Assistant Professor Jake Dionne Honored With Early Career Research Award

Terrell Jake Dionne, assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the U of A, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award from the Southern States Communication Association, a leading regional organization for communication scholarship. The award recognizes early-career scholars who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in research and is among the association's most competitive honors.

Dionne joined the Department of Communication in 2020 after earning a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is an environmental communication scholar with expertise in legal communication. His research examines environmental law and policy, emphasizing public advocacy in the governance of land, wildlife and natural resources. He is especially known for his work on the North American Bison restoration movement, a 21st-century effort to ecologically and culturally restore bison across 22 habitats in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Since beginning his tenure-track appointment in 2023, Dionne has produced a substantial and rapidly growing body of scholarship, including eight peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter, two forum pieces and two teaching activities. His research appears in leading journals such as Environmental Communication, Communication Monographs, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, the Western Journal of Communication, the Howard Journal of Communications and Communication Teacher.

His scholarship has received national recognition from the National Communication Association. He is the recipient of the Argumentation and Forensic Division's Article of the Year Award for his work in Communication and Democracy, the Communication Law Division's Distinguished Publication Award for his article in Communication Law Review and the Philosophy of Communication, Theory, and Critique Division's Distinguished Book Chapter Award for his contribution to Ecological Feelings: A Rhetorical Compendium.

Dionne is particularly proud to receive the Rushing Award because it is named after the late Janice Hocker Rushing, a leading scholar in rhetorical and media studies and a longtime member of the Department of Communication at the U of A.