2015-17 President’s Welcome
Dear KACA members:
I hope this message finds you all in good health and fine spirit!
I am truly honored to serve as the 14th President of the Korean American Communication Association (KACA) that has long been established in the communication field since 1978.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our members who have been dedicated to helping KACA move forward as a premier academic association over the several decades. My special thanks go to those who served as officers, including former presidents for their tireless commitment, enthusiasm, and support.
With its rich history and tradition, KACA must go on with continuing the ongoing efforts and succeeding the legacy from the previous years. In doing so, KACA will continue to foster in the following areas:
First, KACA has obtained a nonprofit status from IRS. This nonprofit status spurs our goals and missions for academic achievement and network building through a vast array of activities and endeavors. Most of all, KACA can actively fundraise in generating resources toward benefiting our members in respective areas of research, teaching, service and beyond.
Second, KACA will continue to grow through an increased membership size as Korean scholarship has exponentially grown, quantitatively and qualitatively. Toward that end, KACA will continue to encourage more active participation from members by building a more collegial and collaborative intellectual environment.
Third, KACA will continue to collaborate with Korean Association of Broadcasting & Telecommunication Studies (KABS) to launch a new journal. It is expected that the new journal in conjunction with Routledge, a Talyor and Francis publishing group, will publish its first issue in Spring or Summer 2017.
While keeping the tradition and legacy alive, KACA will initiate the following activities and projects among others:
First, KACA will organize a steering committee to prepare celebrating the 40th anniversary in 2018. To achieve global relevancy, KACA will continue to reach out to other professional associations, such as Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (KSJCS) and Chinese Communication Association (CCA) while keeping the collaborative tradition alive with three major professional associations: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), International Communication Association (ICA), and National Communication Association (NCA). In doing so, KACA will also consider joining global consortiums such as World Journalism Education Council.
Second, KACA will initiate new awards granting research and dissertation awards through competitive grant proposals. These are new awards in addition to the awards we currently bestow, such as top faculty and student awards for each conference, AEJMC, ICA, and NCA, as well as distinguished service award, outstanding student award, and travel grants for graduate students. KACA through various types of awards will stimulate high quality research to pursue excellence in scholarship.
Third, KACA will make full use of its homepage by which our members share useful academic and professional resources and build strong networks through various communication ways, such as bulletin board, newsletters, and social media venues. KACA will also organize regular officers’ meetings and/or business meetings in three major conferences where KACA will encourage members to communicate with each other and continue to build a caring environment through mentoring programs.
Without KACA members’ active participation, KACA may not be able to accomplish its missions and goals. I highly urge you all to greet each other at conferences, submit your scholarly works to various KACA sessions, and serve as mentors for graduate students and emerging scholars so that we can become colleagues and friends. Let’s continue to keep our rich history and legacy alive.
I am so looking forward to working with you all for the upcoming years!
ON KACA!!
SEUNGAHN NAH
President, 2015-2017