UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Mary E. Stuckey, who recently joined Penn State as professor of communication arts and sciences, has been named a 2017 Distinguished Scholar by the National Communication Association (NCA).
NCA advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry. The Distinguished Scholar Award is the association’s highest accolade; given annually, the award honors a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of human communication. Recipients are selected by their peers to showcase the best within the communication discipline.
“The communication discipline has a long tradition of exceptional scholarship,” NCA Executive Director Paaige Turner said. “We’re proud to recognize Dr. Stuckey’s contributions with this well-deserved award.”
“This is the third year in a row that a member of our faculty has been recognized with NCA’s Distinguished Scholar Award,” noted Denise Solomon, liberal arts research professor and head of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences. Stephen Browne, liberal arts research professor of communication arts and sciences, received the award in 2015, and Jon Nussbaum, liberal arts research professor of communication arts and sciences and human development and family studies, received the award in 2016.
“We knew Professor Stuckey was an exceptional scholar with an outstanding record of achievement,” Solomon continued. “We could not be happier to celebrate this honor with her as she joins our faculty.”
Although trained as a political scientist, Stuckey has fully embraced her “adopted” discipline of communication and become one of its most highly regarded scholars of presidential rhetoric. She has published 10 single-authored books, with the 11th in press, on topics ranging from a general account of how interpreting reality is a source of presidential power, to a longitudinal study of American identity as reflected in presidential discourse, to studies of the rhetoric of individual presidents, to analysis of specific presidential speeches. Stuckey’s books have received awards from the Public Address and Political Communication divisions of NCA.
A widely recognized teacher and mentor, Stuckey also has received the John Sisco Teaching Award from the Southern States Communication Association, the Pi Sigma Alpha Teaching Award from the American Political Science Association, and the Elsie M. Hood Teaching Award from the University of Mississippi. She previously served as editor of the Southern Communication Journal and is currently editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, NCA’s flagship journal in rhetorical studies.
Stuckey will receive her award during the association’s 103rd Annual Convention, which will take place Nov. 16-19 in Dallas. Additional information about NCA, its convention, and the awards program can be found at www.natcom.org.