{"id":6760,"date":"2026-09-30T13:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/?p=6760"},"modified":"2026-09-30T13:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:52:16","slug":"letter-from-the-director-september-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/2026\/09\/30\/letter-from-the-director-september-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter From The Director: September 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span>Back-to-School 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span>By: Michelle Amazeen<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s been a busy start to the fall semester at the Communication Research Center (CRC)! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We kicked off our fall programming on September 10<sup>th<\/sup> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DdZUirNESBV\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">a joint Open House<\/a> celebrating the CRC and MISI\u2019s (Media Innovation &amp; Social Impact) refreshed research hub and our goal to create a more collaborative and convergent research community in COM and beyond. We walked through the evolution of the CRC from 1959 to today and marked MISI\u2019s first successful year of meaningful work at the intersection of media, innovation, and social impact. Thank you to everyone who came out to connect, celebrate, and look ahead to what&#8217;s next.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/crc-lecture-series\/colloquium-series\/\">Colloquium Series<\/a> was led off on September 24<sup>th<\/sup> by Dr. April Yue with her talk, \u201cWorking While Autistic &#8211; Communication, Disclosure, and Inclusion in the Workspace.\u201d Dr. Yue explored how autistic employees experience disclosure, workplace relationships, accommodation, belonging, and well-being. If you missed it, you can access a recording <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/crc-lecture-series\/colloquium-series\/\">on our website<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Be sure to mark your calendars for the rest of the CRC\u2019s lineup of presentations:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span>Thursday, October 29 \u2013 3:30 pm:<\/span><\/strong><span> Prof. Brooke Williams, \u201cLocalized Satellite Data for Environmental Justice: A Tool for Climate Change Communication and Action.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span>Wednesday, November 11 \u2013 3:30 pm:<\/span><\/strong><span> Dr. Morgan Weiland, \u201c<\/span>Courtroom as Laboratory: The Social Production of the Internet as a Speech System.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Additionally, as part of our <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/crc-lecture-series\/defleur-distinguished-lectures\/\">Dr. Melvin L. DeFleur Distinguished Lecture Series<\/a>, we will welcome <a href=\"https:\/\/sjmc.wisc.edu\/news\/staff\/dhavan-v-shah\/\">Dr. Dhavan Shah<\/a>, McLeod Professor of Communication Research in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Join us on <strong>Friday, November 20 at 3:30 pm<\/strong> for his talk (TBD) followed by a reception at 4:30 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/crc\/files\/2026\/09\/Picture-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"127\" height=\"168\" class=\"wp-image-6762 alignright\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span>We&#8217;ve also refreshed our Work-in-Progress meetings, renaming them as <strong>Tuesday Pizza Lunches<\/strong> \u2013 a tongue-in-cheek name, since they&#8217;re never actually on Tuesdays! They&#8217;ve also m<\/span><span>oved to a bi-monthly format with complimentary pizza.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>These informal gatherings are a space to share work, test ideas, workshop a study design, troubleshoot data, or simply think through a project aloud. Whether you&#8217;re in the early brainstorming phase or polishing a paper, this is an opportunity to get feedback, move projects forward, and connect with colleagues. We welcome faculty, fellows, postdocs, and PhD students, primarily from communication, but open to collaborators from other departments as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Many thanks to <strong>Dr. Ayse Lokmanoglu<\/strong> for leading the meetings this year. Interested in joining? Our October meeting dates are <strong>Wednesday, October 14<sup>th<\/sup><\/strong> and <strong>Thursday, October 29<sup>th<\/sup><\/strong>, always at 12:30 pm in the CRC. Sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1VzNwD3dj46GC6_XokRtl7ORwlopK8XsBXPYhmHhZA2o\/edit?gid=0#gid=0\">here<\/a>, and check out future meeting dates. Feel free to spread the word to colleagues across campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wishing you all a productive and inspiring fall semester. I look forward to seeing you around campus\u2014and especially at the CRC! If you have ideas about how we can make the CRC an even better space for our community, I&#8217;d love to hear them. Please reach out anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back-to-School 2026 By: Michelle Amazeen It\u2019s been a busy start to the fall semester at the Communication Research Center (CRC)! We kicked off our fall programming on September 10th with a joint Open House celebrating the CRC and MISI\u2019s (Media Innovation &amp; Social Impact) refreshed research hub and our goal to create a more collaborative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,72],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6763,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760\/revisions\/6763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/crc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}