Faculty and students from the School of Communication (SCOM) attended the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s (AEJMC) 109th Annual Conference in New Orleans, La., from Aug. 5-8. We sat down with doctoral student Eldaneka Rolle and Assistant Professor Elizabeth Ray to learn about their experience at the conference.
The conference, themed “Jazz and Jambalaya: Nurturing Harmony and Health in Higher Education,” gave FSU representatives opportunities to present research and connect with other scholars in the field.
“The conference was way bigger than I imagined it to be,” Rolle said. “The magnitude of communication scholars that were there was the most exciting thing to see.”
This was Rolle’s first time attending an AEJMC conference. She is currently in the Communication degree program and desires to one day become a professor to follow in the footsteps of her mother who also works in the education field.
Beyond the size of the conference, Rolle said the opportunity to meet other communication scholars and participate in professional development sessions gave her a better understanding of what it means to become part of the academic community.
“They advised us to connect with other students and collaborate on research projects with both faculty and peers at the conference to start building a name for ourselves,” Rolle said. “I think that’s so important because when you enter the job market, you will already have established connections with many of the people there.”
One session that stood out was a Public Relations division student luncheon focused on the future of communication scholars in the job market. The discussion encouraged Rolle to think about how she can build her academic career while still in the early stages of her doctoral program.
“They were giving really, really great input on what’s next in the job market for communication scholars,” Rolle said. “They also gave really good input on how to start putting yourself out there, even if you’re in your second or third year within the doctoral program.”
While Rolle attended AEJMC as a doctoral student developing her research and professional network, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Ray participated as both a researcher and a leader within the conference.
Ray, who will chair next year’s AEJMC Public Relations Division Virtual Conference, presented research with SCOM doctoral student Anica Shramm and Dr. Patrick Merle titled “The Hurricane That Never Hit: Responding to Community Explanations After Near Miss Events.”
The research examines how communities interpret and respond to hurricane threats even when a storm does not make landfall.
“A hurricane does not have to make landfall to leave a mark,” Ray said. “After a near miss, people still make sense of what happened, decide whether the threat felt ‘real,’ and carry those judgements into the next storm.”
Ray and Rolle also served as panelists for the Public Relations and Media Ethics Division session “Campus Reactions to Active School Shooter Situations,” which examined how universities communicate during campus crises.
While this was not Ray’s first AEJMC experience overall, it was her first time attending on site in New Orleans, La.
“What stayed with me the most was the feeling of possibility. I met people asking bold questions, trying thoughtful new approaches in the classroom, and doing work that made me stop and think, ‘I want to learn from that,’” Ray said. “AEJMC reminded me how much we gain when we step outside our own bubbles and let other people’s ideas stretch our own.”
Ray and Rolle were among a larger group of SCOM faculty and students who had research presented at the conference. FSU representatives included Drs. Patrick Merle, Sunah Lee, Jennifer Proffitt, Yin Yang, Rachel Bailey, and Pooja Ichplani, as well as students Anica Shramm, Gabrielle Lamura, Sun Young Park, Laura Suarez Morales, Sofia Durand, Sol Lee, Mia Sandoval, Kaylin Lane, Oladoyin Abiona, and Yuwen Wan. FSU alumna and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health postdoctoral student Sun Young Park also attended.
FSU is scheduled to host the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium in 2029, giving SCOM another opportunity to connect students and faculty with scholars from across the field.