Karla Vazquez has been awarded a 2026 Graduate Division Mentoring Award in recognition of her outstanding mentorship of undergraduates! The Graduate Division notes that this award honors the time, care, and leadership she brings to her mentorship.

Jennifer Kam has earned the 2026 International Communication Association Applied/Public Policy Research Award. This honors a scholar or group of scholars who has or have produced a systematic and outstanding body of research that addresses a significant communication problem of relevance to a public representing one or more groups of stakeholders relevant to a division(s) or interest group(s) of ICA. Individual or collaborative applied research programs which include community engagement, group and organizational interventions, or advocacy and/or political policy work at the local, national, international and/or global levels are all appropriate candidates for this award.

Dan Lane will be a fellow of the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement for 2026-2027. These scholars and practitioners will spend the next eighteen months examining pressing issues impacting expression, higher education and democracy. This new cohort’s research will build on the Center’s rich body of work equipping students, staff, faculty and other higher education professionals with tools and resources to navigate the evolving challenges facing colleges and universities today. Dan’s project is “AI as a Civic Educator: Artificial Intelligence and the Civic Future of American College Students.”

In 1998, the GSA established the Travis Dixon GSA Service Award to recognize graduate student Travis Dixon’s many years of service to the GSA. In 2002, the GSA renamed the Dixon-Levy GSA Service Award to recognize graduate student Alan Levy’s many years of service to the GSA. The dual name of the award acknowledges that service to graduate students at UC Santa Barbara comes in many forms, not only through serving as an elected GSA officer but also through the advocacy of graduate student interests in various ways. Bedlam Oak won the 2026 award.

Kyungin Kim won a Graduate Student Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes graduate students who have shown excellence and gone above and beyond as teachers at UC Santa Barbara.

Professor Weber and former graduate student, now Associate Professor at UC Davis, Richard Huskey won the 2026 Outstanding Contribution to Communication Science Award from the Communication Science and Biology Interest Group of the International Communication Association. The Award is granted biennially to recognize exceptional empirical research or theoretical contributions to the field of communication communication science, such as standout peer-reviewed journal article or book published within the two years prior.

Veronica Wilson was awarded the initial 2026 McKenzie Research Accelerator Fellowship. This donor gift is matched by Graduate Division Funds in order to provide an award for top-ranked students with substantial research expenses, and free the winner up from employment to devote their full attention to their research.

Howie Giles and two co-editors (Markowitz and Clementson) received the 4th. Jake Harwood Outstanding Book Award from the International Association of Language and Social Psychology, at the 2026 conference in Tucson, AZ. The title is New directions for, and panaceas arising from, Communication Accommodation Theory (2025), published by Peter Lang.