Save the Date: The Samuel L. Becker Memorial Conference, February 27-March 1, 2014 “Interesting questions are the lifeblood of any field. In our case, they must be questions that make a difference, that puzzle and stimulate, and that give some intellectual coherence to this field of communication studies.” – Samuel L. Becker, 1984 The Samuel L. Becker Memorial Conference: Interesting Questions in Health, Social Change, and Technology

From Thursday, February 27 to Saturday, March 1, 2014, the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa will host a conference honoring the life and work of Sam Becker. In Sam’s 1984 keynote address to the Central States Speech Association, he took up the theme of “interesting questions” to argue for more sustained intradisciplinary conversations among communication studies scholars, which will better enable them to address critical issues in our time. In that spirit, we have assembled a series of speakers to address the themes of health, social change, and technology, all issues of which are issues Sam addressed in his own work, are areas of central concern to communication studies, and represent thematic areas of inquiry in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. The list of speakers includes:

Dudley Andrew (Yale) Karma Chávez (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Erin Donovan-Kicken (University of Texas-Austin) Ashley Duggan (Boston College) Derek Johnson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Phaedra Pezzullo (Indiana University) John Sloop (Vanderbilt University) Lynn Spigel (Northwestern University) Ted Striphas (Indiana University) Joseph Walther (Michigan State University) In the near future, we will provide more information on the registration process. If you would like to book a room now, we have secured a block of rooms at the Sheraton for $99/night, and you can follow this link to make a reservation: https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/res?id=1306141421&key=AB64E We will also publicize information about the conference on a Facebook event page, which can be found here: www.facebook.com/events/158346821010248/ . The event page is open to everyone, and we encourage you to invite your friends to be a part of the event. If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us at becker-conference@uiowa.edu .