Religious Communication Association
2024 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Paul Lynch, Saint Louis University, Persuasions of God: Inventing the Rhetoric of Rene Girard
Edited Volume of the Year: Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria, God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication
Book Chapter of the Year: Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria, "Toward a Theory of Divine COmmunication? Prospects and Problems," in God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human COmmunication
Dissertation of the Year: Arthur J. Bamford, University of Colorado, Boulder, New and Improved: Protestant Revivalism and the Origins of Modern American Advertising
Article of the Year: Kerith M. Woodyard, Northern Illinois University, "From Cuneiform to Comic: Redrawing Sarah in R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated," Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 35(2).
JCR Article of the Year: Leland G. Spencer, University of South Carolina, and Timothy S. Forest, University of Cincinnati, "The Iron Lady’s Capitalist Christianity: Margaret Thatcher’s Rhetorical Theology," Journal of Communication and Religion, 46(3), 29-40.
Top Student Paper: Breanna Prater, University of Missouri-Columbia,“'Obviously I Wouldn’t Be a Pastor': Baptist Women Leaders’ Nested Identity Construction, Performance, and Reconciliation"
Scholar of the Year: Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria
2023 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Luke Powery, Duke Divinity School, Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race
Dissertation of the Year: Dorji Wangchuk, University of Macau, Of Identity, Spirituality, Community, and the Sacred Chronotope in Bhutan
Article of the Year: Sonia Hazard, Florida State University, "The Politics of Media Format: Printing Poor Sarah During the Removal Crisis in Cherokee Nation," Church History, 91, 824-863.
Student Paper of the Year: Erica Kolson, University of Illinois, "White Christian Nationalism’s Rhetorical Strategies and Their Impacts on Marginalized Communities"
Scholar of the Year: Amardo Rodriguez, Syracuse University
2022 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Corrina Laughlin, Redeem All: How Digital Life is Changing Evangelical Culture (University of California Press, 2021)
Dissertation of the Year: Thomas M. Fuerst, University of Memphis, Words from Elsewhere: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century African American Prophetic Call Narratives
Article of the Year: Michael Kearney, "Melanchthon’s Didactic Genre and the Rhetoric of Reformation," Rhetorica, 40, 23-42.
Student Paper of the Year: Hannah Tabrizi, University of Memphis, “'Grass Stands Up to Testify': The Rhetoric of Redemption in Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III's 'Redeeming Deserted Places'”
Scholar of the Year: Steven A. Beebe, Texas State University
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ronald C. Arnett, Duquesne University
2021 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Andre Johnson, No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (University Press of Mississippi, 2020)
Dissertation of the Year: Justin Bonanno, Duquesne University, Communication in the Ruins: Walker Percy and the Art of Symbolic Mediation
Article of the Year: Kristina Lee, “Theistnormativity and the Negation of American Atheists in Presidential Inaugural Addresses,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 23(2), 255–292.
