The new name and vision comes after a yearlong review led by the program’s advisory council. The review included research with current WGS minors and faculty, assessment of programs at peer and aspirant universities, review of LGBTQIA Task Force recommendations, and mapping out synergies and distinctions with other Elon initiatives such as the Inclusive Community, the Gender and LGBTQIA Center and the student-led EFFECT organization. The advisory council held workshops and strategy sessions to analyze its findings and develop a revised vision and purpose for the program.

“Twenty six years ago when WGS was created, and for many years after, WGS was perhaps the only initiative in the Elon community expressly focusing on issues of gender, sexuality, and the systematic oppression of women,” said Kim Epting, the program director for WGSS. “Today, because of Elon’s strategic plan and an increased understanding of intersectionality, these issues have gained broader acceptance and attention from many different departments and initiatives at Elon. Our recommitment to being the academic home for scholarship and critical inquiry reflects the purpose of WGSS within these broader initiatives and our role in creating academic excellence by promoting and connecting WGSS-related pedagogy and scholarship across our community.”

Through academic curricula, student and faculty research, and campus events, the WGSS program will concentrate on six areas of emphasis: critical inquiry, interdisciplinarity, identity, intersectionality, societal structures, and turning critical inquiry into action. The advisory council has been enhancing the curriculum for the WGSS minor, including reviewing and revamping the WGS 110 Sex and Gender and WGS 300 Current Controversies in Feminism courses, and assessing and adding to its multidisciplinary courses to reflect the new name and vision. Minors in the WGSS program have more than doubled in the past three years, and students in a variety of disciplines take the WGS 110 Sex and Gender course. With increased interest in this course, WGSS is adding an additional section of WGS 110 in the spring. The advisory council also invites faculty to submit course proposals and syllabi for cross-listing their courses with WGSS.

From a programming standpoint, WGSS will be holding recruitment and networking events for WGSS minors, hosting workshops for faculty engaged in WGSS-related research, highlighting faculty and student scholarship, sponsoring speakers and panels that focus on WGSS critical inquiry, and creating stronger connections with WGSS alumni. WGSS is also creating a webpage to connect faculty and students interested in and/or working on WGSS-related scholarship.

“WGSS scholarship and interests are represented widely and diversely across our campus,” Epting said. “Our goal is to connect and strengthen those interests. Our website will be a place where students can go to learn about WGSS-related courses, where faculty can connect with others doing similar work of interest, and where students can find mentors to help them with their own scholarship or activism.”

Students interested in minoring in WGSS, and faculty interested in teaching a WGSS course, connecting with other WGSS scholars, or cross-listing their courses with WGSS can visit the website at:

“Ten Considerations for Developing and Maintaining a Student-Run Communications Agency” was published in the Spring 2015 edition and examined best practices for creating a successful student-run agency that maximizes student learning.

The article includes guidance on funding, legal issues, online project management tools, establishing a strong creative team, giving students timely feedback and making the agency as “real world” as possible.

“For faculty advisors, managing a successful student-run agency can be much like running a small business,” Bush said in the article. “There will always be a certain amount of trial and error, but putting the right resources and processes in place will help make it a successful endeavor for both the department and the students.”

For the article, Bush drew upon her research with students, advisors and graduates of student-run agencies, as well as her 20 years of experience in the advertising and public relations agency business. Bush’s research on student agencies has previously been published in Journalism & Mass Communications Educator, Public Relations Review and PR News. She was also the founder of Elon’s own student-run communications agency, Live Oak Communications.

Bush’s paper is the result of a multi-year ethnographic study of women who surf on the East Coast of the U.S.  Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, the study examines how surfing women construct, develop, and enact their identities in a traditionally male-oriented lifestyle sport. The study found that women share many of the identities of the larger surfing culture, while also carving out spaces in which to develop and enact their own cultural norms.

The IOSSBR is an international society of scholars and practitioners who share research and ideas across multiple disciplines including communication, education, psychology, sociology, anthropology and women’s studies.

Her term will begin in July 2012. Bush has been involved with ESNC for the past six years, working with her students to develop and promote an annual ESNC awareness campaign called Campout! Carolina.

ESNC is a federation of 60+ environmental nonprofit organizations working to keep North Carolina’s rivers clean, its communities healthy, and to ensure that residents have natural places to visit and enjoy.  Founded in 1991, ESNC has raised more than $7.5 million through workplace giving programs to protect North Carolina’s environment.  For more information on ESNC, visit earthsharenc.org.

The paper appeared in a special pedagogical issue of “Public Relations Review” in December 2011.

Titled “U.S. student-run agencies: Organization, attributes and adviser perceptions of student learning outcomes,” the paper was presumably the first quantitative study of student-run agencies to be published in the United States. It evaluated 51 agencies at universities accredited by or affiliated with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Earlier in 2011, Bush and Miller presented a similar paper at the 2011 AEJMC conference in St. Louis, for which they won the top paper award in the Public Relations Teaching division. 

