Monday, September 16, 2019

UNCW Communication Studies Professor Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock has been named the recipient of the 2019 Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education from the National Communication Association.

The award honors an NCA member who exemplifies excellence in teaching and professional achievement as evidenced by research and creative scholarship or service to the campus and community.

“I think it really highlights that the interdisciplinary applied learning focus we have at UNCW resonates with and is valued by our colleagues on the national level,” Scott-Pollock said about the recognition. “My department, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Applied Learning have provided the support and resources to allow me to create impactful curriculum that allows students to connect the communication discipline to the community and broader culture in ways that have long-lasting impacts.”

Scott-Pollock’s goal is “to teach students to recognize the power of human interaction to create and transform culture, identity and human relationships.”

In 2018, Scott-Pollock received the NCA’s Best Ethnographic Book award for her book, Embodied Performance as Applied Research Art and Pedagogy, as well the association’s awards for Best Ethnographic Research Article and Best Ethnographic Book Chapter. That same year, she was awarded the UNCW Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award. The UNCW award committee praised her for creating an interdisciplinary minor in social justice that encouraged collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.

“What is most compelling about Dr. Scott’s research and teaching is her unique ability to integrate incredibly difficult and dense cultural, performance and identity theory in ways that empower undergraduate students and scholars in the discipline to move forward in understanding the impact of storytelling and culture,” said Rick Olsen, communication studies department chair.

Scott-Pollock, a faculty member since 2010, is a past recipient of a Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award and a Distinguished Scholarly Engagement and Public Service Award. She works with New Hanover County Schools students to teach about the diversity of the human experience through the arts, and directs the UNCW Storytellers, Hawk Tale Players and Just Us: Performance Troupe for Social Justice, which showcases performers’ personal narratives of social justice. Her research focuses on how individuals can pursue social justice through understanding the personal stories of marginalized cultural members. She extends this mission in her applied learning performance classes.

“NCA’s annual awards honor communication scholars’ teaching, scholarship and service,” NCA Executive Director Trevor Parry-Giles said. “Dr. Scott-Pollock’s contributions to the communication discipline are noteworthy, and NCA is proud to recognize them with this award.”

Scott-Pollock’s award will be presented on Nov. 16 at the NCA 105th Annual Convention in Baltimore. For more information about NCA’s awards program, visit www.natcom.org/awards.

-- Venita Jenkins
#CAS