Our COMMunity Excelled at the National Communication Association Conference
November 25, 2025
Congrats to all who presented research and won awards at NCA 2025!
The National Communication Association (NCA) held its 111th Annual Convention in the Denver Metro Area from November 20-23, 2025.
Many faculty and graduate students presented research at the conference, networked, and helped represent the Department of Communication at the Graduate School Open House.
Current grad students at the NCA Grad School Open House
Department Chair Dr. Shawn Parry-Giles and Ph.D. Alum Dr. Divine Narkotey Aboagye
Grad Students Tatenda Mashanda and Andrew Donkor with Dr. Nana Kwame Osei Fordjour
In addition, UMD COMM Department members presented impressive scholarly research, both in quality and quantity. See the full list of presentations.
Omoleye Adeyemi presenting at NCA
Ph.D. Alum Dr. Matthew Salzano-Zeiler and Assistant Professor Andrew Boge at NCA
Many members of our department also won awards!
- Dr. Raquel Moreira won the Francine Merritt Award from the Women's Caucus
- Dr. Sahar Khamis won the Inaugural Service Award from the South West Asian/North African, Middle East Caucus
- Grad Student Jana Sabri won the James L. Golden Outstanding Student Essay in Rhetoric Award for “‘His Sexual Preference is Rookie of the Year’: Jared McCain, Hegemonic Masculinities, and Neoliberal Exceptionalism in the NBA”
- Grad Student Kate Smitherman won a Top Student Paper in the Feminist and Gender Studies Division for “In Re-Remembrance of Nicole Brown (Simpson): Counter-memorializing through Sense-making in You're Wrong About”
- Grad Student Chenchen Wang won a Top Student Paper in the Ethnography Division for “When My Mom Got Cancer: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Family Care and Communication”
- Dr. Gareth Williams won a Top Paper in the Communication and the Future Division for “Cybersecurity as an Issues Management Wicked Problem: A Communications Approach to a Technological Challenge Facing Critical Infrastructure Organizations”
- Grad Student Max Erdemandi won a Top Student Paper in the Group Communication Division for “Fragmented Fields, Shared Foundations: A Theoretical and Bibliometric Review of Research on Fake News, Conspiracy Beliefs, and Extremism through the Social Identity Paradigm”
- Grad Student Alexandra Grimm won a Top Paper in the American Studies Division for “No Bad Days: Utopian Imaginings of Los Cabos's Expat Public”
- Grad Student Tatenda Mashanda won the Benson-Campbell Dissertation Proposal Research Award for “Between Sovereignty and Solidarity: Rebel Diplomacy and the Limits of Internationalism in Zimbabwe’s Decolonization (1976–1979)”
Our department also hosted our annual NCA reception, full of our COMMunity, prospective grad students, and alumni!
Congrats to all on a very successful NCA!!