Student Paper of the Year: Phillip Lindia, Wheaton College, "Recovering the Rhetorical Insight of David Walker for a Season of Racial Unrest"
Scholar of the Year: Terry Lindvall, Virginia Wesleyan University
2020 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Kevin Healey and Robert Woods Jr, Ethics and Religion in the Age of Social Media: Digital Proverbs for Responsible Citizens (Routledge, 2020)
Dissertation of the Year: Kelsey Minnick, University of Denver, “Femme Fatales of Faith": Queer and "Deviant" Performances of Femme within Western Protestant Culture
Article of the Year: Mark Ward Sr, "Sermons as Social Interaction: Pulpit Speech, Power, and Gender," Women & Language, 42(2), 285-316
Paper of the Year: Tsuriel Rashi, Ariel University; Hnanel Rosenberg, Ariel University, and Menachem Blondheim, Hebrew University, "Shaming in Judaism: Past, Present, and Future"
Student Paper of the Year: Jared Worwood, Illinois State University, and Anjali Patel, Illinois State University, "'We Are Strangers Who Happen to Care a Lot About Whether the Other One is Happy': Interaction Styles of Ex-member Children with Their Member Parents in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
Scholar of the Year: Andre Johnson, University of Memphis
2019 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Christopher Oldenburg, The Rhetoric of Pope Francis: Critical Mercy and Conversion for the Twenty-first Century (Lexington Books, 2018)
Dissertation of the Year: Cathy Rosenholtz, University of Missouri-Columbia, This Great Prayerful Tradition: American Presidents Preaching Public Theology at the National Prayer Breakfast
Article of the Year: Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria, "A New Kind of Church: The Religious Media Conglomerate as a 'Denomination,'" Journal of Media and Religion, 17(3/4), 117-133
Student Paper of the Year: Janice Hersey, University of New Mexico, "Leave-taking, Survival, and Religious Politics of Gender: A Qualitative Sensemaking Exploration"
Scholar of the Year: Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
2018 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Monique Moultrie, Passionate and Pious: Religious Media and Black Women’s Sexuality (Duke University Press, 2017)
Dissertation of the Year: Heather Stone, University of Utah, Young Women in Mormon Homelands, 1975-2000: An Oral History Project (Director: Kimberley Mangun)
Article of the Year: Paul Lynch, "On Care for Our Common Discourse: Pope Francis’ NonModern Epideictic," Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 47, 463–482
Student Paper of the Year: Dorji Wangchuk, University of Macau, "WeChat Buddhism: Of Changes, Continuity, and Technological Affordances in Bhutan"
Scholar of the Year: Walter Jost, University of Virginia
Book of the Year: Craig Maier, Communicating Catholicism: Rhetoric, Ecclesial Leadership, and the Future of the American Roman Catholic Diocese (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016)
Dissertation of the Year: Joshua Hill, Duquesne University, The Return of Participatory Scriptural Hermeneutics in Evangelicalism: An Augustinian Philosophy of Communication (Director: Janie Harden Fritz)
Article of the Year: Kevin Coe and Christopher Chapp, "Religious Rhetoric Meets the Target Audience: Narrowcasting Faith in Presidential Elections," Communication Monographs, 84, 110-127
Student Paper of the Year: Dorji Wangchuk, University of Macau, "Buddhism and Its Influence on Communication in Bhutan: Search for the Middle Path in the Age of the Social Media"
Scholar of the Year: Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University
Book of the Year: Terry Lindvall, God Mocks: A History of Religious Satire from the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert (New York University Press, 2015).
Dissertation of the Year: Mark Paustian, Martin Luther College, The Beauty of the Veil: Validating the Strategies of Kierkegaardian Indirect Communication through a Close Christological Reading of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Article of the Year: Scott Stroud, "Pragmatism and the Pursuit of Social Justice in India: Bhimrao Ambedkar and the Rhetoric of Religious Reorientation," Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 46, 5-27.
Student Paper of the Year: No award given
Scholar of the Year: Tony Campolo, Eastern University
2015 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Michael John DePalma and Jeffrey M. Ringer (Eds.), Mapping Christian Rhetorics: Connecting Conversations, Charting New Territories (Routledge, 2015)
Dissertation of the Year: Sunny Lie, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Beholders of the Truth, Predestined to Be Saved: The Communication of Chinese Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Christian (CIREC) Identity (Director: Donal Carbaugh)
Article of the Year: John B. Hatch, "Incongruity, Irony, and Maturity in Contemporary Worship Music: An Extended Burkean Analysis of A Collision," Journal of Communication and Religion, 37, 68-101.
