Leaders in the Discipline

Leaders in the Discipline

The faculty in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences has provided leadership to the communication discipline in numerous ways over the past 50+ years. On this page, we celebrate the highest level of service from our current and former faculty who have presided over our national and international professional organizations and served as editors at the most prestigious journals in the field.

Presidents of the National Communication Association

Formerly known as the Speech Association of America and the Speech Communication Association, the National Communication Association serves scholars, teachers, and practitioners addressing all forms, methods, and consequences of communication using a variety of modes of inquiry. The National Communication Association promotes an engagement for theory building and revision, methodological advances, and practical applications to improve human relationships through its eleven publications and annual conference. Presidents are elected by NCA’s 5,000+ members.

  • 1964 Robert T. Oliver
  • 1975 Herman Cohen
  • 1991 Dennis Gouran

Presidents of the International Communication Association

Formerly known as the National Society for the Study of Communication, the International Communication Association has emerged as a major organization for the study of communication. The International Communication Association was formed to foster methodologies, courses, and philosophies of scholars in speech, journalism, and mass media. Today, the organization has grown to include interpersonal, health, and social influence forms of inquiry, and ICA hosts one of the largest conferences offered in the field. Individuals elected president of this organization are respected leaders, who have made significant contributions to the field in scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and service.

  • 2005-06 Jon Nussbaum

Presidents of the Rhetoric Society of America

The Rhetoric Society of America has emerged as the most recognized organization in rhetorical studies, broadly construed, and it fosters interdisciplinary studies across the humanities. RSA sponsors one of the top journals in the field of rhetoric, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and hosts a major conference for research on discourse and analysis in various contexts, such as race, economics, feminism, sexuality, and politics. The president of this organization is not only a leader in communication, but within the humanities more broadly defined.

  • 2017 Kirt Wilson

Editors-in-Chief at Flagship Journals

Advances is the History of Rhetoric
Ekaterina Haskins
2011-2015
Communication Monographs
Caroll C. Arnold
1966-1968
Dennis Gouran
1996-1998
Human Communication Research
James Dillard
2004-2006
Journal of Communication
Jon Nussbaum
2000-2002
Philosophy and Rhetoric
Steven Browne
1994-2003
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Thomas Benson
1987-1989
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Mary Stuckey
2017-2019

Associate and Book Review Editorships

Communication and the Public
Lijiang Shen
2016-
Argumentation and Advocacy
Dennis Gouran
1995-2001
2004-2010
2012-2016
Kirt WIlson
2001-2004
Central States Speech Journal
Dennis Gouran
1976-1979
Communication Monographs
Dennis Gouran
1968-1971
1974-1980
1983-1986
1898-1992
2004-2010
Communication Quarterly
Dennis Gouran
1998-2012
Communication Studies
Dennis Gouran
1991-1995
2003-
Communication Theory
Dennis Gouran
2000-2003
James Dillard
2004-2010
Human Communication Research
Dennis Gouran
1975-1977
1988-1990
2001-2013
James Dillard
1994-1997
Roxanne Parrott
2009-2012
Lijang Shen
2018-2020
Journal of Applied Communication Research
Dennis Gouran
1993-2011
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
Erina MacGeorge
2013-2015
Personal Relationships
Denise Soloman
2005-2009
Review of Communication Research
Lijang Shen
2014-
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Dennis Gouran
1972-1974
1987-1990
J. Michael Hogan
1987-1989
1993-1995
1999-2001
2005-2007
2011-2013
Kirt Wilson
2000-2004
2007-
QJS, Book Review Editor
Kirt Wilson
2004-2007
Bradford Vivian
2015-
Rhetoric and Public Affairs
J. Michael Hogan
1997-
Kirt Wilson
2002-
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Book Review Editor
Ekaterina Haskins
2004-2011
Jeremy Engels
2015-
Southern Communication Journal
Dennis Gouran
1995-1999
2007-2014
Western Journal of Communication
Dennis Gouran
1999-2014
Women’s Studies in Communication
Roxanne Parrott
1997-2000
World Communication
Dennis Gouran
1985-1991