April 16, 2024 Departments within the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences presented research at national conferences this April, many alongside undergraduate and graduate students. Communication ArtsDrs. Eletra Gilchrist-Petty, Xiaoti Fan, and John Saunders from the Communication Arts Department attended the Southern States Communication Association Conference April 3-7 in Frisco, Texas. Dr. Gilchrist-Petty received the Gender Studies Top Paper Award for her co-authored paper, “Communicating Who Belongs in Missing Person Alerts: A Fragment Analysis of Media Coverage of Ebony Alerts.” She also performed officer duties as a member of the Legislative Assembly. Dr. Xiaoti Fan presented “Embracing Connections: A Candid Conversation with ChatGPT on the Ethics of Deception” and fulfilled officer duties as a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Dr. John Saunders presented “Making Space for What Belongs: A Critical-Rhetorical Discussion on Instructional Discourses and Cultural Politics” and “Like a Rolling Stone: Can a Tribute Ban Provide any Satisfaction?”. He also chaired and responded to multiple panels and fulfilled officer duties with the Popular Communication Division. SociologyAll four Sociology faculty members and three undergraduate students attended the 2024 Southern Sociological Society conference in New Orleans, Louisiana April 3-7. Dr. Dan Morrison presented a paper on student perceptions of universities studying slavery; and Dr. Christina Steidl presented a paper on gendered creditalism and military service as pathways into STEM. Both Drs. Morrison and Steidl also served on professionalization panels and workshops for junior scholars and grad students. Dr. Thomson presented a paper examining the role of religion in the construction of responses to anti- Black police violence. Sociology major Fletcher Wilson and Sociology minor Rebekah Farris both presented papers analyzing gendered and sexualized aspects of Valentines Day; and Sociology major Jess Walter presented a poster based on their RCEU research on asexuality. Finally, Dr. Sims served as an advanced reader on an Author Meets Readers panel for a new book on Black feminism. World Language and CulturesDr. Nicole Pacino from the Department of History and Drs. Leslie Kaiura and Cristhian Alfonso from World Languages and Cultures traveled to the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Dr. Pacino led a round table on the history of medicine and public health with Latin American historians from around the country. Dr. Kaiura presented a paper on feminism and femicide in two Argentine novels, and Dr. Alfonso presented part of his work on Nazis in 21st-century Colombian fiction. For questions about research within our college, please contact dean-ahs@uah.edu
