congratulations to aune and hogan!

Music: Slowdive: Pygmalion (1995)

Well deserved back-slaps are in order for two mentors and frequent contributors to RoseChron: Jim Aune and Mike Hogan have been recognized by our professional organization, the National Communication Association, as "Distinguished Scholars." Distinguished Scholars are nominated and awarded only by other distinguished scholars in recognition of a lifetime of scholarly achievement in the areas of human communication (and more specifically for my ilk, rhetoric). For our field, this is an effin' big deal, like the Oscars except that it's not for one gig, but multiple gigs in print over some decades. Jim helped to pioneer a materialist turn in rhetorical studies, and Mike provided a model of rhetorical history and public address scholarship that demonstrated the powerful interanimation of text and context. It's sort of a neat pair to recognize, for Aune might be said to lean on (historical, material) context while Mike, textual specificity---a yin & yang, if you want. Both scholars have been reviewers of my work and supportive of my efforts. Both have also given me a friggin' hard time, and there's no question we've butted heads many times (y'all both share a tenacious conservative streak!). Nonetheless, I think head-butts are born of affection and care; I applaud Mike and Jim for their decades of widely read scholarship and am delighted to see them get the recognition they justly deserve.

Handclaps please!