civic engagement – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Rebecca Townsend Profile

Rebecca M. Townsend, Ph.D., is assistant professor of Communication at the University of Hartford, in Connecticut, USA.

Rebecca Townsend

Dr. Townsend has conducted research in the areas of rhetoric and culture and deliberation. She has studied local and national contexts, using rhetorical theory, cultural discourse analysis, and ethnography of communication. Specific areas of research include studies of Massachusetts, USA Town Meeting deliberation, national identity (e.g., President Trump’s use of scene in his Warsaw address, Polish views of “Brexit,” use of public memory in Poland), and public engagement and deliberation in transportation planning and policy. Ongoing projects include study of the European Solidarity Center, US presidents’ rhetoric in Poland, and is working with interdisciplinary teams on the following: online deliberation in local governments, social networks and perspectives on pedestrian safety, and public engagement on policy related to autonomous vehicles.

Dr. Townsend also serves as adjunct professor for Clark University’s School of Professional Studies, Master of Science in Professional Communication, in conjunction with Społeczna Akademia Nauk, teaching Intercultural Communication in the US and Łódź and Change Management in Warsaw, Poland. She was a tenured professor of Communication at Manchester Community College in Connecticut (where she received the first State of Connecticut Board of Regents System-Wide Scholarly Excellence Award) and a professor-in-residence at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut.

Her applied scholarship and use of community service learning on engaging youth, minorities, and people with low incomes in deliberative transportation planning resulted in recognition from the International Association of Public Participation and a “Champion of Change for Transportation Innovation” award from President Barack Obama’s White House 2012. She is affiliated with the National Issues Forum Institute as a certified trainer of moderators. She is also an elected local government official, most recently serving as Moderator of Town Meeting in Longmeadow, MA, the first woman to hold this position in the town’s 300-year history. She welcomes collaborative international efforts.

Selected Publications:

Townsend, R. M. (26 August 2019). Poland invites nationalism in its commemoration of WWII by moving location and inviting Trump. The Conversation.

Townsend, R. M. (Forthcoming). Speaking for another polis. Iowa Journal of Communication

Townsend, R. M. (2018). Deval Patrick on the power of rhetoric. Howard Journal of Communications, 30(3), 299-315.

Mamun, S., Caraballo, F., Ivan, J.N., Ravishanker, N., Townsend, R. M., & Zhang, Y. (2018). Identifying association between pedestrian safety interventions and street crossing behavior considering demographics and traffic context. Journal of Transportation Safety and Security.

Townsend, R. M. (2018). Trump’s Warsaw address, or How the west was widened. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 8(1/2), 84-106.

Townsend, R. M. (2017). Transporting communication: Community college students facilitate deliberation in their own communities. In T. J. Shaffer, N. V. Longo, I. Manosevitch, & M. S. Thomas (Eds.), Deliberative pedagogy: Teaching and learning for democratic engagement (pp. 169-175). Ann Arbor: Michigan State University Press.

Lawrence, W., Townsend, R.M., Ivan, J., Ravishanker, N., Mamun, S., Caraballo, F., & Zhang, Y. (2016). The rhetorical process of justification in pedestrian safety deliberations. Report produced for the Kettering Foundation, Dayton, OH.

Townsend, R. M. (2014). Mapping routes to our roots: Student civic engagement in transportation planning. In A. Traver & Z. P. Katz (Eds.), Service-Learning at the American Community College: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Townsend, R. M. (2013). Engaging ‘Others’ in civic engagement through ethnography of communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 41, 202-208.

Townsend, R. M. (2012). Partnership for inclusive, cost-effective public participation final report. U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program. Funding number: CT-26-1000

Townsend, R. M. (2009). Town meeting as a communication event: Democracy’s act sequence. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 42, 68-89.

Townsend, R. M. (2006). Review Essay: Local communication studies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 92, 202-222.

Townsend, R. M. (2006). Widening the circumference of scene: Local politics, local metaphysics. KBJournal, Spring 2006.

CFP Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement

The editors of Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement are calling for submissions.

