Spring 2024 Faculty Publications, Conferences, and Grants

May 15, 2024

Harrington faculty members have continued to conduct cutting-edge research that they have published, presented, and received awards for this semester. Here are some of the highlights from their work:

Betty J. Cotter, lecturer of journalism, published two creative works this year, “The Red Notebook” and “Mrs. Dinsmore. “The Red Notebook” is a creative nonfiction story about family heritage and the characters in her family tree. “Mrs. Dinsmore” is a short story based on the true story of Bertha Dinsmore, who died in the Hurricane of 1938 at Misquamicut Beach and was listed as “Mrs. Dnsmore” in newspaper accounts, living on as a typo, “a woman without an ‘i’.” She is mentioned in Cotter’s mother’s hurricane diary of that year.

Creative Work:

  • Cotter, Betty J. “The Red Notebook.” Vincent Brothers Review, issue 25, forthcoming 2024.
  • Cotter, Betty J. “Mrs. Dinsmore.” Wild Roof Journal, issue 26, forthcoming June 2024.

Emily Diamond, assistant professor of communication studies and marine affairs, published an article, gave two presentations, and received a grant from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank this spring. Her article “Conservative conservationists: Reconciling conflicting identities to inform climate change policy preferences” features a qualitative case study of a population of politically conservative environmentalists (birders) and documents how they reconcile potential identity conflicts to form their attitudes and policy preferences around climate change.

Diamond presented her paper “Framing the Wind: Media Coverage of Offshore Wind in the Northeastern U.S. “at the Social Coast Forum. This paper presents a media content analysis of offshore wind media coverage in the northeastern United States, identifying key trends in framing and sources. She also presented at the Rural Voter Workshop in Waterville, Maine, where she presented a quantitative analysis of a new survey of rural voters in the United States and how their rural identities inform specific perspectives on environmental issues and natural resource conservation. 

The grant she received from Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank as a co-PI will support stakeholder engagement activities with coastal stakeholders in the town of Charlestown, Rhode Island. Research and data collection will evaluate perceptions of repairs to the Charlestown Breachway and inform messaging and engagement strategies over two years.

Publications:

  • Diamond, Emily P. “Conservative conservationists: reconciling conflicting identities to inform climate change policy preferences.” Politics, Groups, and Identities, vol. 12, no. 2, 2024, pp. 320-337.

Presentations:

  • Diamond, Emily, Nikol Damato, David Bidwell, Tiffany Smythe. “Framing the wind: Media coverage of offshore wind in the Northeastern U.S.” Social Coast Forum, February 14, 2024, Charleston, South Carolina.
  • Diamond, Emily. “Is there a “rural environmental identity”? Characterizing differences between rural and urban perspectives on environmentalism and environmental policy.” Rural Voter Workshop, March 8, 2024, Waterville, Maine.

Grants:

  • Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, $203,085. “Engineering, Design, Permitting, and Community Outreach for the Charlestown Breachway and Adjacent Barrier Island Complex Restoration.” Co-PI with Steve McCandless (PI). 
  • University of Rhode Island Committee for Research and Creative Activities, $10,000. “Environmental Leadership: How Do Moral Frames and Rhetoric Interact to Foster Pro-Environmental Behavior.” 

Bob Herzog

Bob Herzog, part-time faculty of sports media and communication, published an article in Newsday in May that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s career home run record in 1974 amidst death threats and racist taunts.

Publications:

Herzog, Bob. “Hank Aaron stamped his legacy 50 years ago with home run No. 715,” Newsday, May 27, 2024, https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-715-home-runs-50th-anniversary.

Madison Jones

Madison Jones, assistant professor of professional and public writing and natural resource science, has a number of publications and creative works published or forthcoming in the next two months, ranging from poems to an edited collection. Rhetorical Ecologies, expected to be published in July, is an edited collection that Jones is one of the editors of. He has published two articles in online venues, and one has been published in print. Three of his poems were reprinted in Poets for Science, in addition to two other poems in other venues.

