Webster, Linda (2008) Professor and Chair, Department of Communications Department: Communications Office: BH 330 Phone: (318) 797-5375 E-mail: linda.webster@lsus.edu Vita: Click here to view Vita
Linda Webster earned her PhD in Rhetoric and Public Address at LSU in 1987 and taught for 18 years at the University of Arkansas in Monticello where she developed pedagogy to aid underprepared students. This included developing a textbook for public speaking that was affordable and included language familiar to the students. She has created a similar, more comprehensive text for public speaking at LSUS as well as specialized textbooks for online courses including Introduction to Communication Studies and the senior Capstone course. Her commitment to distance education, particularly high-quality, interactive web-based instruction is a key component in expanding the student base of the Department of Communication. By the end of the spring, 2010, semester, students in speech should be able to do all work in the major via distance education thus expanding the role and scope of the Department. She is currently serving as Executive Secretary of the Louisiana Communication Association (LCA) and will assist as editor of the quarterly newsletter and association webmaster. She served as president of the Arkansas State Communication Association and president of the Arkansas Press Women (APW) at different times. She was honored by College Media Advisors with the national Noel Ross Strader Award and is a Communicator of Distinction with APW. Her research is focused primarily on post-Colonial Quaker women, philanthropy, and the first wave feminist movements. She was awarded a month-long Gest Fellowship at the Haverford College archives in 2006 and her most recent work in progress is a study of early Catholic missions in the southeast Deanery of the Diocese of Little Rock on a research grant to cover fieldwork expenses. She is serving as an adjunct member of Greco Institute for the Diocese of Shreveport and a member of the parish council at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.