THIS WEEK IN RACE: NCA Preview: New Research Related to Race and Political Communication

THIS WEEK, the National Communication Association will meet in Chicago, Illinois for its annual conference. As we did prior to the American Political Science Association meeting in September, we scoured the program and put together a schedule of the panels that will most likely be of interest to our readers.

If you are attending the meeting, we very much encourage you to search through the online program to see what panels most interest you (we're good, but not perfect!). If you are not planning to attend (or if you are going to "attend" but will spend more time at the South Loop Club than at conference sessions), we hope you will find this list interesting, as it represents some of the most cutting edge research relating to race and political communication.

Thursday November, 12
8:00am to 9:15am
	I Felt This Thrill Running Up My Leg: An Examination of Barack Obama’s Campaign Oratory
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4L While many applaud Obama on his oratory during the campaign, with the campaign over, rhetoric scholars can now reflect, analyze, and examine what made Obama’s oratory so special. This is what this panel attempts to do. How does Obama’s oratory draw from other sources and models? How does Obama articulate stories (anecdotes) throughout the campaign? How does Obama define the “moment” of his campaign as the right time for his presidency? What role did faith play in Obama’s oratory? By drawing upon a diversity of rhetorical approaches, we attempt to answer these and other questions that emerge from our research.

	Post-Racial Rhetoric in Contemporary U.S. Public Culture
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: PDR 5 Presenters on this panel worry about the discourses that claim America is post-racial. Hence our discussion interrogates a host of visual and verbal post-racial rhetorics, from the recent Inaugural benediction to a cover of Vogue magazine, from Obama’s Presidential campaign materials to popular blogs. Using critical race theory, Derridean deconstruction, and Lacan psychoanalysis, panelists not only question the legitimacy of claiming “we” are now “beyond race,” they also explore its social, political, and cultural entailments.

9:30am to 10:45am
	Whose News Is It Any Way? Reporting and Race in a Mediated World
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: PDR 2 Using varied methodologies, this panel interrogates the ways in which media frame political and social events. Analyses also advance the understanding of how cultural frameworks from diverse theoretical perspectives are integral part of this communicative process.

12:30pm to 1:45pm
	Listening to the Beats that Bind and the Messages that Result in Change: Exploring and Questioning the Beats, Culture, and Politics of Hip Hop
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4D This panel explores and questions the dialogue between hip hop beats, culture and politics as a means to provide a stable site for social critique and expression of our voices. The beat making performance of Wanderlust and paper presentations probe how the issues of creating or performing beats and identities, one’s race and or gender, sociopolitical consciousness, reality and politics intersect, engage and inform one another.

	Pedagogies of Whiteness
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4I On the most fundamental level, this paper panel comprises a variety of approaches of how whiteness research has found a home in our university classes. From introductory courses in communication to doctoral seminars, this panel offers reflections and analysis of how whiteness studies has been taught and engaged in communication classes. Participants span the academic ranks from an MA graduate student and teaching assistant to a Full Professor.

2:00pm to 3:15pm
	The More Things Change…: Economic Disparity, Power, and the Changing Electoral Landscape in the African American Community
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: PDR 7 This panel will provide a critical, contemporary examination of the interconnections and changing dynamics of power, economic equality, and culture as it relates to African Americans’ identity as citizens of this nation.

Friday November, 13
8:00am to 9:15am
	The Content and Effect of Television News
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom South [No abstract available]

	What is this 'post' in post-racial/feminist/…(fill in the blank)?
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: PDR 3 The events of the 2008 election continue to spark prognostications that we live in a post-racial/feminist, etc. world. How should communication scholars respond? Scholars from a wide range of NCA's divisions will discuss how to approach questions of identity and communication over the next five years. Participants will suggest ways to be critical of assertions of "post-" and elaborate ways to encounter new dimensions of identification in an era of immense socio-political challenges.

9:30am to 10:45am
	Complex Rights: Latinas/os, Citizenship, and Law
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4L [No abstract available]

12:30pm to 1:45pm
	Whiteness beyond Classroom Walls
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom South A growing area of research within intercultural communication centers around both stable and changing discourses of power in relation to race and Whiteness. Much of this research has critiqued classroom discourses. In this round-table discussion, panelists will engage in dialogue about the possibilities for research using innovative methods, in unusual settings, and/or involving atypical participants. The hope is that cultivating research and theories in non-academic spaces will extend and amplify the value of Whiteness studies.

