Friends and colleagues. Below is a list of our summer 2022 events.
Instructions on how to access a particular recorded event are available at the online store.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions: 517.740.0668, or rwoods@theccsn.com
CCSN 2022 SUMMER WORKSHOPS AND COFNERENCES in Communication
Title: Digging Deeper: Strategies for Research in Communication Studies
Presenters/Facilitators: Amy James, Director of Instruction and Information Literacy, Baylor University; Robbie Bolton, University Librarian, Spring Arbor University
Date and Time: Thursday, June 2, 2022 | 11:30 – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: In this workshop, seasoned research and reference librarians Amy James and Robbie Bolton will provide you with an introduction to using different types of resources to conduct Communication-related research. You will discover resources specific to the field of communication as well as some ancillary databases you may find useful (i.e. databases that index communication content), including resources and databases helpful in locating sources in Christian and religious communication.
Presenters will focus on the process of creating a research strategy by helping you to develop appropriate Boolean search strings with both keywords and subject headings. These search strategies will prepare you to conduct effective and efficient searches to find the research that you need. You will also learn how to do citation index searching which can help you see how often a particular item has been cited by others and provide you with data on the impact of different journals and authors. Citation indexes track the references from bibliographies and give you the insight to help you analyze literature on your topic in a way that is not possible through just keyword searching.
The workshop will conclude with helpful strategies for how you can organize and manage your research using a free, open-source citation manager including but not limited to Zotero. Zotero and others like it can help you to create virtual folders to hold various articles and sources that you have found throughout the research process as your work individually or collaborate with others. It can also help you to generate source citations in Microsoft Word and/or Google Docs.
Title: Teaching C. S. Lewis: Chronicles of a Master Communicator
Presenter/Facilitator: Steven A. Beebe, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Texas State University
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 8, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: Steven Beebe has been teaching his course “C. S. Lewis: Chronicles of a Master Communicator” at both Texas State University and Oxford University since 2005. Drawing upon his teaching experience, this seminar presents strategies, examples, and suggestions for teaching communication principles and practices inspired by C. S. Lewis. Based on the communication principles presented in Dr. Beebe’s recently published book, C. S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication, this workshop offers practical approaches for including Lewis’s ideas about communication in your course, whether you are teaching Lewis from a communication, theological, or literary perspective. Learn why Lewis was a master communicator as well as how to be a master educator about C. S. Lewis’s craft of communication. This interactive seminar includes opportunities for questions and discussion. Whether you are developing your first course about C. S. Lewis or are looking for ways to freshen an existing course, the seminar offers new insights about C. S. Lewis’s communication principles and practices.
Title: Writing Non-fiction Books for Publication
Date and Time: Tuesday, June 14, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Facilitators: Quentin Schultze, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Communication, Calvin University; Tim Muehlhoff, PhD, Professor of Communication, Biola University; and Robert H. Woods Jr, PhD, Executive Director, Christianity and Communication Studies Network
Description: This half-day workshop with award-winning authors and professors of communication and media focuses on practical advice for Christian educators and professionals who want to write heart-filled, Christ-centered, non-fiction books that educate and inspire. Facilitators explore how to manage writing and publishing while teaching and working full-time. Topics include motivations for writing, communication habits that help promote writing, strategies for developing content for books, and how to bring a book from concept to proposal to final publication. Editors from Christian publishing houses will join the conversation to share tips on how to write a winning proposal and more. Participants will have an opportunity to connect with publishers for proposal pitches. There is plenty of time for Q&A and group discussion with those in attendance.
Title: Strategic Leadership for Christian Higher Education Administrators in Communication and the Arts
Lead Facilitator: Denise Edwards-Neff, PhD, Azusa Pacific University
Additional Presenters/Facilitators: Diane Badzinski, PhD, Colorado Christian University; Stephanie Bennett, PhD, Palm Beach Atlantic University; Tom Carmody, PhD, Vanguard University; John Hatch, PhD, Eastern University; Brandon Knight, PhD, William Carey University; Bala Musa, PhD, Azusa Pacific University; Joy Qualls, PhD, Biola University; Kevin Schut, PhD, Trinity Western University; Dorie Shelby, MA, Spring Arbor University; Ken Waters, PhD, Pepperdine University.
Date and Time: Thursday, June 23, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: Please join us for this Administrator Academy for Christian higher education administrators working in Communication and the Arts. If you lead a Communication department or school or program in a Christian college or university, this workshop will provide valuable resources and opportunities to engage with other experienced leaders. Communication departments share many things in common with other disciplines, but we are unique in many ways. We are tech/media heavy, handle debate/forensics, produce theater, and are required to staff adjuncts in highly specialized areas. We have colleagues within our departments from very different traditions within the discipline. The diversity of these program offerings and traditions under one roof present many blessings, indeed, but also inherent challenges to the collective.
This half-day leadership workshop will feature presentations by veteran leaders with Q&A, breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, and an interview with administrators at leading Christian colleges and universities. The workshop will conclude with an implementation session to take the concrete knowledge gained to produce individualized strategic development plans for the year ahead.