Partnerships recognizes that successful engaged learning depends on effective partnerships between students, faculty, community agencies, administrators, disciplines, and more. The articles in this peer-reviewed journal focus on how theories and practices can inform and improve such partnerships, connections, and collaborations. Studies co-authored by faculty, students, and/or community partners; or examining practices across disciplines or campuses; or exploring international networks, are all encouraged.

Authors are invited to submit research articles, essays, empirical studies, and book reviews related to the varied campus-community relationships that emphasize connections and collaborations in service-learning and community engagement. All manuscripts are forwarded to editorial staff and undergo a blind peer review process. All work submitted should be original material and not under review or published elsewhere.

See details and view the Spring 2017 issue.

U Nevada Reno Job Ad: Chair

The University of Nevada, Reno invites applications for the position of Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. The department seeks candidates at the full professor level whose research and teaching complements our undergraduate curriculum focused on two tracks: Relational Dynamics and Public Advocacy and Civic Engagement. Successful candidates will also help develop and enhance the recently
reactivated MA program focused on Conflict Management and Social Action. A successful candidate will be expected to enhance the academic programs, mentor and support faculty research programs, work collaboratively with current faculty, and serve as a strong advocate for the department to internal and external stakeholders. Ethics and social justice are central to the goals of the Department, as we strive to promote critical awareness and appreciation of diversity and inclusion in our pedagogy, research, and service practices.

Communication Studies is a member of The School of Social Research and Justice Studies (SSRJS). A successful candidate will be expected to collaborate with other departments in SSRJS and support the SSRJS
mission. Other units in the School include the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies, the Department of Sociology, and the Department of Criminal Justice. The School is a unit of the College of Liberal Arts.
Faculty in Communication) Studies have developed interdisciplinary research and teaching partnerships with the SSRJS departments, the Social Psychology PhD program, and with the Gender, Race, and Identity
Program. The department is also active in the Composition and Communication in the Disciplines initiative. The department houses our top-ranked and award-winning National Parliamentary Debate Association
team. The department also has an active Lambda Pi Eta Chapter, and collaborates with community mediation and facilitation initiatives.

For more information about the position and to submit, candidates should view the full ad. Applicants should electronically submit: 1) a detailed letter of application which highlights the applicant’s leadership experience and/or potential and indicates how they would contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through their research, teaching, and/or service; 2) CV; 3) contact information for three references. Deadline is November 18, 2016, and interested applicants can also meet with representatives from the department at NCA in Philadelphia (or contact the search chair).

The University of Nevada, Reno is the flagship campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education with a student population of approximately 21,000. The university offers 70 M.A. and Ph.D. programs in nine
colleges. Reno, the “Biggest Little City in the World” is a vibrant, growing city of 300,000 located on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 200 miles east of San Francisco. Reno is only 30-45 minutes from Lake Tahoe and major ski resorts. Reno is rated as one of the top locations in the US for living and outdoor recreation. The University and its metropolitan area enjoy a flourishing and diverse intellectual, artistic, and cultural community. The University of Nevada, Reno is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity/ Affirmative Action in recruitment of its students and employees and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, creed, national origin, veteran status, physical or mental disability, and sexual orientation, or genetic information, gender identity, or gender expression.

Emerson College job ads

Civic Media Initiative, Emerson College
Assistant Professors in Communication Studies, Visual & Media Arts, Journalism, and Liberal Arts

Emerson College is pleased to announce a major faculty hiring initiative in civic media. Building on the College’s strengths in communication and the arts and supporting the College’s strategic initiatives in civic and global engagement, we seek to develop a distinguished faculty that addresses connections among media innovation, technologies, social networks and global citizenship. There is a need to consider how the changes brought by digital media are shaping political and social life, along with definitions of governance and citizenship. How people make and use media (whether it’s a film or a tweet) to engage with the world, to make change, to be informed, or to connect across national borders, are topic areas that span the arts, sciences, humanities and social sciences.

The new faculty hires in Journalism, Visual and Media Arts, Communication Studies, and the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies will form a distinctive interdisciplinary faculty cohort that intersects with students from across the College. While faculty members will have their primary appointments within one of the four participating units, they will share teaching responsibilities with the new College-wide minor in Digital Media and Culture, and have a research affiliation with the Emerson Engagement Labs (EEL). All the new faculty hires will begin September 1, 2014.

