Sánchez Sánchez wins prestigious dissertation award

Virginia Sánchez Sánchez, assistant professor of communication, recently received the 2020 Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association, or NCA. Given annually, the award recognizes new scholars who complete outstanding dissertations during the previous academic year.

Sánchez Sánchez was recognized for her dissertation, “‘Dando Las Gracias A Mis Papás’: A Discursive Analysis of Perceptions of Policy and ‘Callings’ Across Generations of Latinx Immigrants,” completed at Purdue University.

U.S. rhetoric that embraces immigration is juxtaposed with the lived experiences of Latinx immigrants, the country’s largest immigrant group. Immigration policies portray immigrants negatively, contrasting deserving/good with undeserving/bad. This study investigates how immigrants from different generations make sense of policy, immigrant portrayals and their lives through the lens of “calling.” Semi-structured interviews were conducted with different generations of immigrants. The main theoretical contribution of this study suggests that callings can be enacted and fulfilled intergenerationally.

“NCA’s annual awards honor communication scholars’ teaching, scholarship and service,” Trevor Parry-Giles, NCA executive director, said. “NCA is proud to recognize Dr. Sánchez Sánchez’s significant contributions to the Communication discipline with this award.”

Sánchez Sánchez’s award will be presented virtually on Nov. 21 at the NCA 106th Annual Convention. For more information about NCA’s awards program, click here.

The NCA advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among their faculties, within their membership, in the workplace and in the classroom. NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.

For more information about NCA, click here.