news building bridges and transforming lives september 15 2020 building bridges and transforming lives srividya srivi ramasubramanian phd has recently been honored with national awards in recognition of her research publishing and teaching on media diversity and social justice as a member of the department of communication at texas a&m university by hannah brennan srividya srivi ramasubramanian phd has recently been honored with a national award in recognition of her research publishing and teaching on media diversity and social justice as a member of the department of communication at texas a&m university dr srivi as she is fondly known among students and by colleagues will be presented with the 2020 gerald m phillips award for distinguished applied communication scholarship during the 106th national communication association virtual convention on nov 21 the nca described her community-based diversity and media literacy initiatives as a revolutionary approach that exemplifies the essence of the award as it shows how applied communication scholars can simultaneously and collaboratively infuse pressing social issues in communication research that bridges local and global communities just days after the nca award was announced dean pam matthews announced that dr srivi will receive a college-level association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching during the college of liberal arts deans reception on oct 28 the annual award recognizes and rewards superior classroom teachers in addition to these new honors dr srivi is a presidential impact fellow professor of communication and liberal arts cornerstone faculty fellow at texas a&m both her difficult dialogues project and media rise initiative were inspired by dr srivis focus on marginalized groups having a voice in the media space as a professor she noted she always works collaboratively with her students on projects and emphasized their contribution to the awards right now we have 18 graduates and undergrads from all over campus working in the difficult dialogues project said dr srivi without the support of all my students none of this could happen difficult dialogues was founded in 2016 as a space to have conversations on difficult topics dr srivi explained since the pandemic the project has moved completely to online meetings via zoom her other initiative media rise connects educators community groups and industry professionals to promote media for social good recently she invited people from around the world to submit their stories of experiences during the pandemic for a blog series called quarantined across borders left to right: asha winfield anthony ramirez ramin chaboki darzabi srividya ramasubramanian difficult dialogues on campus has been orchestrated 26 times co-founded by professors in the department of communication to address campus race relations and past instances of racism on the texas a&m campus the next difficult dialogue is scheduled for sept 18 communication is such an important part of healing and transformation said dr ramasubramanian forever we will have these stories like an archive building bridges to join multiple groups of people is the hope that drives dr srivis work only two other members of the texas a&m faculty have had their scholarship recognized with the nca applied communication award; dr srivi is the first person of color in the discipline to receive this prestigious national award im very happy to be the first person but in a way its kind of disappointing that its 2020 said dr srivi we still have more work to do within the communication discipline especially now dr srivi believes that social distancing is making it harder to seek connections to new people she is currently working with her students to create interactive online spaces that will be available to marginalized communities to have honest conversations on meaningful topics it is just one more example of how dr srivis work moves from research into the world where it connects people and transforms lives this award is richly deserved said hart blanton department head of communication at texas a&m professor ramasubramanian shows how educators can make a difference by sharing their lessons with their communities dept news events faculty communication department of communication difficult dialogues difficult dialogues on campus race relations difficult dialogues project difficult dialogues texas dr srivi difficult dialogues dr srivi ramasubramanian dr srivi ramasubramanian nca faculty hannah brennan hannahbrennan in the media media literacy media rise medialiteracy mediarise national communication association nationalcommunicationassociation nca nca applied communication award ncaappliedcommunication award presidential impact fellow presidentialimpactfellow professor ramasubramanian professorramasubramanian quarantined across borders quarantinedacrossborders research resources srivi srivi communication tamu srivi difficult dialogues srivi nca applied communication award srivi quarantined across borders srivi ramasubramanian srivi ramasubramanian difficult dialogues srivi ramasubramanian media rise srivi tamu tamu tamu difficult dialogues tamu dr srivi ramasubramanian tamu media rise tamu srivi tamu srivi ramasubramanian tamudifficultdialogues texas a&m texas a&m srivi texas a&m university communication