Student Paper of the Year: No award given
Scholar of the Year: E. James Baesler, Old Dominion University
2014 RCA Scholarship Awards
2013 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: William D. Romanowski, Calvin College, Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies (Oxford University Press, 2012)
Dissertation of the Year: Christy E. Mesaros-Winckles, Bowling Green State University, Only God Knows the Opposition We Face: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century Free Methodist Women's Quest for Ordination (Director: Ellen Gorsevski)
Article of the Year: Margaret M. Poloma and Matthew T. Lee, University of Akron, "Prophetic Prayer as Two-Way Communication with the Divine," Journal of Communication and Religion, 35, 271-294
Student Paper of the Year: Jamie Downing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, An Ancient Modern Rhetoric: Calling upon Traditional Rhetorical Practice in the Fight for Jewish Emancipation
Scholar of the Year: Robert H. Woods Jr., Spring Arbor University
2012 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Thomas M. Lessl, University of Georgia, Rhetorical Darwinism (Baylor University Press, 2012)
Dissertation of the Year: Elizabeth Molina-Markham, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Listening Faithfully with Friends: An Ethnography of Quaker Communication Practices (Director: Donal Carbaugh)
Article of the Year: Jon P. Radwan, Seton Hall University, "Contact Rhetoric: Bodies and Love in Deus Caritas Est," Rhetoric & Public Affairs 15, 41-93
Student Paper of the Year: Marissa E. Lowe, University of Illinois, Billy Graham's Cold War Rhetoric: Evangelical and Civil Religious Revival
Scholar of the Year: Fr. James Martin, S.J.
2011 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Kristy Maddux, University of Maryland, The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities (Baylor University Press, 2010)
Dissertation of the Year: Jason R. Moyer, University of Iowa, Not Just Civil Religion: Theology in the Cases of Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy, and Barack Obama
Article of the Year: Andre E. Johnson, Memphis Theological Seminary, "The Prophetic Persona of James Cone and the Rhetorical Theology of Black Theology," Black Theology, 8, 266-285
Student Paper of the Year: Cathy Rosenholtz, University of Missouri-Columbia, A Pastor, a Rabbi and an Imam walk into a Newscast: A Content Analysis of the Use of Religious Experts on the U.S. Evening News
Scholar of the Year: Tina Harris, University of Georgia
2010 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Michael P. Graves, Liberty University, Preaching the Inward Light: Early Quaker Rhetoric (Baylor University Press, 2009)
Dissertation of the Year: Walter Thomas Viner, University of Memphis, Logic of the Heart: Alexander Campbell's Rhetoric and Hermeneutics on Christian Identity, Slavery, and Church Organization (Director: John A. Campbell)
Article of the Year: Thomas M. Lessl, University of Georgia, "The Innate Religiosity of Public Life: A Fortiori Argument," Journal of Communication and Religion, 32, 319-346
Student Paper of the Year: Michael Souders, University of Kansas, Truthing it in Love: Henry Ward Beecher's Homiletic Theories of Truth, Beauty, Love, and the Christian Faith
Scholar of the Year: Richard J. Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary
2009 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; Lela Gilbert, Hudson Institute; and Roberta Green Ahmanson, Journalist, Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Dissertation of the Year: Brian T. Kaylor, University of Missouri-Columbia, I'm a Believer: Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics (Director: Mitchell S. McKinney)
Article of the Year: James M. Farrell, University of New Hampshire, "The Rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine's Confessions," Augustinian Studies, 39, 265-291
Student Paper of the Year: Pavica Sheldon, Louisiana State University, Jesus Matters: Gender and Religiosity Impact on Forgiveness Behavior and Conflict Avoidance
Scholar of the Year: Charles Taylor, McGill University
2008 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Terry Lindvall, Virginia Wesleyan College, Sanctuary Cinema: Origins of the Christian Film Industry (New York University Press, 2007)
Dissertation of the Year: Craig Maier, Duquesne University, Seizing the Catholic Moment: Kairos and the Rhetoric of Diocesan Administration
Article of the Year: Michael P. Graves, Liberty University, "Travelers Here in this Vale of Tears: William Penn Preaches a Funeral Sermon," Quaker Studies, 12, 7-25
Student Paper of the Year: Andrew Swenson, Concordia University, Uncovering Hidden Tensions in University Discourse: A Case Study Using an Unconventional Reading of McGee's Ideograph
Scholar of the Year: No award given
2007 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Mark Allan Steiner, Christopher Newport University, The Rhetoric of Operation Rescue: Projecting the Christian Pro-Life Message (Blooomsbury Academic, 2006)
Dissertation of the Year: Christine Gardner, Wheaton College, Choosing to Wait: Rhetorical Agency as Persuasion in the Evangelical Sexual Abstinence Movement in the United States and Africa
Article of the Year: Richard Hardin, University of Kansas, "Apocalypse Then: Tamburlaine and the Pleasures of Religious Fear," Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance, 3, 31-42.
