News and Events

Call for Proposals for Health & Environmental Justice in Latina/o Communities: Bridging the Gaps Among Diverse Methodological Perspectives. The Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute at the University of Utah invites proposals from advanced doctoral students who are studying the intersections of health and environmental justice in Latino/a communities. In this symposium, 12 doctoral students from communication and related disciplines will have the opportunity to present their work in progress to one another and to a panel of faculty mentors from around the country. Each student will participate in a panel of 4 other students. Each panel will be overseen by two faculty mentors who research issues related to health and/or environmental justice in Latino/a communities, one with critical/cultural expertise and one with quantitative social science expertise. Faculty mentors will provide detailed feedback and lead panel discussions on their student panelists' work. SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL NOW!

Sunday, April 28, 2024 08:00 AM

Join ESPN reporter and Utah alum, Holly Rowe, for a roundtable discussion exclusively for student journalists. This unique opportunity offers aspiring reporters a chance to engage directly with Rowe and learn more about her career, including her time at the U's Daily Utah Chronicle as a sportswriter to winning the 2022 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Personality and Reporter. Whether you're curious about breaking into the news industry or navigating the ever-shifting landscape of sports media, bring your questions and learn from one of ESPN's most versatile commentators.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:45 PM

Dr. Dalaki Livingston collected government issued apologies towards Indigenous people in the United States and is evaluating the image repair strategies utilized by US agencies. The usage of image repair strategies is typically used to save face or at least repair perceptions about public image. Utilizing apologia strategies, US agencies have issued a myriad of apologies in various contexts to repair public perceptions about relations with Indigenous peoples. The scope of this research is not measuring the success but the type and frequency of apologia strategies being used. Using a western paradigm to critique the formal attempts at reconciliation and reclamation, he hopes to better understand the baby steps needed to find a path forward in establishing equitable relationships with Indigenous communities. Before problems can be fixed, those problems need to be addressed.

Saturday, March 30, 2024 12:10 AM

Since the early 1990s, the “Nones”—people with no religious affiliation—have grown from a single-digit minority to roughly a third of the U.S. population. For many years, Latter-day Saints resisted the national trends toward secularization, their numbers bolstered by three reliable factors: religious conversions, deep religious commitment, and large families. But the last decade has seen all three of those pillars weakening, judging from multiple national studies as well as a fresh wave of data from the Next Mormons Survey, which was fielded in 2016 and again in 2022–23. Today, Latter-day Saints remain more religious than most other Americans, but less committed to church activity than they used to be. What’s going on? This lecture will give an overview of current research about Mormons’ religious affiliation and commitment, and place that into the context of the overall secularization that’s happening throughout the United States. It will also discuss why some people leave the LDS Church and the language they use to describe that decision and their post-Mormon lives.

Sunday, March 10, 2024 01:06 PM

Join us for "Cyberwarfare during the Russia-Ukraine War: A Panel Discussion with Leading Cyber Conflict Scholars," where our three panelists - Dr. Nadiya Kostyuk, Dr. Erica Lonergan, and Mr. Gavin Wilde - will lead a discussion regarding the history and complexities of the Cyberwarfare in the Russia-Ukraine war. Feb 26th | 12-1 PM | GC 2018

Wednesday, February 21, 2024 12:00 PM

Hardly a week passes without another report of a data breach, cyberattack, or a campaign of online disinformation and harassment. Data breaches result in the theft and ransom of individuals' personal information, selling it to the highest bidder on the dark web, or dumping it on the open web for exploitation. Cyberattacks no longer solely impact governments or large organizations but increasingly target educational, healthcare, and other civil society institutions, disrupting their operations. Online trolls spread disinformation to incite outrage and harass their ideological opponents, often by discovering and posting personal information online and encouraging others to participate in harassment and threats. In this workshop, Dr. Sean Lawson, a cybersecurity expert and Professor of Communication at the University of Utah, will introduce tools and tactics you can use to enhance the security of your electronic devices and personal information. While the risks of malicious cyber activities are real, there are straightforward ways to improve your security and make yourself a more challenging target for malicious actors

Monday, November 20, 2023 08:36 AM

Katie Hill is senior vice president of communications at the National Football League, directing global communications strategy and media relations for America’s most popular sport. Previously, she was communications director for President Barack Obama from 2017-2021, helping guide President Obama’s public profile in his post-presidency, from his public appearances to his political campaigning to the launch of his memoir. She served in the Obama administration from 2014-2017, first as national press secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before joining the White House as assistant press secretary and spokesperson for a variety of domestic policy areas, including health care, education and veterans. She has also worked on Capitol Hill, on political campaigns, and at a public relations firm. She was named to Outsports’ “Power 100” list in 2023 and selected as one of OUT Magazine’s “Out 100” honorees in 2016. A Nashville native, Hill majored in classics (ancient Greek) and minored in art history at the University of Virginia as an Echols Scholar. She lives in Manhattan with her wife, Andrea.

