Lockford, Stafford honored by National Communication Association

Two BGSU faculty members were recently recognized by the National Communication Association (NCA) for their accomplishments.

During the 2016 NCA anual meeting, Dr. Laura Stafford, director of the School of Media and Communication, and Dr. Lesa Lockford, chair of the Department of Theatre and Film, each received an award for her work. Stafford received the Bernard J. Brommel Award for Outstanding Scholarship or Distinguished Service in Family Communication. Lockford won the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance.

The Brommel award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the area of family communication. Stafford was recognized because her work consistently pushes the field of communication in new directions. Her research on relational maintenance as well as on distance and communication have influenced multiple generations of researchers.

According to Stafford's nominators, she has been a highly productive scholar, authoring about 70 publications: 40 journal articles, three books (authored or edited) and multiple chapters and book reviews. What sets her apart, however, is that her work consistently pushes the field of communication in new directions and has stood the test of time.

Stafford's groundbreaking 1993 book (with C. Bayer) on parent-child communication, titled "Interaction Between Parents and Children" (Sage), was among the "first to offer an interdisciplinary integration of research on parent-child interaction." She produced these works, and continues to make significant contributions, while assuming major service and administrative roles, including as founding member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Family Communication, editor of the Journal of Applied Communication Research, associate editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, department chair at the University of Kentucky, and her current director position at BGSU. "In all respects, [Laura Stafford] merits the recognition that the Brommel Award applauds."
 
The Coger award honors persons who have contributed an outstanding body of live performances. Her nominators noted that, since her dissertation work at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Lockford has produced an accomplished body of performance work from the page to the stage. Her work is firmly grounded in performance and feminist theory, examined and embodied through her disciplined artistry as a performer, writer, director and qualitative researcher. Her published scholarship includes over 20 essays and book chapters, as well as her 2004 book "Performing Femininity: Rewriting Gender Identity." As an actor, she has taken on leading roles in "Mother Courage and Her Children" and "Wit." Her directorial accomplishments include Stephenson's "The Memory of Water," "Silver's Raised in Captivity," and McCauley's "Sally's Rape."

Alongside her work as an actor and director, her solo performances present a complex body of exploratory work into themes of gender and sexuality. Her intellectual and aesthetic imprint on the study of communication and identity through solo performance in the field of performance studies is pronounced. Her poetic and courageous voice has shaped and moved students, audiences and her colleagues across the country. Highlights of her original works include 2004's "inhabit/us" and most recently, 2012's "Lost Lines." This full-length solo production enlists autoethnography, archival research and Lockford's powerful writing craft to produce a performance work that exemplifies the brave, bold, reflexive, and inspirational craft that has made her a prominent scholar and artistic leader in performance studies for almost two decades.

The NCA advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. For more information about the NCA awards program.