According to the NC PRSA website, the InSpire Awards “honors communications programs that have achieved great success.” Live Oak was given the award for work on its Campout! Carolina campaign for client EarthShare North Carolina. Campout! Carolina is held each fall, and encourages residents across the state to camp out in their back yards – all on the same weekend – to show support for environmental sustainability. 

Live Oak members who accepted the award were Nicole Parker, director; Amanda Bender, assistant director; Sally Kay, ESNC team leader; Samantha Emrich, incoming director; and Live Oak Faculty Advisor Lee Bush.

NC PRSA is the statewide chapter of the national organization of communications professionals, and is made up of communications agencies and practitioners from all regions of the state.

In the article, titled “Does anyone care about maintaining civil discourse?” Bush points out the role everyday citizens play in spreading divisive rhetoric through social media.”

Excerpts from the column:

“Read through public comments posted on any news or social media site — be it CNN, Fox News, the Huffington Post or Facebook — and you won’t have to scroll far to see the words ‘idiots,’ ‘hate mongers’ or ‘shut up’ thrown back and forth between posters.”

“If we now live in a mass participation society — one in which you and I are also citizen journalists, gatekeepers of rhetoric, able to publish our unedited, 140-word tweets globally within seconds — then we too must take responsibility for correcting the tone and rancor of our political discourse.”

” … we now have in our hands, literally — in laptops, iPads and smart phones — devices that allow us to share ‘all the vitriol, all the time.’  There are multiple apps for that.  But we also have in our hands the power to use our evolving networks to start a new kind of discourse; one that positions us as the viral leaders of political civility.”

Bush’s column appeared on page 1 of the Ideas section in the Sunday edition.

The PERCS site is a clearinghouse of information for students, teachers and researchers who are currently involved in ethnographic research, or who would like to incorporate the methodology into their research projects or courses. 

For teachers, the site includes teaching modules on techniques such as field observation, interviewing techniques and focus groups, and provides detailed information on the unique ethical considerations of these methodologies. Students will also find these modules useful, as they consider using ethnography in their classes and research projects. In particular, the Web site lists a number of ways for students to get involved in ethnographic research – from a list of related courses to examples of completed student projects. The site includes a growing body of community research projects in both audio and video documentary formats. Visitors to the site can also view PERCS news and events, including speakers, workshops, research in progress and PERCS-sponsored projects.

Coming soon to the site will be a tool allowing researchers to access an annotated bibliography of ethnographic books and articles, as well as links to other sites and resources. As in the past, PERCS has a limited supply of digital voice recorders, digital cameras, and digital video cameras to check out for use in ethnographic projects by Elon students, faculty and staff.

PERCS was initially created by Anne Bolin and Sandy Smith-Nonini in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology to foster ethnographic work within the department. In 2006, the program became interdisciplinary and was formally launched to foster the understanding and use of ethnography across all fields of study. Tom Mould, associate professor of anthropology, is the current director of the program. The PERCS program committee includes faculty members from the fields of education, communication, sociology, anthropology, art, psychology and religious studies. PERCS recently moved to a new space in Lindner Hall.  

Consensus among all professionals at the conference was that students will be entering the field during the most dramatic changes the media industry has ever seen. With the emergence of multiple technological platforms, speakers discussed the need to understand the “convergence” of different media businesses, the rise of consumer-generated content, and the ethical implications of these shifts for future professionals.

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, discussed how the business models of traditional media are now in disarray. As an example, he used the impact of the web site Craigslist on traditional classified advertising and the impact of downloadable movies on the entertainment industry. He also discussed the significant increase in citizen participation in news and information delivery, saying that 35 percent of Internet users have created content of some type that is available to other online users.

User-generated content was further discussed by Reggie Murphy, director of research services for Gannett Co. Inc. Murphy showed students a web site for the Gannett-owned Cincinnati Inquirer which is an example of “micro-zoning,” a means of creating niche, online content for small communities within the Inquirer’s larger territory. As part of the site, at NKY.com, readers can add their own content to the site, including photos or news on events happening in their specific area. “Through our research, we have found a need for news and information on a niche basis,” Murphy said. (Pictured below, Lee Rainie, left, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and School of Communications dean Paul Parsons)

Along with convergence and fracturing of news audiences comes a host of ethical implications and questions about the role of the news media in our democracy. According to Mary Beth Marklein, education reporter for USA Today, economics and convergence are driving decision-making in newsrooms today, making it less likely that journalism is making the difference that it once made in a democratic system. In such an environment, Marklein said that teaching ethical journalism practices has become paramount.

