Muniba, Ian, Stephen, Dana, and Stewart won the 2026 NCA Social Cognition Distringuished Award for their paper “Media depictions of minority groups: A meta-analytic review examining the effects of positive and negative portrayals on outgroup evaluations” (see https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2025.2498374)
Nancy won the 2026 NCA Mass Media Dissertation Award for her Ph.D. dissertation titled I believe I can, so we did: The use of social media as an effective tool for activism for disadvantaged groups
Andy and Jeff won the 2026 NCA Interpersonal Gerald R. Miller Award for their book The social biome: How everyday communication connects and shapes us (Yale University Press)
Muniba and Ismaharif won the 2026 NCA South West Asian/North African/Middle East Caucus Outstanding Research Award, for their paper: “Testing the bi-directional influence of media and identity: A longitudinal study of Muslim American adolescents” (see https://academic.oup.com/hcr/article/51/3/153/8126633)
Walid won the 2026 NCA Mark Knapp Award for Interpersonal Communication Research (a Career Award) (see https://www.natcom.org/nca-awards/mark-l-knapp-award-interpersonal-communication/)
Alan and Norah won a 2026 Top Paper Award from the National Communication Association’s Nonverbal Communication Division! The paper, based on Alan's Master's Thesis, is titled "Visual Fireworks: A Computational Measure of the Nonverbal Communication of Passion."
Tomas Flores is an upcoming Third-year Communication and English double-major from the Central Valley, expecting to graduate in Spring 2027. In addition to being a peer advisor, Tomas serves as Executive Content Editor for The Bottom Line, a student-run UCSB Newspaper. He works part-time at the De La Guerra dining hall on campus and performs in the percussion section of UCSB's own Pop's Orchestra. In his free time, he enjoys collecting movie soundtrack vinyls, playing video games, and spending time with family and friends.
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.