Dialoguing with the “Communication Chorus”: Mapping the Contours of “the Morass”

Abstract

In this article, the author extends her previous scholarship regarding biases in the publication process faced by scholars of color by incorporating the experiences of participants from two National Communication Association panels addressing challenges associated with publishing race-related research. Employing the constructs of “habitus” and the “carceral continuum,” the author argues for the need to lay bare entrenched, hegemonic publication norms in order to explore how/why the process promotes particular epistemological and axiological standpoints over alternate conceptions.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge and thank her colleagues, Dr. Antonio de Velasco (University of Memphis) and Dr. Jennifer Simpson (The University of Colorado at Boulder; A Bolder Vision, LLC) for their insights that enhanced this manuscript.

Notes

As a natural progression from the written invitation, this panel was suggested by SCJ editors Ken Cissna and Joy Hart; both of whom were instrumental in the publication of my 2005 article. Participants on Panel I included: Bernadette Calafell, Hui Ching-Chang, Mark McPhail, and Michaela Meyer. An invitation to participate on Panel II was extended to the then current editor of SCJ, all NCA journal editors, and the NCA Publications Chair. Editors, who accepted the invitation, serving as participants on Panel II included: Joy Hart (former SCJ editor), Bruce Henderson (Text & Performance Quarterly), John Sloop (Communication & Critical Studies), William Starosta (founding editor, Howard Journal of Communications), Gust Yep (NCA Non-serial Publications), and David Zarefsky (Chair, NCA Publications Board). My co-facilitator for these sessions was Emmett Winn (Auburn University) with Danni Williams (doctoral student, Georgia State University) acting as our graduate student assistant. The double slot was sponsored by NCA Vice-President Michael Sproule.

Eight communication journals (Communication Monographs, Communication Quarterly, Communication Studies, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Southern Communication Journal, Text and Performance Quarterly, and The Western Journal of Communication) were searched for the period 1992 to mid-2008 using the Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC) database. Search descriptors were: African, African American, Asian American, Caucasian, cross-cultural, ethnicity, Hispanic, Hispanic American, Indian, Intercultural, Latin America, Latina, Latino, Native American, of color, race, racial, White, and Whiteness. This search yielded 263 articles of which 29 were duplicate entries for a net of 234 articles including 39 book reviews. After removing the book reviews, I was left with 195 cites. Out of the 195 actual articles, 15 (7.7%) were cross-cultural investigations, 44 (22.6%) rhetorical analyses (primarily of historical rather than contemporary figures), and 68 (34.9%) reflected empirical studies of identity construction, intercultural relationships, and/or methodological/theoretical questions pertaining to studying race/ethnicity/culture. Based on an average of 20 articles per year published in each of the aforementioned eight journals across a period of 16½ years, the research on culture—with race as only one among several variables under study—approximated 7.4% of all the articles published with the core set of 68 articles equating to only 2.6% of all publications during this time frame. I appreciate SCJ Editor Mary Stuckey's willingness to assign her editorial assistant, Ms. Kristina E. Curry (MA, Georgia State University, 2007), to perform this search. Thank you, Kristina, for your excellent work in using CMMC to locate thus body of literature.

In 2006, Zarefsky was Chair of the NCA Publications Board.

It is significant to note that Winn was advised by an African American female scholar, Dr. Navita James, as a doctoral student in a graduate program renowned for its openness toward mixed methods, autoethnography, and cultural studies. In addition, ultimately, Michaela D. E. Meyer found this same support in the form of Dr. Brenda J. Allen at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Dr. Mark Orbe as coeditor of the 2006 International and Intercultural Communication Annual.

My University of Memphis colleague, Dr. Antonio de Velasco, astutely deduced my argument as critiquing the unquestioned power associated with the presumption of neutrality in our scholarly endeavors. The quoted material is drawn from a personal communication between Dr. de Velasco and myself on October 28, 2008.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Grace Hendrix

Katherine Grace Hendrix, Department of Communication, University of Memphis.