MEA @ ECA 2026

As an affiliate organization, the MEA is sponsoring a number of panels at this year’s ECA convention. There are also some great panels sponsored by our mutual affiliate organizations IGS and UCF. What this means is that there is a lot of programming related to media ecology at this year’s ECA. If you are not a regular ECA attendee, I hope you can make it.

—Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University, MEA’s Liaison to ECA

Draft Program

Thursday, April 9: 11:30 am–12:45 pm

Paper Panel: “Emerging Intersections of Media Ecology: Gender, Culture, Health, and Reason”

• Chair: Heather Stassen, Daemen University
• Respondent: Brent Malin, University of Pittsburgh
• Papers:
  • Susan Drucker, Hofstra University & Urban Communication Foundation: “Voices In The Street Revisited: Explorations In Gender, Media, And Public Space”
  • Grace Foley, Fordham University & IGS: “The Emergence of Irish Nationhood: Language, Culture and Communication”
  • Noura Hajjaj, Duquesne University: “Mobile Media and Public Health Communication”
  • Laura Trujillo Liñán, Universidad Panamericana: “The Emergency of Enlightenment: Reclaiming Human Reason in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”
  • Peggy Cassidy, Adelphi University: “Intercultural Perspectives on the Media and Methods of Family Kin Keeping”

Thursday, April 9: 2:30–3:45 pm

Competitive Paper Panel: “Conflict, Resistance and Spirituality: Media Ecology Approaches”

• Chair: Tiffany Petricini, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
• Respondent: Christina Knopf, SUNY Cortland
• Papers:
  • Brian Gilchrist, Pennsylvania College of Technology: “Medieval Media Ecology: A Media Analysis of The Battle of Hastings”
  • Hamdi Echkaou, Indiana University of Pennsylvania: “Digital discursive resistance mapped by the GenZ212 & February 20th movement networks in Morocco”
  • Ryan Eisenhuth, Ohio University: “A Divine Connection in Your Pocket? Probing the Ambivalent Companionship of Text With Jesus”
  • Joshua Clements, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College: “Shadows and Everything Between: What Is Lost in Digital Environments”

Friday, April 10: 1:30–2:45 pm

Roundtable: “Systems, Rhetoric, and Phenomenology: A Discussion of Media Ecology’s Emergence”

• Chair: Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University
• Panelists:
  • Ryan Eisenhuth, Ohio University
  • Erik Garrett, Duquesne University
  • Thom Gencarelli, Manhattan University
  • Brent Malin, University of Pittsburgh
  • Tiffany Petricini, Penn State Erie - The Behrend College
  • Lance Strate, Fordham University
  • Laura Trujillo Liñán, Universidad Panamericana
  • Özüm Sayrak, Duquesne University

Friday, April 10: 3:00–4:15 pm

Media Ecology Business Meeting

• Chair: Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University (MEA Liaison to ECA)

Saturday, April 11: 8:30–9:45 am

Paper Panel, Co-Sponsored with Philosophy of Communication Division: “The Philosophical, Historical and Rhetorical Meaning of Food: The Medium Is the Sandwich”

• Chair: Erik Garett, Duquesne University
• Papers:
  • Laura Trujillo Liñán, Universidad Panamericana, “Eating to Be: The Ontological Path of Nourishment in Aristotle, Plato, and Epicurus”
  • Erik Garrett, Duquesne University, “Kirbiszupa for the Soul: Food and Creolization as the Immigrant’s Medium”
  • Mary Kahl, Penn State Erie - The Behrend College, “Penzey’s Political Rhetoric: Promoting Cooking and Civic Engagement”
  • Susan Drucker, Hofstra University, The Media of Food: Or the Meal is the Message”
  • Lance Strate, Fordham University, “The Other Oral Culture: Food for Thought Regarding the Raw and the Cooked”
  • Yaroub Al Obaidi, Duquesne University, “Why Does Teaching about Food Communication Matter?”