Thursday, October 19, 2023 02:00 AM

Leah Sottile speaks about her unlikely career path from music critic to reporter of the extremes, and how public records, social media and Internet archives helped her tell the full story of some of America's most notorious far-right characters.

Thursday, October 19, 2023 01:30 AM

Jim Ferris, PhD The University of Toledo 2023-2024 Health Humanities Lecturer presents "Is Your Mama White?" What do you do when you learn you're not exactly who you think you are? And why does my uncle want me to just shut up about it? This performance digs into one family's past to explore the fabrication of race, the implications of disability, and the lattice of assumptions making up cultural identity. This event will be a reading of a script by Dr. Ferris followed by a discussion with the audience. lighten your workload. Thursday, September 28th, 2023 | 3:00pm - 4:00pm | LNCO 2910

Thursday, September 14, 2023 11:00 PM

In this workshop, Professor Sean Lawson will introduce some essential methods and digital tools for effectively managing time, attention, and research materials in graduate school and beyond. These will include tools and techniques for implementing methods such as PARA, time blocking, Kanban, zettelkasten, and more. If you find it difficult at times to keep your head above water in graduate school, you will come away with some new tools and methods that will help lighten your workload. September 14, 2023 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm | LNCO 2910

Wednesday, September 06, 2023 11:41 PM

Call for Proposals for the Identity and Social Media Symposium: Bridging the Gaps between Computational Methods and Critical/Cultural Perspectives 28-29 September 2023 Salt Lake City, UT Submissions close 5 May 2023

Friday, May 05, 2023 02:34 PM

This day-long event will tackle the question: What needs to change so that newsrooms and their audiences become more diverse and aligned? Through a series of conversations between leading scholars and stakeholders, this event will offer a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities when it comes to journalism's troubled past and its hopefully brighter future. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXBQ7v71X0Y

The Department of Communication and the Utah Refugee Workforce Services collectively explore the notion that storytelling necessitates both reflexive narrators and empathic audiences. With the refugee panelists, we aim at identifying actionable items for communicating refugee stories that we can apply in our classrooms, workplace, neighborhood, and beyond.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 12:08 AM

The Missing Cyber Thunder Run: CYBER OPERATIONS DURING THE RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR In this presentation, Dr. Brandon Valeriano will examine the evolving nature of Russia’s use of cyber operations and the digital domain to disrupt, spy upon, and degrade the adversary. Cyber operations remain a potent modern manifestation of political warfare expanding competition short of war. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3LIWgwmH94

In this talk, Chris Ingraham shares his working thoughts about the ways modularity operates as a hierarchical structure valued for its presumed efficiency and support of theoretically endless growth. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRxLpH1gRXg

In between mobility and containment is a juncture that is neither mobility nor containment that is neither mobility nor containment, neither possible nor impossible. I enter that juncture through frames of im/possibilities and im/mobilities as I build a theory of rhetorical race making at the U.S./Mexico border.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 06:21 PM

The Communication Institute, housed in the College of Humanities’ Department of Communication at the University of Utah, received a generous donation of $1 million – the largest in the history of the department – from alumna Edna Anderson-Taylor (class of 1959) and her husband, Jerry Taylor, to secure the institute’s long-term impact and success. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the institute will be renamed in tribute to her legacy.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 04:23 PM

In this presentation, journalist Sara Cincurova discusses her experience reporting from Ukraine during the first days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022. She is interviewed by journalist Nate Carlisle of FOX 13 News in Utah and takes questions from students and faculty. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmJStR1vc1Y

Join us for this talk with assistant professor of communication Ben Lyons April 7, 2022 at 2:00 - 3:30pm. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTbJkyicEQY

In this talk, Ph.D. candidate in the Citizen AI Lab at Northeastern University Claudia Flores-Saviaga will first present their large-scale data analysis research on how a political troll community fabricates disinformation and engages people to participate with them. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWBJHEDBQgc

Students from the John R. Park Debate Society will debate the topic: Resistance Journalism should be accepted as a journalistic norm. The debate will be followed by a panel discussion with experts in journalism, law, and disinformation.

Wednesday, March 02, 2022 06:37 PM

"Korean Food Television and Gastronationalism," presented by Dr. Jaehyeon Jeong of the University of Utah Asia Campus, grows out of a line of research that analyzes the conjuncture of food, television, and nation and explores the semantic and ideological roles of food television. He seeks to gain insight into how the state appropriates the banality of food to raise South Korea’s global image and how it utilizes domestic television to disseminate statist discourse of the nation. If you were unable to attend this event, you can view the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHkid0n1Dso

Thursday, February 03, 2022 07:00 AM