This year the Communication Studies department gains a new member to our family: Dr. Erin Waggoner. Her goal here at Longwood University is to create a home here in Farmville and in the COMMunity.

Erin was an English professor in KentuckyDuring her time teaching there, Waggoner realized that she did not want to teach literature forever and enjoyed the human communication aspect of it even more. That is when she decided to pursue her PhD in Communication Studies at the University of Connecticut.

After graduating, Waggoner was hired on here at Longwood University as a Lecturer. Currently, she teaches MEDIA IN SOCIETY and PUBLIC SPEAKING but there is more to come. Next semester she will be teaching DIGITAL EDITING as well as MEDIA WRITING and a course she and Dr. Naomi are developing that focuses on the LGBTQ community in the media: “The course is looking at the sociological, economical and governmental impact of the LGBTQ representation interweave.”

For Dr. Waggoner this is a dream course that she has always wanted to teach. In addition, this will be a new Perspectives course in Civitae that will also fulfill the goal nine requirement of the current general education curriculum. This means that students outside of the major will be able to take the course and get a sneak peak into our major.

Thanks to Erin, the department’s infatuation with Funco Pops continues to grow. While she does not have quite the collection that Professor Jeff Halliday has, she is coming close. But unlike Jeff, she keeps her collection in the box: “It breaks my heart when I take things out of boxes but I love the way Halliday displays his.”

Dr. Waggoner has already proven herself to be a great fit to our COMMunity and we look forward to all she has to offer!

By Alex Sabatini

As students, we look to our professors for guidance and to give us the tools we need to make it in the real world. We often forget our mentor’s lives are not solely based on our success. Professors have the same breaks as we do. So what did they do this past summer?

This summer, Dr. Ryan Stouffer married his girlfriend of two years, Dr. Leah Shilling. The wedding was held with just him and Leah along with the officiator and a photographer who doubled as the witness. As they had planned, they were married with their feet in the sand and were blessed with a ceremonial blowing of a conch shell: “They did it all, so we went down to Key West, went to the courthouse, and then they married us on the beach in front of a bunch of random people.”

Shortly after, the two were excited to announce the pregnancy of their first child. The baby is due on February 21st, 2019. Congratulations Ryan and Leah!

Dr. Isabel Fay spent her summer in Germany visiting her parents and traveling around Europe. While in Germany she took a spontaneous trip to see Beyoncé with a friend and were able to purchase last-minute tickets for $20. She also worked preparing for her Public Relations Writing course: “No matter where I was, I worked in Spain at the beach and even there I was working.”

While students were in Virginia battling July’s heat wave, Dr. Naomi Johnson and her husband, Greg Tsigaridas, were enjoying much cooler temps visiting Yellowstone National Park. In addition to her trip to Wyoming, Dr. Johnson worked closely on a research project with Dr. Alec Hosterman and Dr. Ryan Stouffer that focuses on the #MeToo movement.

“We have been analyzing social support which is basically how people support one another during times of crisis or health issues. We analyzed how social support is communicated as part of the #MeToo movement on Twitter.”

Dr. Johnson expressed that their findings showed in the first three months the support given was focused on providing resources and in the second three months was focused on providing emotional support. They will soon be submitting their work in hopes of getting published.

Finally, Professor Jeff Halliday is returning from his spring sabbatical with probably the most interesting story yet: an encounter with an alligator!

“I did not know that alligators existed in North Carolina until I went to go fishing on my first night there. I went fishing and I attracted the attention of an alligator. That was really scary.”

Professor Halliday said that as he was looking at the alligator he started googling whether they really lived in North Carolina to make sure he was really seeing an alligator. As the sun set, the alligator began coming closer to him and that is when he knew it was time to leave. Thankfully he returned to teach fresh new faces in the COMMunity.

Though all of our professors here at Longwood University work very hard, it is always fun to have a peek into their lives during the summer.

This ad uses Gestalt’s lesson of positive and negative space. This ad is effective because at first glance you see the positive space that form angel wings, but when you take a second look you see the devil raising his hands to in the negative space. After reading the words displayed the ad for this show makes sense and entices the audience.

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This ad uses the triangle from chapter 2 to show strength in women.

This ad campaign is a representation of the emotional connection from the first chapter.  The reason this is is emotional connection is because every woman knows the what it feels like to be told to shut her mouth and to be quite. This ad plays on that feeling and makes women everywhere want to stand up and use their voice.