WSC to Host Nebraska Undergrad Communication Conference

Published: 3-5-2010 4:10 pm

WAYNE, Neb. (March 5, 2010) -- Wayne State College will host the first Nebraska Undergraduate Communication Conference on April 19. The communication honor societies Mu Gamma and Phi Omega Chapters of Wayne State and Hastings College will sponsor the event.

Undergraduate students from surrounding universities will come together to present communication papers and research projects. Top paper awards will be given to papers reflecting the conference theme, "Communicating Health in Families."  Dr. Kathleen Galvin, a leading family communication scholar and text book author from Northwestern University, will be the keynote luncheon speaker.

Galvin's research as a scholar specializes in discourse-dependent families and family communication regarding health, and families formed through transnational/transracial adoption and on gay male parenting. She is involved in three health-related studies including one funded by the National Institutes of Health that is investigating decision making in families faced with a female child's cancer diagnosis that threatens her fertility.

Galvin has published several books on the topic of communication, has received a number of national awards for her work, and in addition to her professorial work served Northwestern University for 13 years as associate dean of the School of Communication.

Presentations will be made at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.in the Wayne State College Student Center. The deadline for registration and paper submissions is March 26.

For information: Dr. Deborah Whitt, professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at WSC, at (402) 375-7352. Please see the conference brochure for registration details.