End of Life & Death Scholars
The National Communication
Association (NCA)
Death and Dying Division
During the National Communication Association Annual Convention, 2023 (Maryland, USA) the Death and Dying Division was officially accepted as a recognized division and interest group.
The End-of-Life and Death Scholars nonprofit organization supports the fundraising goals (by donation) of the Death and Dying Division, while NCA supports the place-making and space-making for the division, especially in-person organizational needs. The Death and Dying Division exists as a collaborative effort between NCA organizers and nonprofit organizing initiatives.
NCA's Mission Statement:
"The National Communication Association 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. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion."
Official Website: https://www.natcom.org/
"Let's talk about death!"
2023-2024
Inaugural
NCA Division
Leadership
[Founding Members]
Laura Bruns (Chair)
Colleen Campbell Pendleton (Vice Chair)
Cheyenne Zaremba (Vice Chair Elect)
Emily Scheinfeld (Secretary)
Stephenson Brooks Whitestone (Lead Archivist)
Mike Alvarez (Pedagogy/Andragogy Chair)
Geoffrey Luurs (Lead Investigator)
Jillian Rosa (Graduate Student Representative)
J.J. Jones (Graduate Student Representative)
Mission
NCA Death and Dying Division
The Death and Dying Division of the National Communication Association (NCA) supports the communication-oriented study of death, dying, and bereavement.
We believe death is truly an interdisciplinary research focus and welcome scholars from all adjacent disciplines. Our mission is to promote research, teaching, and community engagement related to the intersection of communication, death, dying, end-of-life, bereavement, and life/death, inclusive of all methodologies and epistemologies.
To view our original proposal for NCA, please see the Formal Proposal for a Death and Dying Division at NCA blog post.