Jones was awarded the URI Division of Research and Economic Development’s Early Career Faculty Research and Scholarship Excellence Award in Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities for his contributions to research at URI. He has also received a proposal development grant from URI’s Office of Research Development with Professor Amelia Moore, gender and women’s studies and marine affairs.

Publications:

  • Dobrin, Sidney I. and Madison Jones, editors. Rhetorical Ecologies. National Council of Teachers of English Press (CCCC Studies in Writing and Rhetoric), expected July 2024.
  • Heilig, Leah, Ally Overbay, Madison Jones, and Taylor Roberts. “Augmenting for Accessible Environments: Layering Deep Mapping, Deep Accessibility, and Community Literacy.” Communication Design Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1., forthcoming June 2024.
  • Jones, Madison. “Writing Ecotones: Creative-Critical Inquiry in the Middle Voice.” Writers: Craft and Context, vol. 4, no. 2, forthcoming May 2024.
  • Jones, Madison. “The Energy of Place in Florida Springs Activism.” Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts, edited by Lisa Philips, Julie Collins Bates and Sarah Warren-Riley, Ohio State University Press, 2024, pp. 128-144. https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/134349.

Creative Work:

  • Jones, Madison. “Geologists reject the Anthropocene.” The Sciku Project, forthcoming June 2024, https://thescikuproject.com/.
  • Jones, Madison. “Blackberry” Reprinted in Poets for Science, Ed. Jane Hirshfield, January 2024. Originally Published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall 2017 vol. 56, no. 4, https://poetsforscience.org/blackberry/.
  • Jones, Madison. “Sunfall with Bat House.” Reprinted in Poets for Science, Ed. Jane Hirshfield, January 2024. Originally published in North American Review, Winter 2019, vol. 304, no. 1, https://poetsforscience.org/sunfall-with-bat-house/.
  • Jones, Madison. “Sandhill Cranes” Reprinted in Poets for Science, Jane Hirshfield, editor, January 2024. Originally Published in Southern Poetry Review, Fall 2020 vol. 58, no .1, https://poetsforscience.org/sandhill-cranes/.

Awards:

  • 2024 University of Rhode Island Early Career Faculty Research and Scholarship Excellence Award in Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities. URI Division of Research and Economic Development.

Grants:

  • Office of Research Development, University of Rhode Island, $20,000. Phase II: “Development for Augmenting Manissean Public Memory, Sense of Place, and Belonging on Block Island.” Proposal Development Grants. PI with Amelia Moore.

Joon Kim

Joon Kim, assistant professor of communication studies and public relations, has published one article, delivered three presentations, and received a grant for research since January. His publication, “The Role of Corporate Social Advocacy Forms in Shaping Young Adults’ Responses,” seeks to  understand whether depicting nonpolitical or political behaviors in CSA messages increases individuals’ positive behavioral intentions.

Kim presented his research at the International Public Relations Research Conference and twice at the American Academy of Advertising Annual Conference in March. He has also received a $10,000 grant from The Arthur W. Page Center for a project with Professor Ammina Kothari, journalism, and Bret Werner of MikeWorldWide.

Publications:

  • Kim, J. K., Moon, W-K., & Lee, J. “The Role of Corporate Social Advocacy Forms in Shaping Young Adults’ Responses.” Corporate Communications: An International Journal,  2024. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-11-2023-0151.

Presentations:

  • Kim, J.K. & Overton, H. “An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior Model to Predict Corporate Social Advocacy Support.” International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC), March 2024.
  • Kim, J.K., Moon, W-K., & Lee, J. “Corporate Social Advocacy or Corporate Political Activity? The Role of Brand Actions in Consumer Response to Corporate Social Advocacy”. American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Annual Conference, March 2024.
  • Moon, W.K., Wei, X., Overton, H., & Kim, J.K. “Between Innovation and Caution: How Risk Perception Shapes Consumers’ AI Product Decisions.” American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Annual Conference, March 2024.

