News and Events
OCMC Welcome 2020
Updated September 24, 2020Welcome to the 33rd annual Organizational Communication Mini-Conference!!
I’m Patrice M. Buzzanell and I have the pleasure and honor of chairing our Department of Communication at USF.
As you know, this OCMC marks a series of firsts – first OCMC at USF, first OCMC to be fully virtual, first OCMC this far south in the United States – during a time when we are mindful of the challenges we all face during a new normal created by ongoing virus and racial injustice pandemics in addition to wildfire and flooding disasters.
I’d like to provide some details about the 2020 OCMC then introduce you to USF and our Department of Communication, then thank those who made this OCMC happen.
OCMC 2020
As of this date, this OCMC has 233 registrants, 157 who have indicated that they’ll participate in the Friday workshop entitled “Expanding the Boundaries of Organizational Communication: Imagining New Directions for Theory and Method”. On Friday evening, we will welcome and toast to all our OCMC participants with Columbia Restaurant sangria. Throughout the event, we will see 19 oral presentations by PhD students on the job market throughout the conference. We will feature two poster sessions: the first is on Friday evening, highlighting the work of 10 doctoral students on market this year; and the second is on Saturday, describing research projects in progress of 22 graduate students. And on Saturday evening, our graduate student organizers will host a trivia contest!!
Usually our hallways and meeting rooms are filled with laughter, great information, and starts or continuations of friendships that last lifetimes. We were so excited to show off our USF campus and Tampa. On campus, we have the world-famous Graphicstudio and other museums and sites for the arts and innovation, palm trees and a campus beach, a botanical garden, swings by the library… and much more, situated in a city that was and remains inspired by immigrant dreams.
Although we aren’t able to be together physically and show off our campus and surrounding beaches and Ybor City, we are certain that the collegiality of our OCMC participants will shine through in many different ways. To foster social engagement online, you’ll see that there are virtual get-togethers and fun activities along with the usual presentations, poster sessions, and group discussions on topics geared toward graduate student and new faculty member interests. Our Conversation Lounge will be open throughout the conference; we envision this as a “room” to which you can go during breaks or after the day’s sessions to engage with others about the ideas that have come up … and to bump into old and new friends. As always, you are not obligated to participate in everything, but we hope that you can break from your usual obligations – these are times to connect, share and appreciate everyone’s news, and see each other!!
Department of Communication and USF
In 2019, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our first doctoral graduates and hosted the NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar. In 2021, we plan to host the NCA Mid-Career Scholars Retreat (postponed because of COVID-19). Our faculty and graduate students are diverse in countless ways, as is our campus. In rankings released this week by U.S. News and World Report, USF is the only Florida university in the Top 10 "Best Value Colleges," at No. 8 among public universities, No. 12 in the nation among public institutions and No. 1 in Florida on the U.S. News ranking of top “National Universities for Social Mobility.” USF has previously earned national recognition for Pell Grant student success and was recently ranked No. 1 in Florida and No. 6 in the U.S. among public universities on Times Higher Education’s list of “Best Universities for Reducing Inequalities.”
As a department, we take the charge to reduce inequalities and promote inclusion seriously with commitments to student and faculty success and with our Standing Committee on Equity, Social Justice, and Accountability begun three years ago. This committee and our department are committed to conscious practices that create and sustain an institutional climate of respect, equity, accountability, and inclusion for all members of the department community. We couple our commitments to access and inclusion with excellence. Our department has several NCA Distinguished Scholars, ICA Fellows, Distinguished University Professors, several editors and associate editors, membership on over 50 different editorial boards in communication and other disciplines, graduate students with outstanding paper, article, and top NCA awards, plus more. I could continue bragging about our department and its members but …
Our Appreciation
We made the decision to go virtual in March hoping that this format would help lessen uncertainties during these challenging times. Our OCMC designers have devoted considerable time and thought to create the kinds of experiences for which OCMC is known.
We owe thanks to our three faculty co-chairs (Sonia Ivancic, Jane Jorgenson, and Mahuya Pal) along with our graduate student organizers (Jonathan Baker, Liz Baranowicz, Timothy Betts, Beatriz Nieto Fernandez, Elizabeth A. Hintz, Nivethitha Ketheeswaran, Cayla Lanier, Jessica Lolli, Parameswari Mukherjee, Sherin Farhana Moni, Zhenyu Tian, and Rebecca R. Todd). None of this organizing could have been done without our office staff (Tamar Ditzian and Aaron Castillo). We have enjoyed and appreciate this team effort!
We are indebted for funding to our USF Conference Grant and our College of Arts Dean Eric Eisenberg.
We are proud and honored to join the following list of OCMC hosts!!!
2020 - University of South Florida2019 - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2018 – Rutgers University
2017 – Ohio University
2016 – Northwestern University
2015 – Michigan State University
2014 – Purdue University
2013 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2012 – University of Oklahoma
2011 – University of Missouri
2010 – Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
2009 – Northwestern University
2008 – Purdue University
2007 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2006 – Michigan State University
2005 – Ohio University
2004 – Saint Louis University
2003 – Western Michigan University
2002 – Purdue University
2001 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2000 – Michigan State University
1999 – Western Michigan University
1998 – University of Kansas
1997 – Purdue University
1996 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1995 – Michigan State University
1994 – University of Kansas
1993 – Western Michigan University
1992 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1991 – University of Minnesota
1990 – Purdue University
1989 – Michigan State University
1988 – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Take care,
Patrice M. Buzzanell, Ph.D.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Professor and Chair, Department of Communication
University of South Florida
pmbuzzanell@usf.edu
Endowed Visiting Professor | School of Media & Design | Shanghai Jiaotong U
客座特聘教授 | 媒体与设计学院 | 上海交通大学
Fellow & Past President: International Communication Association
Distinguished Scholar: National Communication Association
Past President: Council of Communication Associations
Past President: Organization for the Study of Communication, Language & Gender