News & Updates

Celebrating Roseann Mandziuk

Friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate the retirement of Roseann Mandziuk after 37 years of service to Texas State University. It was a festive occasion with a performance by students of the Musical Theatre program, a video presentation featuring Dr. Mandziuk’s previous students, and celebratory speeches by fellow faculty members.

Roseann is currently a University Distinguished Professor, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses including protest rhetoric, media criticism, and rhetorical methods. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including 2023 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Professor/Associate rank, five Presidential Distinction Awards for Excellence in Teaching and six College Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Associate/Full Professor rank. She has received two Fulbright Scholar Awards, teaching courses in both Poland and India, and has held visiting professorships at the University of Amsterdam and Moscow State University. During her time at Texas State, Roseann feels immense gratification to see the many students she has worked with over the years and the successes they have had, both in the academic and professional ranks. “I believe that my role as a professor is to help open avenues for students to discover their own perspectives, their own critical sensibilities, and their voices, and to realize the power that their voices and their bodies have to fight in the service of justice. What I strive to do in every class I teach is provide examples, perspectives, and challenges that will help students see their world differently.”

Roseann’s research focuses upon images of women, the rhetorical uses of history, and the construction of public memory in museums and monuments. She has co-authored a scholarly book about the rhetoric of Sojourner Truth, published numerous articles and book chapters examining historical and contemporary rhetoric, and served as Editor of Women’s Studies in Communication. Through both teaching and research, Roseann hopes that “my students discover the means of resistance, if that’s what they need, or discover the means of harnessing communication to do great things, to better the world.”

Roseann also leaves a legacy of dedicated service, both the Texas State and to the Communication discipline. She has served as President of both the National Communication Association and the Southern States Communication Association. Through her leadership positions in professional associations across her career, she advocates for the inclusion and encouragement of diverse voices in the communication discipline, both in the professional sphere and in the areas of scholarship and pedagogy. As President of the National Communication Association, she cites the development of a new strategic plan as her most important accomplishment, helping to guide the discipline of Communication into the future. The plan emphasizes increased member engagement, promoting and advocating for Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) in the field of Communication, and promoting the role of Communication in challenging existing structures and fostering meaningful change.

At Texas State, Roseann is most proud of chairing the Presidential Work Life Advisory Council. In conjunction with Human Resources, the Advisory Council created Bobcat Balance, a free program providing financial, mental health, and legal resources to help support well-being at work and at home for Texas State employees. Bobcat Balance was instrumental in advocating for the current University workload policy, establishing free mental health care for employees, providing financial resources, legal guidance, emergency assistance programs, and child-care challenges.

Career Highlights

• President of the National Communication Association.
• President of the Southern States Communication Association.
• 2023 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Professor/Associate rank.
• 2013 Presidential Award for Service at the Professor/Associate Professor rank.
• Fulbright Scholar, Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi, India.
• Fulbright Scholar, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities.
• Selected as an American Council on Education Fellow.
• 25 peer-reviewed publications.
• 62 papers presented to professional conferences.
• 5 Presidential Distinction Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
• 6 College Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching -Associate/Full Professor.
• Supervisor of 18 M.A. theses and 8 undergraduate theses.
   

Forensic Team Shines at National Tournaments

The LBJ Debate Society and The Elton Abernathy Forensics Society, Texas State’s competitive speech team, are members of the American Forensics Association (AFA), the National Forensics Association (NFA) and Pi Kappa Delta (PKD). The team travels locally, regionally, and nationally, with an emphasis on qualifying for the American Forensics Association-National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST). The team is coached by faculty members Wayne Kraemer and Jeremy Hutchins. The team recently competed at two national tournaments, the Pi Kappa Delta National Biennial Tournament and the American Forensic Association-National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST).

Taylor Tate and Ro Adams represented Texas State in Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the 2024 Pi Kappa Delta National Biennial Tournament in March. Pi Kappa Delta is one of the oldest forensic organizations in the United States. Ro Adams was named the tournament’s 8th best speaker and finished as the National JV Lincoln-Douglas Debate Champion, while Taylor Tate finished as the national runner-up and was also named second best speaker in the tournament. Jeremy Hutchins, Associate Director of Forensics, said that he was "impressed by the performances of these young, hard-working competitors." He added that it "bodes well for the future of speech and debate at Texas State." Texas State now boasts a national team debate championship in CEDA debate and one national runner-up in British Parliamentary Debate.

