National award for book by Stillion Southard

And speaking of communication studies, a new book by one of our terrific young faculty members from the department just received a national award:

[Assistant professor of communication studies and women's studies] Belinda Stillion Southard will be honored with the Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award from the National Communication Association at their annual convention in November for her book Militant Citizenship: Rhetorical Strategies of the National Woman's Party, 1913-1920 (Texas A&M University Press, 2011). The award honors outstanding published scholarship in public address and recognizes quality of research, originality and intellectual creativity. Stillion Southard's book also will be featured at a panel discussion at the conference, and she will appear on the program of speakers at upcoming Biennial Public Address Conference.

"This national honor earned by Dr. Stillion Southard highlights the significance and quality of her scholarship and reflects well on the entire department of communication studies," said Alan T. Dorsey, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The women's suffrage movement is a very rich vein of American history, one that set the stage for expansions of voting rights and civil rights later in the twentieth century. While the public might not be as familiar with the events and people of this era, work like Dr. Stillion Southard's will continue to make this important part of our history more accessible.