University News

Carpenter to Deliver Wayne Thompson Lecture Oct. 25

October 23, 2023

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MACOMB, IL - - The Western Illinois University Department of Communication will host its 31st annual Wayne N. Thompson Professor Lecture at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25 in Horrabin Hall 001.

The lecture, "When Sharing Memes Backfires: The Role of Social Media Memes in Increasing Polarization," will be delivered by WIU Professor of Communication Chris Carpenter. The lecture, open free to the public, will also be available over Zoom at wiu.zoom.us/j/95425539498.

Carpenter, who came to WIU in 2010, teaches communication on the University's Quad Cities campus. He received his bachelor's degree from North Central College in Naperville, his master's degree from Northern Illinois University and his doctoral degree from Michigan State University.

He also delivered the Wayne N. Thompson Lecture in 2020 and 2016, titled "Social Media and Jealousy: Who Keeps Commenting on My Partner's Pics" and "Using Social Network Analysis to Understand Who Becomes Popular in a First-Year Residence Hall," respectively. He has been recognized for scholarly publications and was named one of the top 1% of academic publishers in 2017 and one of the top 1% of most productive communication scholars in 2023 by the Communication Education Journal. He was also awarded the 2013 and 2016 College of Fine Arts and Communication Scholarly Activity Award and the Provost's Award for Excellence in Scholarly Activity in 2016. In 2012, he was also invited to participate in a debate at the Oxford Union at Oxford University about the value of social media.

The Wayne N. Thompson Lecture is named to honor WIU alumnus Wayne Thompson, who was a nationally recognized professor of speech communication and earned his undergraduate degree at WIU. An endowment in his name helps sponsor a number of department programs to enhance learning and scholarship in the field of communication, including this lecture by a prominent scholar in the field.

For more information, contact COFAC at cofac@wiu.edu.


Posted By: Chiamaka Ezeobi (cc-ezeobi@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing