Four graduate students from the program presented original research at the 2026 Georgia Communication Association (GCA) Conference, held February 26–28 at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Their work spanned topics including digital media, gender rhetoric, film, and classical history, showcasing the breadth and depth of student scholarship.

Hampton Stall, a first-year PhD student, presented his paper “Nostalgia and World of Warcraft: A Contested Space” as part of a panel on video games. His paper received an Honorable Mention for best student paper. Stall examined how developers, fans, content creators, and those selling illicit items related to World of Warcraft all employ a process in visual rhetoric known as "retrobait". Drawing on the work of Jacques Derrida and Mark Fisher, Stall connects retrobait to hauntology to argue that recent iterations of the game, particularly the emerging “Classic+” experience, materialize a version of World of Warcraft that represents a concrete “lost future” of the game.

Lucy Roach, a first-year MA student, presented “Repackaged Liberation and the Rhetoric of Return in the Tradwife Movement.” Her paper analyzes how the tradwife movement, through prominent figures such as Hannah Neeleman, inverts Campbell’s feminine rhetorical style. Roach argues that feminist language—particularly concepts of empowerment and choice—is strategically redeployed to frame traditional gender roles as liberatory rather than restrictive.

Riley Deyo, a first-year MA student, presented her paper “Male Power Fantasies and the Fallacy of Individualism in New Hollywood Vigilante Films.” Deyo examines how these films position themselves as critiques of corrupt systems while simultaneously reinforcing them through narratives and visual representations of violence. She argues that New Hollywood vigilante films blur the line between New Hollywood and Classical Hollywood.

Natalie Cowen, a first-year MA student, presented “Sacred Scapegoats: The Exploitation of Vestal Virgins in the Roman Republic.” Cowen’s paper challenges narratives of empowerment surrounding the Vestal Virgins, arguing that their elevation to sacred public status functioned as a communicative investment that rendered them expendable. During times of crisis, she contends, the Vestals served as symbolic scapegoats, providing Rome with a sacrificial outlet rather than genuine protection or agency.