Workshop topics include:
– supporting the Christian formation of employees, or faculty and staff
– development in support of the institution’s Christian mission
– building a positive faculty and staff working culture
– cultivating a positive and effective working relationship with deans and provosts
– modeling and supporting active scholarship
– hiring faculty and staff
– having difficult conversations
– faculty annual review and evaluation
– promotion, tenure, and contract negotiation and decisions
– dealing with problem students
– innovative curriculum development
– assessment and program review
– enrollment and retention strategies
Title: Digital Hope Re-imagined: Foundational Questions and Practical Strategies for Cultivating Dialogue and Civility in Local and Global Contexts (A DIALOGIC UNCONFERENCE)
NOW FREE – REGISTRATION FEE HAS BEEN WAIVED
Date and Time: Monday, June 27, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenters/Facilitators: Tim Muehlhoff, PhD, Professor of Communication, Biola University; Debra A. Schwinn, MD, President, Palm Beach Atlantic University; Stephanie Bennett, PhD, Professor of Communication and Media Ecology, Palm Beach Atlantic University; Dennis Smith, Former Presbyterian Church (USA) Regional Liaison, South America
Description: Our current global scene is one of ideological division, amplified by the grammar of web 2.0 technologies that promotes rapid fire messaging and self-aggrandizement with little reflection. Our times are characterized by the propagation of fake news and tribal rhetoric that divides rather than unifies. To this mix, Christians would suggest the presence of “post-truth” and “post-Christian” voices that seek to tear apart the very fabric of neighborly love. The Apostle Paul calls all Jesus followers to be filled with hope in times of cultural despair: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13, ESV)
But how can hope and peace be maintained in our current public sphere where sloganeering and demonizing runs unchecked? How can we speak truth in love in winsome ways with competing voices? What hope is there for Christians to be different as we digitally engage others?
This dialogic unconference invites a sub-ideological dialogue among participants that does not presume a particular, predetermined outcome. It provides a means of asking deeper questions about the human condition that pervades digital discourse. The unconference recognizes that if Christians do not seek to cultivate unifying communication, then newly emerging ideological conflicts will threaten to tear the remaining fabric of societal neighborliness.
This unconference will break new ground by including international voices. A round-table of Latin American communicators, each of them recognized for their academic work and commitment to building the common good in adverse circumstances, will describe their context and strategies and challenge participants to broaden their horizons.
Title: Words, Images, and Witnesses: Faith-learning Integration Strategies in Communication Studies
Date and Time: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenters/Facilitators: Quentin Schultze, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Communication, Calvin University; Bill Strom, PhD, Professor of Media and Communication, Trinity Western University; Tim Muehlhoff, PhD, Professor of Communication, Biola University; Naaman Wood, PhD, Saint Paul College
Description: Christian higher education, like the rest of higher education, is in a time of transition. Christian higher education institutions are no longer viewed nonthreateningly by the culture in general or the Academy in particular. Meanwhile, Christian faculty seek to guide students in “thinking Christianly” across the disciplines, providing Christ-centered perspectives for lifelong learning that equip students to critically engage culture in biblical and transformational ways. Faculty are charged with a faith-learning integration mission in all areas of service, including teaching, research, and administration. Along the way, helping students navigate the increasingly complex, nuanced social and political issues they encounter often requires new frameworks and training. It takes vision and courage to navigate these challenges and to fulfill this faith-learning mission in ways that sustain institutions and contribute to strengthening students’ faithful witness in the uncertain years ahead.
Our mission as Christian educators leads us toward an education of the entire student—body, mind, and soul. While we may recognize this important calling, its implementation can be difficult. How do we help students “think Christianly,” or integrate their faith with their learning? How do we foster righteous discernment? How do we impart knowledge that leads to true wisdom? What methods do we implement that both display our own faith foundations and encourage students to build their own?
Operating from a framework that views lived experience as a valuable teacher, this workshop provides personal narratives and faith-learning integration strategies from seasoned communication teachers and scholars in Christian higher education. Presenters share specific strategies coupled with detailed examples. Taken together, the successes and failures of these faculty provide wisdom on how to reason Christianly and integrate faith into one’s communication classroom and research program.
Title: Practicing Professional Civility: Communication Ethics in the Workplace
Date and Time: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenter: Janie Harden Fritz, PhD, Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Duquesne University
Description: How can we communicate with others in the workplace in ways that support productivity and human flourishing? This workshop presents communication principles that lead to healthy organizational relationships. Topics include language and shared meaning, content and relationship dimensions of messages, and the power of communication in shaping work contexts. Opportunities for questions, discussion, reflection, and application invite participants to put professional civility into practice in their own institutions.
Dr. Fritz (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is professor and director of the BA, MA, and PhD programs in the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies. She teaches courses at the undergraduate, MA, and PhD levels, including Exploring Interpersonal Communication, Exploring Leadership Communication, Intercultural Communication, Organizational Communication, Communication Research Methods, Communication Ethics and Professional Civility, Rhetoric and Philosophy of Organizational Communication and Leadership, and Rhetoric and Philosophy of Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication. Dr. Fritz holds the William Patrick Power, C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Academic Leadership (2019–2024).
