CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Communication as Social Construction – NCA2025

The Communication as Social Construction Division of NCA invites reviewer sign ups and submissions for conference presentation at this year’s NCA Convention.

Reviewers: The call for reviewers can be found at https://www.natcom.org/call-for-reviewers/

Please select ‘sign up now’ and make sure to select Communication as Social Construction for the unit you’ll review for. We also welcome chair and respondent sign-ups in this space!

Submissions: The Communication as Social Construction (CASC) Division invites inquiries that explicitly cite social construction literature and use social construction approaches to study face-to-face, cultural, and mediated communication. Referencing foundational texts of social construction is highly encouraged. Some influential scholars may include, but are not limited to the following: Burr, V.; Blumer, H.; Chen, V.; Davis, K.E.; Galanes, G.; Gergen, K.J.; Gergen, M.; Leeds-Hurwitz, W.; Littlejohn, S.W.; Pearce, W.B.; Spano, S.; and Tomm, K. 

This year we especially welcome submissions that address, through the lens of social constructionism, questions posed in the broad convention call for participation by Dr. Tina Harris, who encourages submitters to consider the convention theme of “Communicate to Elevate”. The Communication as Social Construction division encourages submissions that explore how we communicate in ways that may elevate (1) the communicative construction of identity and relationships within any socially significant context; (2) the communicative construction of context itself; (3) the social construction of discord and the potential of communication to transform conflict into more harmonious relationships; (4) the social construction of regard, concern and esteem; (5) metatheoretical, theoretical, and methodological developments relevant to constructionist research, teaching, and application; (6) examinations of similarities and differences between social construction and other approaches to communication studies and practices, and (7) comparative analyses of approaches to communication as social construction across cultures or across levels of analysis. 

Members of the Communication as Social Construction (CASC) Division are committed to promoting conversation and community among scholars whose work advances the idea that we create and recreate social worlds through interaction. CASC scholars take a Communication Perspective to acknowledge communication processes as central to academic inquiry and practice with recognition of the transformative potential of communication teaching and research. The division is interested in topics related to social constructions of identity and relationships, discord and transformative conflict, and social constructions of the contexts we live in today. Examples of socially constructed contexts to examine may include relationships, media, technology, health, organizations, the classroom, and culture. 

For the 2025 Convention, we invite the following forms of submission:

• completed papers
• papers under construction
• panel discussions
• paper sessions

Submitters are reminded to review the NCA Professional Standards for Convention Participants in the Convention Resource Library

The full call, with additional details on requirements for each form of submission, can be found in the Convention Resource Library

Please contact Kara Laskowski (kalask@ship.edu), division planner, with any questions