For a 14th year, Hope College is hosting the nationally-acclaimed "NCA Institute for Faculty Development" for college and university communication faculty.
The institute gathers faculty and resource people
from around the country to examine a variety of issues in
the teaching of communication at the undergraduate level.
This year's conference will run Sunday-Friday, Aug. 8-13.
First held in 1985, the institute was co-founded
by Dr. Joseph MacDoniels of the Hope communication faculty
and Dr. Roger Smitter of North Central College in
Naperville, Ill., who continue to co-organize the event.
The National Communication Association (NCA) has sponsored
the institute since the summer of 1997, and in November of
1997 the NCA presented MacDoniels and Smitter with a
citation of appreciation in recognition of the program.
This year's institute will feature a single
evening keynote address, several daily morning keynote
sessions and a variety of workshops. Approximately 40
educators will participate in the institute, with another 11
experts serving as resource persons.
The evening keynote will be presented by Stephen
W. Littlejohn, co-author of the book "Moral Conflict: When
Social Worlds Collide," who will discuss approaches to
conflict and its resolution.
Littlejohn and co-author W. Barnett Pearce view
communication as an essential component of conflict
development and resolution. The authors posit that social
life is built through communication, that social and moral
conflict are thus also built through communication, and that
new forms of communication can therefore help resolve such
conflicts.
"Human beings live in a world of communication, a
world made through communication," they note in their
preface. "This perspective leads us to look for the ways in
which our worlds are built in social life and to seek forms
of social life in which better worlds might be created."
"Instead of viewing communication as one part or
aspect of conflict, we see it as the essence of all forms of
conflict," they continue. "The constructionist frame leads
us to look for new forms of communication in which to bridge
incommensurate social worlds."
During the morning keynotes, Carole Blair will
deal with approaches to contemporary rhetorical theory; Jim
Anderson, who has been a Presidential Scholar in Residence
at Hope, will discuss curricular designs based on
cooperative learning groups formed of students and
instructional staff; Helen Sterk of the Calvin College
faculty will discuss gender and communication; and Bruce
Gronbeck of the University of Iowa will review visual
rhetoric, an area of study concerned with the visual nature
of popular culture.
The institute's workshops will concern topics
ranging from achieving diversity, to family communication,
to teaching research methods, to small group communication,
to organizational communication, to outreach/service
learning.