Student Paper of the Year: Katie Rush, University of Georgia, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its Quest For Unity
Scholar of the Year: Michael Casey, Pepperdine University
2006 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Peter A. Verkruyse, Illinois College, Prophet, Pastor, and Patriarch: The Rhetorical Leadership of Alexander Campbell (University of Alabama Press, 2005)
Dissertation of the Year: Jin Kyu Park, University of Colorado-Boulder, Media, Religion, and Culture in Contemporary Korea: Production and Reception of Religious Symbolism in a Daily TV Serial
Article of the Year: Ned O'Gorman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, "Telling the Truth: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Rhetorical Discourse Ethic," Journal of Communication and Religion, 28, 224-248
Student Paper of the Year: Penelope Helen Sheets, University of Washington, Presidential Religious Speech: An Historical and Legal Context for the Use of Religious Language in State of the Union Addresses
Scholar of the Year: Martin J. Medhurst, Baylor University
2005 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Stephen Webb, Wabash College, The Divine Voice: Christian Proclamation and the Theology of Sound (Brazos Press, 2004)
Article of the Year: Thomas Lessl, "The Mythological Conditioning of Scientific Naturalism," Journal of Communication and Religion, 28, 23-46
Dissertation of the Year: Kristin Emery Saldine, Princeton Theological Seminary, Preaching God Visible: Geo-Rhetoric and the Theological appropriation of Landscape Imagery in the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
Student Paper of the Year (Tie): Monika Alston, University of Maryland, Exploring the Rhetorical Form of "Testifyin" in the Rhetoric of Maria W. Stewart; Benjamin Kruger, Pennsylvania State University, Strategic Prophecy and the Rhetoric of Arab Pan-Nationalism: The Case of Saddam Hussein's September 5, 1990 Call for Jihad
Scholar of the Year: Ronald C. Arnett, Duquesne University
2004 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Quentin Schultze, Calvin College, Christianity and the Mass Media in America: Towards a Democratic Accommodation (Michigan State University Press, 2003)
Article of the Year: David A. Frank, University of Oregon, "The Jewish Countermodel: Talmudic Argumentation, the New Rhetorical Project, and the Classical Tradition of Rhetoric," Journal of Communication and Religion, 26, 163‑194
Dissertation of the Year: Thomas J. Carmody, Regent University, "Arise and Stand Forth": A Fantasy Theme Analysis of American Clergy and Their Calls for Social Action in the Nineteenth Century Anti‑dueling Movement, 1804‑1856
Student Paper of the Year: Samuel McCormick, University of Iowa, On Awakening the Numinous in Others
Scholar of the Year: Quentin Schultze, Calvin College
2003 RCA Scholarship Awards
Book of the Year: Robin Riley, University of Cincinnati, Faith, Film, and Cultural Conflict: The Case of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (Praeger, 2003)
Article of the Year: Nancy Eckstein, Wheaton College, and Paul Turman, University of Northern Iowa, "Children are to be Seen and not Heard: Silencing Students' Religious Voices in the University Classroom," Journal of Communication and Religion, 25, 166-192
Dissertation of the Year: Kevin D. Miller, University of Kentucky, Religious Identity and Discourse of the Other: A Narrative Analysis of the Subordinate Role of the Jew in the Apocalyptic Texts of Two Christian Groups
Lifetime Achievement Award: Em Griffin, Wheaton College