Mandziuk to keynote Wayland Women in Scholarship Forum

PLAINVIEW — Roseann M. Mandziuk, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University and immediate past president of National Communication Association, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker Friday, Sept. 15, at the Wayland Women in Scholarship Forum.

Mandziuk is scheduled to present Recipes and reconciliation: Lady Bird Johnson’s 1964 Whistle Stop Tour through the South at 12:25 p.m. in Room UC-211 in McClung University Center on Wayland’s Plainview campus. However, the forum begins at 9 a.m. and concludes with mentoring sessions immediately following the keynote address.

The forum, which offers a come-and-go format for those unable to attend all sessions, is free and open to the public.

Session 1 is set for 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and features four offerings:

• What God uses let no man deny — Women in ministry by Dr. Kimberlee Mendoza, Dean of the School of Languages and Literature.
• Emma Grigsby Meharg: First woman Secretary of State by Dr. Rebekah Crowe, Dean of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
• Immigrating into Marriage: Women’s Language and Marital Experience in Postcolonial Indian Fiction by Dr. Karen Strovas, Associate Dean and Professor of English.
• Bring history to life in the cemetery! Discover how a service-learning project taught teacher candidates more lessons about segregation through death than in life… by Dr. Sarah Hartman, Dean of the Don A. Williams School of Education.

Session 2 is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. to noon and features four more offerings: 

• Power in Weakness: Where is God in the Alien Franchise byDr. Maria O’Connell, Professor of English.
• You’ll have to fire me: Women in the Foreign Service in the 1950s & 1960s by Dr. Autumn Lass, Assistant Professor of History.
• Leaning spaces: Enclosures, self-control, and bodily regulation in The Cotton NERO Manuscript by Dr. Cloe Brooke, Assistant Professor of Languages and Literature.
• Songs, social media and intimate partner violence: An exploratory study of Gunpowder and Lead and Little Juans by Dr. Yahui Zhang, Associate Dean of the School of Creative Arts and Professor of Communication and Media Studies.

Mentoring sessions featuring Wayland educators follow Mandziuk’s keynote address.

Zhang, primary organizer of Wayland Women in Scholarship Forum, said the mission of the forum is to “Positively impact Wayland’s female student scholars by inspiring relevant and excellent scholarship and offering mentoring toward broth careers and graduate study.”

“This forum showcases Wayland’s faculty to the university, the Plainview community, West Texas and beyond,” Zhang said. “It is designed to strengthen the community of scholars currently active within Wayland.”

Mandziuk has done extensive research focusing on images of women, the rhetorical uses of history, and the construction of public memory in museums and monuments. She has co-authored a scholarly book about the rhetoric of Sojourner Truth, published numerous articles and book chapters examining historical and contemporary rhetoric, and served as Editor of Women’s Studies in Communication. She has received two Fulbright Scholar Awards, in India and in Poland, and has presented numerous international research lectures. She also was selected as an American Council on Education Fellow.

In addition to serving as President of the National Communication Association in 2022, Mandziuk has served as President of the Southern States Communication Association, two terms as Finance Board Chair and twelve years as a member of the Affirmative Action/Intercaucus Committee for the National Communication Association, and 15 years as chair of the Presidential Work Life Advisory Council At TSU. She has served on numerous editorial boards including Quarterly Journal of Speech and Women’s Studies in Communication, as well as regional and national association publication, nomination, and award committees. Her contributions have been recognized with national and regional professional association awards for teaching, mentoring, and research, including the 2020 Distinguished Service Award from SSCA, the 2017 Francine Merritt Award for Contributions to Women in Communication from the NCA Women’s Caucus, and the 2014 Michael M. Osborn Teacher-Scholar Award from SSCA.