Ken White, news director of Fox News Charlotte, echoed Marklein’s sentiments, outlining for students the importance of understanding the ethical implications and impact of every news story covered.

If students weren’t quite sure how the vast changes in technology may impact their future professional lives, Debora Wilson, president and chief executive officer for The Weather Channel summed it up for them. Wilson said that technology is changing so fast that new developments occur every day that have the potential to alter the way The Weather Channel operates. To keep up with these changes, Wilson told students that she rises at 4:30 a.m. every day, reads four or five newspapers and skims through 200 email deliveries to continually monitor new developments. The hard part, she said, is staying on top in this competitive field where digitization allows for more competition all the time.

Public relations expert Joe Gleason, president of The Gleason Group, also noted how technology and transparency are affecting corporations, making them more accessible, and more accountable, to their publics. As this environment emerges, Gleason said that public relations executives are becoming more crucial to upper-level management. He noted that the lines are blurring between PR executives and management consulting firms, with each vying for the role of consulting with chief executives.

Other speakers at the conference included Sunshine Overkamp, president of Overkamp Overkamp Smith agency; Tom Howe, director and general manager of UNC-TV; and, Jim Hefner, vice president and general manager of WRAL-TV. More than 200 students attended the conference held in McEwen.

“The wealth and depth of information shared at this mini-conference exemplifies how important our professional advisory board is to the School of Communications,” said Connie Book, associate dean of the School of Communications. “Especially in this time of technological upheaval, the board provides a vital connection to the industry that helps us keep pace with a vastly-changing environment.”

Through a series of self-guided modules, a database of archived ethnographic research, ethical guidelines for ethnographic methodology, a collection of books on ethnography, and a series of workshops and lectures on ethnographic methods and topics, PERCS will serve as a clearinghouse of information on the proper use of ethnography. Resources and information can be accessed through the PERCS web site – www.elon.edu/percs — as well as through the PERCS office located in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. PERCS steering committee members will also be available for classroom lectures and discussions, and the group has compiled a list of courses at 51爆料网 where students can receive training in ethnographic methodologies.

“Ethnographic research is a unique method for assessing and addressing problems and needs within organizations, communities and entire geographic cultures,” said Tom Mould, assistant professor in Elon’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology and coordinator for PERCS. “Through PERCS, our goal is to gather all of this information into one place, and provide any resources that teachers and researchers would need to utilize ethnography in their field of study.”

For example, Mould says that ethnographic study brings with it its own unique set of challenges and issues in interacting with communities. By compiling ethical guidelines, release forms and teaching modules, PERCS helps ensure that researchers are conducting ethnography properly and following ethical guidelines. Mould says the program also will make it easier to design ethnographic approaches by providing researchers with examples of other ethnographic studies.

Often misused and easily misunderstood, ethnography involves the immersion of a researcher in a particular group or community through participation, observation and qualitative interviewing techniques. The goal is to examine the culture from an insider’s perspective and then interpret those findings for outsiders for the purpose of fostering understanding among and between differing cultures and communities.

Examples of the use of Ethnographic research by PERCS steering committee members include:

• The study of coal-mining communities in Southern Virginia — Ken Hassell, Elon Department of Art
• The study of the struggles of Brazilian female public health care workers — Kim Jones, Elon Department of Sociology and Anthropology
• Documentation of the stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors — Alexa Darby, Elon Department of Psychology
• The study of transgendered people, as well as research on physique competitors – Ann Bolin, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

“It’s important to note that PERCS is a multi-disciplinary program,” said Mould. “That’s why the PERCS steering committee includes faculty from a variety of fields in both the arts and sciences as well as the professional schools. PERCS is a resource for engaged learning across all fields of study.”

Faculty members can learn more about PERCS at the Numen Lumen meeting on March 3, or by visiting the PERCS table at the March 7 College Coffee. In addition, as part of its launch, PERCS is sponsoring three outside speakers for students and faculty to learn more about the use of ethnography methods. The sessions include:

• Monday, March 6: Terese Stratta, assistant professor of Sports Management at Winston Salem State University — “Using Qualitative Research Methods in Sports Research”
• Thursday, March 9: Henry Glassie, professor of Folklore at Indiana University and co-director of Turkish Studies – “A Story of Work and Devotion: The Ethnographer in a Muslim Land”
• Friday, March 10: Pravina Shukla, assistant professor of folklore at Indiana University – “Art & Dress in Modern India”

For additional information on the PERCS program, visit the PERCS web site at www.elon.edu/percs or contact a PERCS steering committee member. The steering committee includes: Tom Mould, Kim Jones, Ann Bolin and Lisa Marie Peloquin from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Bird Stasz, Department of Education; Clyde Ellis, Department of History; Ken Hassell, Department of Art; Alexa Darby, Department of Psychology and Lee Bush, School of Communications.