Heading Towards Boston: Plenary Sessions Aplenty

by Larry Gross, ICA President-Elect

The Boston Conference is only a few months away - time to register and book travel/hotel if you've not done so! - and the program is shaping up wonderfully. Here are details on the plenary sessions planned for the Conference.

In the opening plenary, on Thursday 26 May, "Communication as the Discipline of the 21st Century," Craig Calhoun, president of the Social Science Research Council, and Professor of the Social Sciences at NYU, will address the contributions that communication scholarship can make to our understanding of the world today. Five distinguished communication scholars will then comment in response: Joseph Cappella, Susan Douglas, Sonia Livingstone, John Durham Peters, and Georgette Wang.

The Presidential Address will be given Saturday evening by Francois Cooren, on the topic of "Communication Theory @ the Center: The Communicative Constitution of Reality."

The closing plenary, Monday afternoon, will feature Noam Chomsky, speaking on "Democracy, the Media, and the Responsibility of Scholars."

In addition to these plenary sessions, we have scheduled eight miniplenaries, four each on Friday and Saturday, 1:30 - 2:45 pm. Two of these sessions will highlight the work of ICA Fellows elected last year:

• On Friday, a Fellows Panel titled "Dynamic Media Environments and How They Are Understood" will feature Wolfgang Donsbach, Gail Fairhurst, Joseph Turow, and Sonia Livingstone.
• Saturday's Fellows Panel, "Mediated Negotiations: Identity, Conflict, Childhood, and Scanning," will feature Michael Slater, Michael Roloff, Dafna Lemish, and Robert Hornik.

Additional Friday miniplenaries include:

• "Copyright and Freedom of Expression: The Social Impact of Communication Scholarship," moderated by Patricia Aufderheide, will feature Steve Anderson, Francesca Coppa, Andrew Kenyon, Andres Monroy-Hernandez, and Jonathan Zittrain.
• "The University in Crisis," a panel moderated by Ellen Wartella, will include Nick Couldry, Isabel Maria Capeola Gil, Melissa Gregg, and Stewart Hoover.
• A miniplenary on "Reframing the Crisis in U.S. Journalism," chaired by Robert McChesney, will include Rodney Benson, Victor Pickard, Nikki Usher, Bruce Williams, and Michael delli Carpini.

Saturday's miniplenaries will include:

• "Communication Scholars in the Policy Arena," moderated by Robin Mansell, and including Vinod Pavarala, Benjamin Scott, Ernest Wilson, and Irene Wu.
• "Juggling Knives and Hula Hoops: Challenges Facing Academic Parents," chaired by Kristie Farrar, will include Kristen Harrison, Elizabeth Hatfield, Marina Krcmar, and Srividya Ramasubramanian; Robin Nabi will respond.
• "Boston Redux," organized by the Urban Communication Foundation, will be chaired by Susan Drucker, and will include Jim Campano, Kevin Carragee, Eric Gordon, and Nigel Jacob.

The virtual overlay portion of the Conference will offer live streaming of the opening and closing plenaries, as well as two prerecorded Keynote Addresses: Barbie Zelizer will reprise her 2010 Presidential Address, "Journalism in the Service of Communication," and Henry Jenkins will speak on "Spreadable Media."

Finally, another programming innovation will feature Master Classes by distinguished senior scholars. The inaugural roster of Master Teachers includes John Hartley, Yuichi Ito, Elihu Katz, Annie Lang, Max McCombs, and Patti Valkenburg. These sessions will be held Friday and Sunday from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.