The minor in Digital Media and Culture offers students the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of how digital technologies are transforming society and culture. Participatory cultures are emerging through games and social media; whole new modes of interaction are being crafted online. From the disruption of established industrial models of production and consumption to the creation of new social norms, this minor asks students to create and analyze digital media that directly engages in this transforming and transformative culture.

The Emerson Engagement Labs (EEL) is a cluster of research labs focused on technologies and media innovation in global civic life. The Engagement Game Lab (http://engagementgamelab.org) is the currently existing unit that focuses on the design and research of games and play within civic and public processes. Incoming faculty can affiliate with the Engagement Game Lab or the new Global Engagement Lab, which will focus specifically on the analysis of global communication flows and the production of global media initiatives.

The four positions are as follows:

The Department of Journalism seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on civic engagement, data-driven storytelling and the production of digital journalistic projects. The ideal candidate will have a terminal degree in a related field and expertise in accessing, gathering, analyzing and displaying datasets that help citizens understand complex issues and make wise choices. A background in user
interface design, object-oriented programming, or data science is preferred.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6493

The Department of Communication Studies seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on social media and strategic communication, political communication and web-based political campaigns, active audiences, online advocacy and civic engagement, and emerging media-based narrative and community forms. A background or working knowledge is desirable in such areas as social media analytics, analysis of user generated content, human computer interaction, user experience design, and social media campaign planning. A Ph. D. in communication or a related field is required.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6498

The Department of Visual and Media Arts seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on game design. Qualifications: A terminal degree (MFA or Ph.D.) in new media, art, game design, computer science or related field. The department is seeking candidates who have experience designing video games that engage with such issues as identity, intellectual property, or public art. Areas of focus might include gender, race, ethnicity, globalization, locality, experience, economics, politics, professionalism, and/or subjectivity. The successful candidate will be prepared to teach game design/production and interactive media courses at all levels of the curriculum, as well as mentor students and assist in developing new curriculum.
APPLY: http://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6491

The Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies seeks a new tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on digital media and culture. The ideal candidate will have expertise in digital technologies (such as mobile technologies and social software) and questions of digital citizenship, the networked public sphere, and/or online communities. He or she will anchor a new and exciting interdisciplinary Minor that offers students a critical lens on how digital technologies and practices inform and reinvent civic cultures and social processes. A PhD in media/cultural/technology studies or related social science field is required.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6497

Ideal candidates will have a demonstrated capacity for research in their areas, teaching experience, a willingness to help build curriculum, and the ability to work effectively with faculty, students, and staff from diverse backgrounds. Faculty will be encouraged to receive grants to support their research in the EEL and work with its dynamic staff to develop innovative research programs and find ways to meaningfully engage undergraduates in active research.

All applicants should upload a cover letter, CV, and contact information for three references. Applicants must complete Emerson’s online application form and submit materials electronically at the links provided above.

Review of applications will begin November 1, 2013 and continue until the positions are filled.

Emerson College is committed to an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity-in people, in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in the college’s intellectual, social, cultural, and geographical communities. Emerson endorses a framework of inclusive excellence, which recognizes that institutional excellence comes from fully engaging with diversity in all aspects of institutional activities.

Emerson College is the nation’s only four-year institution dedicated exclusively to majors in communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. It is located in the theater district in the dynamic multi-cultural city of Boston in close proximity to major media outlets, arts institutions, and research centers. The college enrolls 3,662 undergraduate students and 830 graduate students from 75 countries and all 50 states.

This institution offers benefits to same-sex and different sex domestic partners.

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Santa Clara U job ad

Assistant Professor of Global Communication
Santa Clara University

The Department of Communication at Santa Clara University invites applications for a tenure track assistant professor in global communication to begin in fall 2013. Located in the heart of northern California’s Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Clara is a private, Jesuit Catholic university committed to promoting social justice in a comprehensive educational setting.

