not only in the field of Communication but also in such studies as Literature, the Arts and Humanities, Sociology, Philosophy, and Theology. His insight into the nature of the human being and the role of language in human existence provides a complex yet compelling tapestry of ideas that scholars continue to unravel and re-weave. The purpose of the Kenneth Burke Interest Group is to promote the ongoing study, understanding, dissemination, research, critical analysis, and extension of Kenneth Burke's work.
- 2019 Business Meeting minutes
- 2018 Business Meeting minutes
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2015 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Planner 2026:
Secretary: Sherinne Cauwels, Purdue University/Roberts Wesleyan University
Chair 2026: Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University
Recent News
Media Communication
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Media Communication interest group is to focus on research topics including, but not limited to, the transmission and effects of both creating and being exposed to mass and mediated messages. This includes media of all kinds including film, television, radio, print, and digital media. Members of the Media Communication interest group are engaged in research and teaching on a wide range of topics relating to traditional and new media content, form, structures, effects, computer mediated communication, and processes using various methodologies (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, rhetorical, critical/interpretive). The way mediated messages are designed and interpreted is the main focus of the division and therefore scholarship of any methodology that draws on the strengths of any of the established traditions in order to develop discourse and scholarship in traditional, contemporary and emerging concentrations in both mass and mediated communication is welcome.
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws (draft)
IG Contacts
Chair: Roseann Pluretti, Queens College
Secretary: Yiyi Yang, University of North Carolina Wilmington
EC Rep:(term begins Sunday 2023/ends Thursday 2025): Natalia Rabah, Temple University
Planner 2025: Tanya Powers, Marist University
Planner 2026: Yiyi Yang, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Recent News
Nonverbal Communication
Mission Statement
The Nonverbal Communication Interest Group seeks to provide an outlet for communication scholars interested in those aspects of communication that are not verbal in nature, and which manifest themselves in a wide variety of contexts. Studies involving nonverbal communication elements such as facial expression, eye contact, vocal cues, gestures, body movements, spatial behavior, touch, time, and other aspects are emphasized.
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IG Contacts
Vice Chair/2024 Planner: Madison Neurohr, University at Buffalo
Secretary: Nikki Blau, Ohio University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2023/ends Thursday 2025): zmcarr@buffalo.edu, University at Buffalo
Recent News
Organizational Communication
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Organizational Communication Interest Group (OCIG) is to promote the study and teaching of organizational communication. Organizational communication focuses on research topics including, but not limited to, both personal relationships and relationships in the workplace, and explores communication, relationships, and cultures within the work environment, friendships, and small group communication. The OCIG welcomes both theoretical and applied scholarship.
- 2025 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2024 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2023 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2022 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2021 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2019 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair 2026: Robin Smith Mathis, Kennesaw State University
Secretary: Emily Reagan, Alice Lloyd College
Planner 2026: Robin Smith Mathis, Kennesaw State University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2026/ends Thursday 2028):
Planner 2027: Maxine Gesualdi, West Chester University
Recent News
03/26/2022
2022 Business Meeting Minutes
03/02/2022
2021 Business Meeting Minutes
03/31/2020
2019 Business Meeting Minutes
05/22/2014
2014 Business Meeting Minutes
Philosophy of Communication
Mission Statement
The Philosophy of Communication Interest Group supports scholarship that examines the philosophical presuppositions and implications of communicative praxis. This interest group provides an academic home for ethical, interpretive, qualitative, historical, and dialogic approaches to the study and application of communication.
- 2024 Business Meeting
- 2017 Business Meeting
- 2016 Business Meeting
- 2014 Business Meeting
- Group By-Laws
- Philosophy of Communication Member and Officer Roles and Duties
IG Contacts
Current Chair 2025: Joel Ward (jsward@geneva.edu)
Vice Chair 2026: Matthew Mancino (mattmanc@iu.edu)
Vice Chair Elect 2027: Michael Kearney (Michael.Kearney@dordt.edu
Recent News
06/02/2014
April 2014 Business Meeting Minutes
05/09/2007
Business Meeting April 27, 2007
05/11/2006
Business Meeting -Friday April 28, 2006
05/11/2006
Approved Bylaws - April 28, 2006
Political Communication
Mission Statement
Pending.
IG Contacts
Chair/Planner 2026: Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell, University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
Vice Chair: Scott Dunn, Radford University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Kimberly Hannah-Prater, Community College of Baltimore County
Recent News
Rhetoric and Public Address
2018 Rhetoric and Public Address Minutes Mission Statement
(DRAFT) The Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group conceives its mission as the scholarly study of rhetorical artifacts, modes, theories, and practitioners from a host of cultures and traditions, and their profound implications for public life in local, national, and transnational contexts. We celebrate a rich tradition of studying classic speeches and speakers, while also encompassing an expanded view of the nature of rhetorical inquiry into visual, material, and performative media and the recovery of often historically marginalized voices and movements. Through a diversity of lenses, R&PA Interest Group members examine particularly the tensions between “text” and “context” as they touch upon perennially important debates around history, power, ideology, ethics, and social change.
- 2025 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2022 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2018 Business Meeting Minutes
- 2015 Business Meeting Minutes
- Group By-Laws
IG Contacts
Chair/Planner 2026: Gui Caliendo, Temple University
Secretary:
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Benjamin Bates, Ohio University
2027 Planner:
Recent News
06/02/2014
2013 Business Meeting Minutes
05/02/2012
ECA - RPA 2012 Business Meeting Minutes
Theory and Methodology
Mission Statement
- To promote ideas of discovery and creativity in all areas of communication research. Thus, Theory & Methodology is an umbrella to all other interest groups;
- To encourage the development of new methodologies to foster scholarship at all levels of research interest including the beginning researcher; and
- To insure that a wide range of research be discussed in all areas of communication.
- 2019 Business Meeting minutes
- 2017 Business Meeting minutes
- 2014 Business Meeting minutes
- Group By-Laws (draft)
IG Contacts
Chair/Planner 2025: Doran Tucker, George Mason University
Secretary: Michael Kearney Duquesne University
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Doran Tucker, George Mason University
Recent News
Voices of Diversity
Mission Statement
The purpose of the interest group is to explore the various theories and practices that pertain to the research, teaching, and study of communication within, between, and among diverse communities, especially as these communities are affected and/or marginalized culturally, economically, institutionally, politically, psychologically, and socially because of age, class, disabilities, ethnicity, gender, language, race, religion or sexual orientation. The Voices of Diversity Interest Group seeks to facilitate dissemination and discussion of such theories and practices within the field of communication studies."
IG Contacts
Chair/Planner 2025: Dan Strasser, Rowan University
Secretary: Carla Richards, Duquesne University
Planner 2025: Dan Strasser,
EC Rep (term begins Sunday 2024/ends Thursday 2026): Dan Strasser, Rowan University
Planner 2026: Carla Richards, Duquesne University