Five members of the LBJ Forensics team also competed in the American Forensic Association-National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST), finishing 24th out of the 65 schools in attendance at the competition. Four of the five Texas State competitors advanced to the elimination rounds of the tournament. Hanna Prince and Callum Ritter advanced to the national quarterfinals in Duo Dramatic Interpretation. Santiago Malpica Calleja advanced to the national quarterfinals in Impromptu Speaking. Vanessa Trevino, advanced to the national quarterfinals in Dramatic Interpretation. Wayne Kraemer, Director of Forensics, was proud of the performances from such a young team. Kraemer noted that "he was proud of the rehearsal and practice time the students put in all year just to qualify for the tournament and advancing to the elimination rounds was extra-gratifying." Tyler Cole, Assistant Coach, was also proud of the Bobcats' efforts, adding that "having three slots in the national quarterfinals was pretty exciting for us and contributed to our top 25 finish."

Faculty Accolades

Ann Burnette concluded her year as President of the Southern States Communication Association. She delivered her presidential address, "What Teaching Public Speaking Teaches Me" at the annual convention in Frisco, Texas. She will serve as Immediate Past President until April 2025. Ann presented the paper "'We need to do something about Richard': Examining the rhetoric in free speech battles in Texas" to the annual convention of the Eastern Communication Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The paper was co-authored with Rebekah Fox. She also presented the paper "Shining a spotlight on Texas free speech issues" to the annual convention of the Southern States Communication Association. The paper was co-authored with Rebekah Fox.

Casey Chilton presented “Developing and Giving Effective Presentations” to the Texas Youth Preparedness Council as they prepare to give presentations on their individual emergency preparedness projects they have implemented in their schools and communities across Texas.

Stephanie Dailey welcomed alumnus Kelli Ottmers to her COMM 4327 (Social Media in Organizations) class. Kelli is a Public Relations Specialist with Southwest Airlines, managing their social media presence.

Elizabeth K. Eger and her graduate student co-authors, Rex Long, Anca Tonciu, Allister McNally, Rowan Lampert, and Johnny Vasallo, received a Top Paper Award in Applied Communication at the Eastern Communication Association conference in Cambridge, MA. The paper was entitled, “Communicating challenges and imagining new futures through rural community resiliency collaboration: A pilot study adapting COPEWELL with Texas Library Directors and community stakeholders.” Elizabeth published, “LGBTQ+ peer advocates’ health communication praxis for college student health outreach and intersectional needs” with Melinda Villagran and Marsha Burney in the journal Health Communication. Rural Health Information Hub wrote a case study on Elizabeth’s applied communication research with the Translational Health Research Center using community collaboration to adapt a COPEWELL resiliency model with rural Texas librarians. Elizabeth was also named an Austin Pets Alive! Gold Volunteer for her service on the Adoptline volunteer team.

Rebekah Fox presented the paper "'We need to do something about Richard': Examining the rhetoric in free speech battles in Texas" to the annual convention of the Eastern Communication Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The paper was co-authored with Ann Burnette. She also presented the paper "Shining a spotlight on Texas free speech issues" to the annual convention of the Southern States Communication Association in Frisco, Texas. The paper was co-authored with Ann Burnette.

Roseann M. Mandziuk made two research presentations at the Southern States Communication Association Convention in Frisco, Texas. The first was entitled “What Lurks in the soil: Excavating the rhetorical roots of white supremacist women.” The second presentation was “Bodies of evidence: The persistent presence of criminal archives”. Roseann also participated in a discussion panel, “Conferencing 101: Navigating SSCA, From Spectator to Participant” and represented the Communication Studies department at the Undergraduate Honors Conference breakfast and Graduate Program Open House.

Marek Muller published “Fantatsical speeches: Performing fanfiction to model protest communication” in Communication Teacher. Their book chapter, “Violence begets violence: Cross-species exploitation in the slaughterhouse” was released in the edited collection Building Resistance Against Multispecies Exploitation: Stories from the Frontlines of Labor and Animal Rights. Marek was accepted to participate in the Research Network Forum at the Rhetoric Society of America’s 2024 Conference where they will rework “You Can’t Sue an Imaginary Cow! Relitigating Devin Nunes v. Twitter as Digital Carnivalesque” with a network of likeminded scholars. Marek offered a Continuing Education Seminar to the group Our Honor, a nonprofit veterinary advocacy group. The presentation was entitled “Treated Like Animals: Unpacking the (Ab)Use of Human and Nonhuman Animals in the Slaughterhouse.”

Manu Pokharel published "Using narratives to correct politically charged health misinformation and address affective belief echoes" in the Journal of Public Health. Manu also directed an undergraduate honors thesis for Maddie Swanson, a student in the Department of Psychology. The thesis was titled "Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Psychological Impacts of In-clinic and At-home Genetic Testing on Participants''.