	Race, Whiteness and Culture
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 5G [No abstract available]

3:30pm to 4:45pm
	Performing Race in a 'Post Racial World': Discourses of Stability and Change
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4J This panel explores diverse critical perspectives concerning performances of race in what some term a ‘post racial’ America. The scholarship featured on this panel explores various critical treatments of the question of 'post-racialism' and/or race neutrality in ways that interrogate, explore, and/or problematize discourses of stability vs. change in relation to race in America. The contexts and various intersections that produce particular kinds of performances of race will also be explored.

5:00pm to 6:15pm
	'A Change Is Gonna Come': Reflecting on the Voices and Strategies of Change Agents from the Civil Rights Movement
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4F The presenters on this competitive paper panel will provide a contemporary examination of the rhetorical choices utilized by a few of the well-known voices of the Civil Rights Movement. Presenters will analyze the effectiveness, commonality, and differences of the communication messages that helped to shape various aspects and ideologies associated with the Civil Rights Movement.

Saturday November, 14
12:30pm to 1:45pm
	How Sound Bites BITE! A Critical Analysis of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Political Hegemony in the Mass Media
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Grand Ballroom The use of sound bites in television media and the Internet gained unprecedented attention during the 2008 Presidential election. With the use of new media in the 21st century, individuals around the world were able to upload sound bites which impacted philosophical, political and cultural views. The panel will focus on public interest groups and their use of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversial sound bites as a strategy to maintain political hegemony.

	Regarding Health, Representation, and Discourse in Asian/Pacific American Communication Studies
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4A [No abstract available]

Sunday November, 15
8:00am to 9:15am
	In Defense and in Remembrance: Asian Americans Reframe their Collective Identity
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Boulevard Room B Historically in the United States, Asian Americans have had little control of their collective identity beyond their own geographical and cultural communities. This panel explores situations in which Asian Americans -- with others who identify with them, such as spouses of other ethnicities -- have reframed their collective identity through public mediums ranging from World War II internment memorials in community spaces to an English-language newspaper for a readership beyond Japantown.

	Political Advertising: Content and Effects
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4B [No abstract available]

	Meet the Authors: Race and News (A Critical Perspective)
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4I This panel explores the core dimensions of how issues related to race and racism are represented in contemporary news coverage in the United States. Reflecting on a variety of research approaches that will be used to qualify the discussion in the forthcoming book Race and News, the panel will address the coverage of specific contemporary news topics and examine how that coverage either directly or indirectly addresses race and cultural diversity in this country.

9:30am to 10:45am
	Change is Gonna Come/Change is Here: Scholarly Perspectives and Everyday Politics in the Communication of Black Masculinity
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4I A change is gonna come. Sam Cooke's (1964) timeless anthem continues to exemplify internal and external transformation for people of the African Diaspora, and Black men in particular. Presumably, the inauguration of President Barack Obama suggests that change is already here. Indeed, a new day demands a new exploration of the ways Black men live, think, and perform race and gender in the 21st century. This panel works to engage the social, cultural and political landscape of black masculinity in the Obama era. Our objective is met primarily through three theoretical approaches. First, we foreground changing interpretations of black manhood, black love and black family. Second, we emphasize ways in which Black men's voices constitute change within Black communities and U.S. society. Third, we illustrate change in the body politics of Black manhood. Concurrently, the panel presents original arguments concerning why, when, where and how the communication of Black masculinity remains relevant, within our discipline and beyond.

	Unchartered Waters: Discourses of Stability and Change in the Rhetoric of Michelle Obama
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: PDR 6 This panel will analyze the rhetoric of Michelle Obama, and discuss the identity of African women of the Diaspora in U S public life. Panelists seek to expose a counter narrative to dominant notions of otherizing and marginalization projected onto African American women. Whether perceived as mammies, mistresses, tragic mulattoes, whores, tokens, elitists or phenomenal role models, African American female narratives challenge the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, and class.

	Attitudes, Attitude Change, and Resistance to Attitude Change
		Building: Palmer House Hilton, Room: Salon 4 [No abstract available]

11:00am to 12:15pm
	Chameleons Are at a Premium: Examining the Sociopolitical Implications of Racial Transcendence
		Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: Meeting Room 4I The papers on this competitive paper panel contribute to our scholarly understanding of President Barack Obama’s presence and his skillful oratory. In addition, this panel highlights the constant challenges of and realities associated with the negotiation of our tedious and racially-charged terrain.