Monmouth University Communication Professor Sheila McAllister was selected to receive the George Hines Prism Prize from Massey University, in association with PRism online refereed journal of public relations and communication research. McAllister will be co-editing a special journal issue on dialogue with Dr. Petra Theunissen, curriculum leader at Public Relations School of Communication Studies at the Aukland University of Technology in New Zealand.
The prize is awarded annually to the person or team selected to guest edit a themed special issue of the journal PRism in an area of current interest within communication scholarship. Entries are judged on originality, academic merit, and likely interest to PRism’s global communication scholarship audience.
The proposal by McAllister and Theunissen seeks to engage with and tease out underlying taken-for-granted assumptions about public relations practice and theory in the areas of dialogue and relationships, particularly in the context of new media and social public relations.
McAllister is associate professor of public relations and director of the graduate program in corporate and public communication at Monmouth University. She serves as co-faculty advisor to Monmouth University’s Shadow PR Firm and PRSSA Chapter. McAllister received the Alice L. Beeman Research Award in Communications and Marketing for Educational Advancement, outstanding published scholarship, for “How the World’s Top Universities Provide Dialogic Forums for Marginalized Voices.” Her study, which was published in Public Relations Review, examines if universities use new media tools and how the world’s top universities use Facebook as an interactive forum that gives voice to key stakeholders. She resides in Point Pleasant, NJ.