We are especially interested in scholars whose work explores the role of media and communication in fostering democratic social change, economic development, or poverty reduction. This expertise may be applied to a number of issues, such as health, environment, education, social justice, or communication policy. Interest and experience in applied scholarship and in Latin America, Africa, or the Middle East is a plus. We offer opportunities for collaboration with campus centers that support research and teaching on science, technology and society; applied ethics; Jesuit education; and environmental studies. The new faculty member will teach courses in her/his area of specialty in global communication, as well as at least one area of departmental need: introduction to media studies, new technologies, or methodology (quantitative or qualitative). Preference will be given to candidates interested in qualifying one or more of their courses for the following areas of the university’s Core Curriculum: global cultures and ideas; science, technology and society; civic engagement; social justice; or diversity.

Candidates should demonstrate promise in scholarly research, including publishing in peer-reviewed journals, as well as evidence of success in teaching. The Ph.D. in Communication or a related discipline is required by September 1, 2013. Please see the full job ad for instructions on how to apply. The deadline for applications is September 15.

U Iowa job ad

Rhetoric & Discourse:

The University of Iowa Department of Communication Studies invites applications for a full time, tenure-track faculty position in rhetoric and discourse at the rank of assistant professor. The ideal candidate’s research and teaching program will be centrally concerned with civic engagement and the ways in which individuals and groups use rhetorical strategies to engage public controversies at the local, national, and/or global level (e.g. campaigns to affect policy-making or organizing public support for or opposition to an issue). Candidates must have a Ph.D. in Communication Studies or a related discipline in hand by August 15th, 2012. A strong record, or promise of, outstanding teaching and scholarship are required qualifications for this position. The ability to collaborate across specializations in the Department and with other disciplines, to contribute to one of the existing UI cluster initiatives, and mentor graduate students are desirable.

The successful candidate will join a growing department of faculty with diverse research backgrounds. The University of Iowa is a large public university in a friendly, culturally diverse community. The Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are strongly committed to gender and ethnic diversity. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. The University of Iowa is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Candidates should submit a letter of interest, CV, two writing samples, evidence of teaching effectiveness through UI’s online application system. Refer to requisition #60092. Three letters of reference should be e-mailed to comm-rdsearch@uiowa.edu Screening will begin October 28th, 2011 with applications considered until the position is filled.

Job ad U San Diego

TENURE TRACK JOB OPENING: COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

The Department of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego invites applications for an open-rank, tenure-line position beginning in Fall 2012 in the area of communication and social justice. Subject areas emphasized in this position include the study of communication and social movements, communication and civic engagement, and/or political communication and the public interest. Areas of specialization may include social justice issues such as: global media and free speech issues; rhetoric of social movements; human rights issues; health campaigns; communicating in times of conflict; and strategic communication for development and/or social change. The successful candidate would able to teach several courses within the department’s current curriculum, such as introductory communication courses, international media, media and conflict, and/or political communication, as well as new courses devoted to the candidate’s areas of expertise.

The University of San Diego is a nationally preeminent Catholic university known for educating students who are globally competent, ethical leaders working and serving in our complex and changing world. The Department of Communication Studies is committed to stimulating student discovery through innovative pedagogical approaches that highlight the investigation of communication across contexts. Our faculty represent the breadth of the discipline and we seek candidates who have respect for diverse methodological approaches to studying the process of communication. For more information on the University of San Diego and the department, please see our website: http://www.sandiego.edu/cas/commstudies. USD is an EEO/AA employer.

Applications will be reviewed beginning Oct. 1st, 2011. Candidates who wish to be considered for a preliminary interview at NCA should turn in their applications by Oct. 15th, 2011. Applications will no longer be accepted after Nov. 25th, 2011. Appointment begins Fall 2012.

To apply for the position, applicants should (1) submit a hard copy of all materials, and (2) submit a PDF copy of all materials except recommendation letters. Applications must include: letter of application, curriculum vitae, statement of teaching philosophy, evidence of scholarly activity, a summary of teaching evaluations, and three letters of recommendation. Hard copies can be sent to:
Esteban del Río, Ph.D., Search Chair
Department of Communication Studies
University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, California 92110
PDF to: commstudies@sandiego.edu, use heading: SOCIAL JUSTICE SEARCH

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