Conference Sessions
Sending Support: Messages That Do and Don’t Work in Times of Campus Crisis
Since 2020, Southern Oregon University—located a few minutes from the GAIN conference hotel in Ashland—has endured the COVID-19 lockdown, budget cuts and work furloughs, and wildfires which destroyed two thousand homes and businesses in the Rogue Valley. In this session, you will learn the results of conversations with women faculty at SOU about what messages from the university felt most supportive and least supportive during this tumultuous time. You will be invited to share your own stories and collaborate on the creation of messages that feel the most supportive when our campus communities are under extreme pressure.
Presenters
Alena Ruggerio
(she/her)
Alena Ruggerio, PhD, is professor of communication at SOU, where she is affiliate faculty in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program and the Ethnic and Racial Studies program. Recognized in 2022 with the SOU Distinguished Service Award, in 2017 with the SOU Distinguished Teaching Award, and once honored by student government as SOU's "Most Warm and Welcoming Professor," she teaches courses such as persuasion, argumentation, advanced public speaking, rhetorical criticism, political communication, gender and communication, and interpersonal communication. The co-author of Feminism in Practice: Communication Strategies for Making Change (Waveland Press) and the editor of Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers (Lexington Books), her research at the crossroads of gender, language, and religion has also appeared in Feminist Media Studies, Communication in the Classroom (Bedford St. Martin's), and Mental Health Among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students co-authored with Erica Knotts (Lexington Books). She holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from Indiana University.
Erica Knotts
(she/her)
Erica Knotts, M.A., MLIS, is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Communication at SOU in Ashland, Oregon. With Victoria Goodson, she co-authored “Defining the Line: Freedom of Speech and Online Dispute Resolution Best Practices for Higher Education” in Contemporary Trends in Conflict and Communication. She co-authored with Alena Ruggerio a chapter in Mental Health Among Higher Education Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students: A Critical Perspective (2020). Knotts’ academic areas of interest include health and crisis communication, conflict management and negotiation, mediation, and small group communication. Knotts is also the co-creator and co-facilitator of SOU’s first-ever Ombuds program for students. She received the SOU Raider Academy Award for Outstanding Faculty in 2019 and the SOU Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020. Knotts holds an Interdisciplinary M.A. in Crisis, Risk and Health Communication from SOU and a Master of Library & Information Science from Emporia State University.