Planning for #ICA25, our 75th anniversary conference, is underway, and ICA President-Elect Thomas Hanitzsch (LMU Munich) and I are delighted to announce the ICA25 Local Host Committee! In keeping with the initiative I spearheaded with then-President Eun-Ju Lee two years ago, we have transitioned the Local Host role from its historical role of being one senior scholar to being a committee in order to broaden and invigorate the role(s), choosing instead four or five scholars who have their "fingers on the pulse" of all the culture and entertainment Denver (and the surrounding region) has to offer. Local host job duties include such tasks as advising members on the best things to see and do in the host city, helping connect offsite pre- and postconference organizers with university resources, promoting the conference to local universities, helping division and interest group officers choose appropriate venues for offsite events, and other non-academic but crucial aspects of conference preparation. Starting with the October issue, these five local host committee members will bring you articles on the Denver area based on their personal knowledge and experience. Keep an eye out for these snapshots of Denver's must-see and must-do attractions in the October, November, December, February, March, and April editions of the newsletter. Many thanks to Drs. Bardhan, Boromisza-Habashi, Coppini, Johnson, Mukherjee, and Ngoe for their willingness to serve! Their bios are listed below in alphabetical order by surname.
Soumia Bardhan (Associate Professor of Communication and Interim Director of International Studies, U of Colorado Denver) explores the rhetoric of political Islamists, and Islam and democracy, the communication dynamics and deliberative capacity of Muslim communities in marginalized contexts, and the role of media in the cultural-political transformation of Middle Eastern and South Asian societies. Due to the global emphasis of her work, Soumia is also invested in contributing to the internationalization of the communication discipline by promoting a non-West/non-U.S.-focused terrain for communication. Soumia serves as director on the board of the ICA and chair of its Membership and Internationalization Committee; she was chair of ICA's Intercultural Communication Division until 2021. She moved to Colorado in the fall of 2019 and enjoys yoga, dancing, and travel. She is at soumia.bardhan@ucdenver.edu.
David Boromisza-Habashi (Associate Professor, U of Colorado Boulder) studies the
relationship among culture, language use, and mobility. He is particularly interested in why and how speakers around the world have come to think of some discursive resources (such as the Anglo-American speech genre "public speaking" – think TED Talks) as universally meaningful and valued, and available to everyone, everywhere. He has also researched the rich local meanings of "hate speech" and "communication" in his home country of Hungary. He and his family have been proud to call Colorado their home for the past 16 years. His email address is dbh@colorado.edu.
David Coppini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the U of Denver. His research is in the areas of political communication and
journalism. He is particularly interested in the relationship between different forms of political polarization, media consumption and media trust in the United States and Italy. In addition, he has worked on several projects that examine the quality of local news in Colorado and the level of trust towards news organizations in the state. Born and raised in Italy, he has lived in Denver for the past seven years. His email address is: david.coppini@du.edu.
Jessica Johnson (she/her) is a seasoned instructor at CU Boulder, U of Denver, MSU Denver, and Front Range Community College. She specializes in rhetoric, culture, and health. Her area of focus concentrates on revealing and challenging issues of inequity and injustice in history, policy, and public health. Using an intersectional lens to analyze text and human behavior, she examines how dominant and culturally-marginalizing ideologies are spread between nations in the guise of health messages. With over 18 years in the Communication field, Dr. Johnson regularly travels, learns, and teaches around the world. Jessica is excited to partner with an international educator through the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) program this Winter and embraces the opportunity to widen students' cultural networks and broaden their perspectives. Her email address is jejo5944@colorado.edu.
Parameswari Mukherjee (Assistant Professor, Metropolitan State U of Denver) is a
health and organizational communication scholar. Her work is situated at the intersections of culture, health, globalization, and community participation. In her current project, she blends local cultural narratives on health at the margins with organizational theories of capital accumulation and disposable bodies. She specifically examines how individuals from underserved communities marked by inaccess to material resources and discursive platforms in rural India communicate about health and access health resources organized by various international health organizations and local community members. She moved to Colorado in the summer of 2023. When she is not working, she loves to spend time in nature, plan adventures, and take naps. Her email address is pamukherje@msudenver.edu.
Blessed E. Ngoe (Lecturer, U of Colorado Boulder) uses the ethnography of
communication and related methodologies to study how cultural practices and communication strategies can be leveraged to address socio-political challenges, especially in the context of the Global South. He is passionate about decolonizing communication theory and integrating indigenous knowledge (such as the African concept of Ekoaɗo) into our academic and policy discussions. Outside of academia, he leads an effort to foster intercultural dialogue and diplomacy through the Global Bridges Initiative. He serves as an Oroko Language and Culture Consultant for a project on Cuban Abakua, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Blessed lives in the beautiful city of Colorado Springs and can be reached at blessed.ngoe@colorado.edu.