Dr. Christian Vukasovich, assistant professor of Communication and Media Studies, won the 2021 Top Faculty Paper Award from the National Communication Association’s Critical and Cultural Studies Division for a paper titled “Emboldened Voices on Display: ‘Unite the Right’ and the Rise of Radical White Supremacist Populism Transforming the American Visual Discourse.” This research investigates the power of subtly coded visual discourses mainstreaming hate ideologies at the “Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville.
He also received the 2020 Top Paper in Peace & Conflict Communication Research award from the National Communication Association for a paper titled “At the Crossroads of Media and Fear: Using Nightmares to Sell War and Conflict.” This research, co-authored with Tamara Dejanovic-Vukasovich, explores how fear appeals were used to dehumanize and justify bombing civilian targets while claiming the moral high ground in Western news reports during the 1999 NATO ‘humanitarian intervention’ against Serbia.