BEA2026

The annual BEA Board Awards Ceremony recognizes some of the best faculty and graduate student work in research, as well as our scholarship winners and the very best leadership and service to BEA. Join us at the ceremony to honor this year’s distinguished award recipients.

Host: Jennifer Meadows, Chico State University

Our 2026 Awardees include:
Distinguished Education Service Award Recipient: Rebecca Ann Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago
Lifetime Achievement in Scholarship: Shuhua Zhou, City University of Hong Kong
Lifetime Achievement in Creative Scholarship: Steve Anderson & John Woody, James Madison University

Outgoing Board Members & Editors:
Immediate Past President: Glenda Balas, University of North Texas – Dallas
Secretary/Treasurer: Kathleen Ryan, University of Colorado Boulder
District 3: Sara Magee Loyola University Maryland
District 7: Brian L. Shelton, Harper College

Festival of Media Arts Committee Chair: Heather Dunn, Arizona State University
Publications Committee Chair: Joe Blaney, Illinois State University
Research Committee Chair: Michel Haigh, Texas State University
Research Symposium Chair: Seungahn Nah, University of Florida

Kenneth Harwood Dissertation Award Recipient: Grace M. Provenzano, Arizona State University
Innovation in Teaching Award: Milton Santiago, Syracuse University
Library of American of American Broadcasting Foundation’s Broadcast Historian Award:  
Lauren Bratslavsky, Illinois State University and Elizabeth Peterson, University of Oregon; The Archivability of Television: Essays on Preservation and Perseverance 
The Leibner Cooper Grant for Creative Productions on the History of Media:  Danielle Beverly, University of Texas at Arlington; Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed 
Book Award: Margaret Peacock, University of Alabama; Frequencies of Deceit: How Global Propaganda Wars Shaped the Middle East
Textbook Award:  Chris Easterly, Regent University; Writing, Making, and Distributing Your Short Film: How the Short Film Can Advance Your Craft and Career

2026 BEA Research Grant Recipients:
Judy Watts, University of Kansas; Persuaded or Dissuaded from Entertainment? Exploring Media Storytelling Techniques and Audience Characteristics 
Nan Zheng & Chengqu Guo, James Madison University; Creator Logic and User Trust: Understanding News Engagement on Short-Video Platforms 
Lauren Smith, Rowan University; Gendered Aesthetics as Causal Agents: Visual Excitement and Cognitive Effects in Olympic Broadcasts 
Gregory Pitts, Middle Tennessee State University & Madeleine Liselblad, California State University, Long Beach; News slanting: The Federal Communications Commission versus George A. Richards’s Goodwill Stations, Inc.

2026-2027 BEA Scholarship Recipients & AERho class of 2025 will also be recognized.

This extended high density session highlights the breadth of recent research and teaching about race and media, with extensions into gender and class. Panelists will present brief overviews of their original research or teaching techniques, and then open to further discussion with the audience. Topics include identity-focused news sites, news coverage of Muslim women activists, the ambiguous Latina in Barbie, arguments about Native American mascots, Black identity in The Blackening, explainer podcasts in teaching, African American and African Immigrant perspectives on casting in Black historical films, and race and class in Abbott Elementary.

Moderator: Brad Gorham, Syracuse University
Panelists:
Christopher S. Josey, University of Missouri, Tanner Smith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign & Julius Matthew Riles, University of Missouri; Breaking the model: Examining the content of Asian American identity focused news sites

Meriem Mechehoud, Independent Scholar; Framing Muslim Women Activists Abroad: Audience Perceptions and the Power of Stereotypes

Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez, University of Nevada, Las Vegas & Raisa F. Alvarado, California State University, San Bernardino; The Ambiguous Latina in Barbie

C. Richard King, Columbia College, Chicago; Seances and Spiritualists: Undead Indian Mascots and Rhetorics of Resuscitation

Derek Blackwell, Prairie View A & M University & Gretta Blackwell, Prairie View A & M University; “You Got Some ‘Splaining To Do”? Exploring the Pedagogical Potential of Explainers in Media Studies Classrooms

Adelaja Oriade, Denison University; Contesting Authenticity: African American and African Immigrant Audience Perspectives on Casting in Black Historical Films

Betsy Pike, Ball State University & Robert Alan Brookey, Ball State University; Class is Not Dismissed: Abbott Elementary and Approaches to Inequality

Andrew C. Billings, University of Alabama & Yifan Wu, University of Alabama; Fairness or Fear?: Media Coverage of Trans, Intersex, and Sex-Tested Female Athletes

Respondent: Rebecca Ann Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago

RADAR Scholar Office Hours is our one-of-a-kind, feedback and community building program designed to connect you with senior researchers within the BEA community. BEA wants to help you maximize your conference experience by helping you with your research career or engaging your intellectual curiosity. We’ve tailored our RADAR Scholar Office Hours program to support researchers in terms of attendees interested in getting feedback on their research projects, as well as other senior scholar BEA members interested in engaging in dialogue about the practice of research.