Grants:

  • The Arthur W. Page Center, $10,000. “Drivers and Barriers of Artificial Intelligence Technology Adoption in Public Relations: Exploration of Practitioners and Client Perceptions of Ethical Use of AI.” Co-PI with Ammina Kothari and Bret Werner.

Ammina Kothari, director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media and professor of journalism, was an invited speaker at Harvard University’s Center for the Study of African Societies and Economies at the Journalism and the Politics of African Suffering Conference in April. ” She has also received a $10,000 grant from The Arthur W. Page Center for a project with Professor Joon Kim, communication studies and public relations, and Bret Werner of MikeWorldWide.

Presentations:

  • Kothari, Ammina. “Journalism and the Politics of Narrating African Suffering.” Center for the Study of African Societies and Economies, April 25, 2024, Harvard University. 

Grants:

  • The Arthur W. Page Center, $10,000. “Drivers and Barriers of Artificial Intelligence Technology Adoption in Public Relations: Exploration of Practitioners and Client Perceptions of Ethical Use of AI.” Co-PI with Joon Kim and Bret Werner.

Norbert Mundorf

Norbert Mundorf, professor and department chair of communication studies, received the 2024 COIL/Virtual Education Curriculum Development Award to develop International online activities to raise intercultural awareness and sensitivity and create awareness of social and political topics from the URI Global Initiatives Office.

Awards:

  • 2024 COIL/Virtual Education Curriculum Development Award. URI Global Initiatives Office.

Stephanie West-Puckett, assistant professor of professional and public writing and director of first-year writing, received multiple awards this year and delivered the keynote address at the University of New Hampshire’s Writing Across the Curriculum Annual Lecture. 

West-Puckett received three awards for her 2023 co-authored monograph, Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment, at the 2024 Conference on College Composition and Communication. Failing Sideways is an innovative and fresh approach to assessment that intersects writing studies, educational measurement, and queer rhetorics. While valuing and representing the research, theory, and practice of assessment, authors Stephanie West-Puckett, Nicole I. Caswell, and William P. Banks demonstrate the ways that students, teachers, and other interested parties can find joy and justice in the work of assessment.

She has also received a Dean’s Excellence Award in the category of Research from the URI College of Arts and Sciences for the 23-24 academic year. West-Puckett’s scholarship offers new theories and practices for teaching and assessing writing and has made a significant contribution to the field of Writing Studies. 

Her keynote, titled “Gaming Assessment: Reclaiming Equity and Fairness in Classroom Evaluation,” shared the ground-breaking assessment framework developed in her co-authored book Failing Sideways: Queer Approaches to Writing Assessment. Dr. West-Puckett also demonstrated classroom activities for faculty across the disciplines that can more fully represent the whole student writer and parts of the writing construct that are obscured by traditional assessment practices.

Presentations:

  • West-Puckett, Stephanie. “Gaming Assessment: Reclaiming Equity and Fairness in Classroom Evaluation.” Writing Across the Curriculum Annual Lecture, April 16, 2024, University of New Hampshire. Keynote address.

Awards:

  • 2024 CCCC Lavender Rhetorics Award for Excellence in Queer Scholarship’s Book Award for Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment, Utah State University Press, 2023. Conference on College Composition and Communication.
  • 2024 CCCC Advancement of Knowledge Award, Honorable Mention for Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment, Utah State University Press, 2023. Conference on College Composition and Communication.
  • 2024 CCCC Outstanding Book Award, Honorable Mention in the Monograph category for Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment, Utah State University Press, 2023. Conference on College Composition and Communication.
  • 2024 Arts and Sciences Dean’s Excellence Award Early Career Faculty Research Award in Research. URI College of Arts and Sciences.

Justin Wyatt

Justin Wyatt, associate professor of communication studies, journalism, and film/media, published his book Creating the Viewer: Market Research & the Evolving Media Ecosystem in April 2024. The book addresses the largely hidden world of primary market research and the construction of the viewer in the media industries. Wyatt explores the different modalities for media market research to understand how the viewer is pictured within these studies.

Publications:

Wyatt, Justin. Creating the Viewer: Market Research & the Evolving Media Ecosystem.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2024