Conference Theme:

Silenced and Speaking:

Communication at the Edges of Power

The 62nd Annual ICA Conference

Sept. 25-26, 2026

Divine Word College — Epworth, Iowa

You are invited to submit competitive papers, panel discussions, workshops, and performance sessions for the Iowa Communication Association annual convention. Members are encouraged to engage the theme Silenced and Speaking: Communication at the Edges of Power.

Silencing is a practice of power. It can be overt—censorship, intimidation, retaliation—or subtle, embedded in norms of professionalism, politeness, credibility, and “civility.” At the same time, people continue to speak under constraint: through coded language, humor, story, collective voice, creative expression, and strategic disclosure. Communication at the edges of power is often inventive, risky, and deeply relational.

This theme calls us to examine the mechanisms of silencing and the communicative strategies people use to navigate, resist, or survive them. We encourage work that investigates who gets heard, who gets believed, and how credibility is constructed and denied across contexts such as schools, workplaces, healthcare, families, faith communities, and mediated publics. We especially welcome submissions that explore the pedagogical stakes of these dynamics: how classroom norms, assignments, and platforms can either reproduce silencing or cultivate more equitable conditions for voice, listening, and refusal.

Guiding questions might include:

• How do people speak when direct speech is unsafe or impossible—and what rhetorical options (e.g., coded speech, humor, narrative, indirect refusal, coalition voice) become available under constraint?

• What counts as “credible” speech, and how is credibility racialized, gendered, classed, or ableist—both in public life and in our classrooms?

• How can we teach students to navigate algorithmic visibility/invisibility and platform governance as forms of silencing?

• How do institutions and communities regulate who may speak and on what terms (through policy, norms, platform rules, or professional expectations)?

• How can we teach rhetorical and interpersonal strategies for speaking when direct speech is unsafe (e.g., coded speech, humor, narrative, indirect refusal, coalition voice)?

• What are the emotional and relational costs of being silenced—or of speaking anyway—for individuals, groups, and communities?

• How can scholarship and pedagogy amplify marginalized knowledge without extraction or harm, especially in community-engaged and practitioner contexts?

• How can we teach students to analyze and challenge credibility politics (who is believed, whose anger is “irrational,” whose tone is “aggressive”)?

We welcome submissions across theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological approaches, including community-engaged and practitioner scholarship. Work grounded in Iowa and Midwestern contexts (rural life, small town institutions, local media ecosystems, and regional political cultures) is especially encouraged.

Faculty, students, independent scholars, and community members are encouraged to submit and attend.

Submissions inclusive of all methodological perspectives are expected and embraced.