The Changing Conversation in America: Lectures from the Smithsonian

Based on a series of public lectures sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates and the National Communication Association, this volume offers insight into concerns that conversation is becoming degraded in the US, primarily on a national level, although interpersonal issues are also addressed. Eight contributions written by communication scholars address ways of achieving a national conversation about public issues; distinctive features of US American conversation; and social diversity and its impact on communication.

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William F. Eadie (Ph.D., Purdue) is Director of the School of Communication at San Diego State University, where he is responsible for leadership of a large program of 2,300 student majors and 125 faculty encompassing all aspects of communication, media, and journalism.  Prior to joining SDSU in 2001, he was Associate Director of the National Communication Association (NCA) in Washington, DC, where he worked with researchers and promoted communication research to a variety of audiences.  His other faculty appointments have been at Ohio University and California State University, Northridge, and he has served as an adjunct of visiting faculty at the University of Minnesota, University of Maryland, UCLA, and California State University, Los Angeles.  He served as the first editor of the Journal of Applied Communication Research after it became an NCA publication and also has served as President of the Western States Communication Association.  His scholarship focuses on how interpersonal rhetoric impacts on the development of relationships, and he has been an advocate for the application of communication research in ways that affect the lives of ordinary people.  He has received the NCA Golden Aniversary Award for outstanding journal article and has been elected a member of the national honorary societies Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Key, and Phi Beta Delta.  With Paul Nelson, he co-edited two books for SAGE:  The Language of Conflict and Resolution (2000) and The Changing Conversation in America: Lectures from the Smithsonian (2001).