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Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) is pleased to announce that Professor Tom Nakayama, Communication Studies, has been named a National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar. The National Communication Association (NCA) is a non-profit scholarly society founded in 1914 to advance the discipline of Communication in all forms, modes, media, and consequences. This honor recognizes Professor Nakayama’s lifetime of scholarly achievement in the study of human communication, replete with powerful and ground-breaking contributions to the discipline, as well as his considerable contributions to NCA. The NCA Distinguished Scholar Award, which was created in 1991, showcases the very best of the communication profession. Congratulations, Professor Nakayama!

Dr. Nakayama’s career is long and illustrious, and is filled with unique and influential contributions to the field. Dr. Nakayama is among the foremost scholars in the field of critical race studies and intercultural communication; his textbook on intercultural communication, used at college and universities across the country, has been cited more than 1,250 times. He introduced intersectionality to the discipline and co-authored what is deemed the definitive essay about Whiteness and rhetoric, entitled “Whiteness: The Social Communication of Identity.” This essay was awarded the NCA’s Charles Woolbert Award, the association’s highest honor for a distinguished essay that has had a long and deep influence in the field.

“NCA’s annual awards honor communication scholars’ teaching, scholarship, and service,” NCA Executive Director Trevor Parry-Giles said. “Dr. Nakayama’s contributions to the communication discipline are noteworthy, and NCA is proud to recognize them with this award.”

Dr. Nakayama has also authored or co-authored a dozen books (including three widely used textbooks published now in multiple editions: Human Communication in Society, Experiencing Intercultural Communication, and Intercultural Communication in Contexts) and more than fifty book chapters and journal articles. His scholarship has been cited more than 5,000 times according to Google Scholar, an impact factor that sets him apart from all but a handful of other scholars in the field of critical communication studies. He has served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, a flagship journal of the National Communication Association, and of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. He is also the editor of a book series at Peter Lang Publishers.

Professor Nakayama has been a member of NCA for decades, during which time he has served on several boards, including the publications and finance boards. He is one of four recipients of this year’s Distinguished Scholar Award, and will be publicly recognized and applauded at the NCA Annual Convention in November.