Anne Demo and Bradford Vivian, assistant professors in the Department of Communication
and Rhetorical Studies in Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts
(VPA), received awards from the National Communication Association (NCA) at the
organization's 94th annual convention in San Diego Nov. 20-24.
Demo received one of the NCA's Golden Anniversary Monograph Awards, which are
presented to the most outstanding scholarly monographs published during the previous
calendar year. Her winning article, "The Afterimage: Immigration Policy after Elian," was
published in the journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs and contributes to the communication
discipline's literature on media, visuality and memory.
Vivian received the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award, which is given to foster and promote
philosophical, historical or critical scholarship in rhetoric and public discourse. The award
will support his latest project, an ambitious effort to bring theories of public memory and
forgetting to bear on the controversy over a World Trade Center memorial.
"It is remarkable for a single department to win two such awards in the same year," says
Kendall Phillips, associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication and
Rhetorical Studies. "We are honored to have our faculty so recognized."
Demo, who also serves as a faculty member in VPA's School of Art and Design and
Department of Transmedia, has training in rhetoric and has an interdisciplinary background
in visual culture and gender studies. Her primary area of research has focused on the visual
rhetoric of contemporary immigration policy and politics. Her current book project, "Image
Politics & Immigration Policy," examines the role that visual argument plays in promoting
contemporary immigration policy and forming public opinion about immigration. She
holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.
Vivian, who also holds a Ph.D. from Penn State, conducts research in rhetorical theory and
criticism. He is the author of "Being Made Strange: Rhetoric Beyond Representation"
(SUNY Press, 2004). His current research includes two projects: one on the rhetoric of
"public forgetting" and one on models of freedom and citizenship in the history of rhetorical
theory.
Founded in 1914, the NCA is the oldest and largest national organization promoting
effective and ethical communication. The association supports the communication research,
teaching, public service and practice of a diverse community of scholars, educators,
administrators, students, practitioners and publics. The NCA is a nonprofit organization of
more than 7,700 members who work and reside in every U.S. state and more than 20
foreign countries. For more information, visit http://www.natcom.org.
VPA is committed to the education of cultural leaders who will engage and inspire audiences
through performance, visual art, design, scholarship and commentary. The college provides
the tools for self-discovery and risk-taking in an environment that thrives on critical thought
and action. Learn more at http://vpa.syr.edu.