Dr. Fritz’s research focuses on communicative practices that constitute, sever, and restore the ties that bind individuals to the institutions of which they are a part. She is the author of Professional Civility: Communicative Virtue at Work (Peter Lang) and has co-edited or co-authored four other books. Her most recent work focuses on the intersection of professional civility and leadership practices. Dr. Fritz is a past president of the Eastern Communication Association and the Religious Communication Association (RCA) and currently serves as executive director of the RCA. Dr. Fritz is editor-in-chief of Listening/Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture and editor of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.
Registration Fee: $50.00
Registration Available now
Title: Teaching Diversity and Social Justice in Christian Higher Education
Presenter/Facilitator: John Hatch, PhD, Chair and Professor of Communication, Eastern University
Date and Time: Friday, July 29, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: How can instructors disarm the defensiveness felt by some students when a class broaches matters of diversity and social justice? When Christian faith is viewed as a bulwark against critical examination of race, class, or gender-based social stratification, what is the Christian professor to do? Are there ways to turn resistance into willingness to take a closer look? Having studied racial reconciliation and taught Intercultural Communication for nearly two decades, John will share some theological and rhetorical handles he’s found for meeting this challenge.
A diverse group of professors including Kesha Morant-Williams (Penn State-Berks), Theon Hill (Wheaton College), Hyeri Jung (Eastern University), and Naaman Wood (St. Paul College) will then widen the discussion by sharing their experiences and perspectives. All participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in small-group discussion.
Title: Practicing a Theatrical Hermeneutic in Teaching, Preaching, and Performance
Date and Time: Wednesday, August 3, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenter/Facilitator: Paul Patton, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Communication and Theater, Spring Arbor University
Description: Paul’s workshop introduces an often-forgotten way of interpreting and understanding biblical passages. As “hermeneutics” is the science of interpreting texts, the concept of “theatrical hermeneutics” suggests that there are insights about a text that can be gleaned from watching a portion “performed” as an act of theater. For instance, in “The Seven Woes,” Jesus Christ’s righteous fury is usually easier to feel when presented as a living confrontation than as read silently.
The workshop will unfold various principles of oral interpretation and offer a variety of demonstration performances. It will explore numerous biblical texts and provide guidance to pastors and teachers about how to “perform” texts regardless of previous theatrical or performance backgrounds. Faculty, pastors, or anyone involved in Christian education will benefit from the principles and tools presented in this workshop.
Date and Time: Thursday, August 18, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenters/Facilitators: Deanna Sellnow, PhD, Professor of Communication, University of Central Florida; Katherine G. Hendrix, PhD, Professor of Communication, University of Memphis; Lakelyn Taylor, third-year doctoral student in communication, University of Central Florida
Description: Navigating graduate school is arduous enough without also determining how to express certain aspects of identity, especially religious identity in a more secular environment. This workshop brings together graduate students and faculty members to discuss how Christian graduate students can express their faith in the Academy. The panelists and guest speakers will cover topics such as how graduate students can integrate faith into pedagogy, research, publication practices, mentoring, and student or colleague communication. Keynote presenters include. Deanna D. Sellnow (University of Central Florida) and Katherine G. Hendrix (University of Memphis). Student panelists from University of Central Florida, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Texas A&M, University of Memphis, and Ohio University will be included.
Title: Bridge-building 2022 and Beyond: Promoting Civil Dialogue in our Universities (A MINI-CONFERENCE)
Date and Time: Thursday, August 25, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Presenters/Facilitators: Richard J. Mouw, PhD, President Emeritus, Fuller Theological Seminary; Tim Muehlhoff, PhD, Professor of Communication, Biola University; Geri E. Forsberg, PhD, Professor of English, Western Washington University
Description: We are excited to invite you to this virtual conference on Christ and Communication. This event is co-sponsored by Faculty Commons (FC), a ministry of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), which outreaches with professors and graduate students in public universities, and the Christianity & Communication Studies Network, a non-profit organization focused on faith-learning integration resources and training in the field of communication.
While the “Common Call,” a faculty conference offered through Faculty Commons, has taken place for over a decade, this conference is specifically designed for one academic discipline—Communication Studies. Our theme this year focuses on helping Christian faculty and students in public higher educational settings cultivate civility and build bridges through dialogue and winsome communication with colleagues who may be unfamiliar with or otherwise threatened by Christian voices. Within this theme, some questions that we are thinking through include but won’t be limited to the following: How can we as Christian professors have a stronger presence and voice in the academy and beyond? How do we bring Jesus Christ to the Academy in intellectually hospitable ways? How can we support civil dialogue in a time of discord? How can we balance being both a blessing and a communicator of truth in the university? How does communication theory and research lend itself to addressing these and other questions related to our theme in faithful ways?