Congratulations to Professor Oona Hatton whose recent article, “’Hey, asshole: you’ve had your say’: The Performance of Theatre Criticism,” was published in the June 2014 issue of Theatre Topics.

Theatre Topics is the official journal of ATHE (The Association of Theatre in Higher Education); it’s a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on performance studies, dramaturgy, and theatre pedagogy.

Professor Hatton’s essay “describes a creative and scholarly project designed to explore public response to online theatre reviews.” Professor Hatton terms this phenomenon “crowdsourcing theatre criticism.” The article “dramatizes shifting trends in theatre reviewing, interrogating assumptions about who is eligible to participate in theatre criticism; it is also an inquiry into the form that criticism might take.”

Congratulations Professor Hatton!

Dr. Spangler’s stage play based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner will have a three-month-long tour of the United Kingdom this fall.  It will play in Nottingham, Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham, Salisbury, Malvern, Shrewsbury, Leeds, York, and Edinburgh.  Dr. Spangler will be speaking at the Oxford Playhouse on September 20 and Birmingham Repertory Theatre on September 22.

See the video!

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2014! Nearly 150 seniors walked in the COMM Graduation Ceremony on May 17. The department presented awards to outstanding students. Kudos to the following COMM students for their exceptional achievements!

Emeritus Faculty Award

Given to the communication studies graduating senior with outstanding scholarly achievements.

Hillary Stangel

Marie Carr Award

Given to a continuing communication studies student (continuing as an undergraduate student or going on to graduate work in our program) based on scholarship.

Matthew Dalton

Nicole Dang

Arton Falahati

Amy Scoggins

Brittany Taormina

Juliette Todd 

Minnie Carr Award

Given to a communication studies junior or senior who is returning to the department as an undergraduate with service to the department and a high GPA.

Duncan Cook

Rigoberto Flores

Jason Hart

Monique Tran Ung

Communication Studies Excellence Award

Given to a communication studies student who has demonstrated excellent scholarly and/or creative achievements.

Daniel Hinojosa

Brandi Pena

May 16: “Documented” 

Congratulations to Dr. Andy Wood, who has been appointed as a US Fulbright Scholar in Teaching. Dr. Wood will be assigned to the Republic of Belarus and will be attached to the United States Embassy in Minsk, Belarus. Andy will be teaching at the Belarussian host institution, Belarus State University, where he will focus on educating students and faculty about public speaking and presentation skills, business communication, and business English. Many congratulations to Dr. Wood!