These are ONE-ON-ONE office hours.  One person can sign up per time slot.

CORY ARMSTRONG's research focus is on: gender, disaster communication, news content, decision-making

Approaches: Quantitative

Methods: Case study
Experiment
Quantitative
Survey
Meta-analysis
Focus group

Stats: Yes

BEA members can sign up for on-on-one meetings with RADAR Scholars to:

• Get feedback on a study idea
• Design a study using a method
• Engage in discussions of research
• Learn about research best practices
• Understand epistemological approaches to knowledge-making
• Discuss RPT
• Learn about making theoretical arguments
• Write persuasively about contributions for academic publications
• Structure journal article papers
• Respond to reviewers
• Discuss the next stages of your conference presentation/paper
• Discuss grant funding
• Present research at conferences
• Get data analytic advice

RADAR Scholar Office Hours is our one-of-a-kind, feedback and community building program designed to connect you with senior researchers within the BEA community. BEA wants to help you maximize your conference experience by helping you with your research career or engaging your intellectual curiosity. We’ve tailored our RADAR Scholar Office Hours program to support researchers in terms of attendees interested in getting feedback on their research projects, as well as other senior scholar BEA members interested in engaging in dialogue about the practice of research.

These are ONE-ON-ONE office hours.  One person can sign up per time slot.

CORY ARMSTRONG's research focus is on: gender, disaster communication, news content, decision-making

Approaches: Quantitative

Methods: Case study
Experiment
Quantitative
Survey
Meta-analysis
Focus group

Stats: Yes

BEA members can sign up for on-on-one meetings with RADAR Scholars to:

• Get feedback on a study idea
• Design a study using a method
• Engage in discussions of research
• Learn about research best practices
• Understand epistemological approaches to knowledge-making
• Discuss RPT
• Learn about making theoretical arguments
• Write persuasively about contributions for academic publications
• Structure journal article papers
• Respond to reviewers
• Discuss the next stages of your conference presentation/paper
• Discuss grant funding
• Present research at conferences
• Get data analytic advice

Moderator: Roger Allman , Grand Valley State University

Open Paper Competition
1st Place: Femi Emmanuel Folorunsho, Ball State University; Reimagining Heroism: Female Empowerment and Leadership in Marvel's Fantastic Four (2025)

2nd Place: Cheng-Nan Hou, I-Shou University; From Print to Platform: Queer Media, Cultural Activism, and Pedagogical Transformation in Taiwan’s Pink Economy

Patrick M. Johnson, Indiana University Northwest; Gay for Play: Homocapitalism in the Video Gaming Industry

Dustin Serrano Ardine, Regent University; Queer Theory and Identity

Important conversations start here.  Join us as we explore media, identity, representation, and the issues that matter most in this moment.

Connect with colleagues, exchange new ideas, and help shape exciting initiatives for the coming year. These meetings are a welcoming space to build community, spark collaboration, and make your voice part of the conversation. Whether you’re a returning member or attending for the first time, this is a valuable opportunity to network with peers, share insights, and play an active role in your division’s future. We’d love to see you there.

Chair: Patrick M Johnson, Indiana University Northwest
Vice Chair/Paper Competition Chair: Roger Allman, Grand Valley State University

Diversity in media representation matters. Although we’ve made great strides in the depiction of gender, LGBTQ+, ethnicity, and body type in today’s media, stereotypes still abound, and today we face new challenges heretofore unforeseen. What exactly does the future hold? This panel seeks to promote discussion of prevalent and controversial issues related to depiction of the “Other” in media, and explores how we as educators can better teach them.
Moderator: Roger Allman, Grand Valley State University
Panelists: Jennifer Rachel Billinson, Syracuse University
Victor D. Evans, Seattle University
Alexandra M. Vilela, James Madison University

Back by popular demand, it's time for Closing Cocktails!  And we are heading back to the Westgate Hotel & Casino!  Meet us at ZEN (right in front of Benihana) for a drink to celebrate BEA2026.