Keith R. Sanders and Lynda Lee Kaid Best Political Communication Article of the Year Award

On April 13^th 2011 Dr. Lynda Lee Kaid, University of Florida Research Foundation Professor and Professor of Telecommunication in the College of Journalism and Communications unexpectedly passed away. She was 62. Kaid, a former George Lynn Cross Research Professor at the University of Oklahoma, had joined the UF faculty as Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in 2001. Her special fields of research and teaching included political communication and political advertising. She was a recipient of a UF university-wide Outstanding Doctoral Mentoring and Advising award for 2010-2011, and in November, 2010 the National Communication Association named the annual Lynda Lee Kaid Outstanding Dissertation in Political Communication award in her honor.

A three-time Fulbright Senior Scholar, Kaid chaired 41 doctoral recipients, and coordinated the UVote research team, an international consortium at 32 universities in the U.S. and 12 international universities who joined together to conduct political communication research. She promoted interdisciplinary teams of collaborative research and was committed to providing international research opportunities for doctoral students. In 2009, she received one of UF’s International Educator Awards. Kaid received over $1.8 million in competitive grants and other funding from sources. She authored or edited over 30 books and nearly 200 refereed articles and book chapters. Kaid was named by Communication Quarterly as one of the most productive scholars in the discipline.

Lynda Kaid’s express wish was to honor Dr. Keith R. Sanders (Southern Illinois University, University of Wisconsin, Illinois Board of Higher Education), who passed away in January, 2011. Sanders spearheaded the founding of the Political Communication Division of ICA in 1973 and served as the first president of the PCD. Sanders earned his Ph.D. in communications from the University of Pittsburgh. He coauthored or contributed to the writing of numerous books, and was the author of more than 60 articles on the role of communication in politics. Sanders’ distinguished career in higher education spanned five decades, including serving as the executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, various appointments in the University of Wisconsin system, and his academic service at SIUC included stints as dean of the former College of Communication and Fine Arts and professor in communications. Sanders has won more than two dozen honors from international, national and statewide organizations and the Illinois General Assembly twice honored him with resolutions of appreciation. Keith Sanders was the doctoral advisor of Lynda Kaid, and she believed that the main tenets of her research were those taught her by Sanders, including her emphasis on interdisciplinary, collaborative, comparative and international research; in particular the treatment of graduate students as colleagues.

To honor both Keith Sanders and Lynda Lee Kaid, the business meeting of ICA’s Political Communication Division decided in Boston to name the Best Political Communication Article of the Year Award after Keith Sanders and Lynda Lee Kaid.

The amount of money needed for such an award is $ 25,000. The Political Communication Research Foundation (PCRF) has started collecting donations already. Prof. Clifford Jones, Lynda’s husband, will match at least the first $12,500.00 in donations received to make this award possible.

The easiest way to donate to the Sanders-Kaid Award fund is through the ICA website: https://www.icahdq.org/fundraising/donationsignup.asp?cmd=new . Please make sure you select the Keith R. Sanders and Lynda Lee Kaid Best Political Communication Article of the Year Award Fund.

Donations to contribute to this award can also be made to PCRF, 2230 NW 24th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32605, polcommrf@gmail.com. They are tax deductible for U.S. taxpayers as certified by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

International colleagues: Donations via wire transfer may be send to Political Communication Research Foundation, Inc., SWIFT CODE: BOFAUS3N, Account Number: 0054 9187 4206. Please note that the bank in the US will deduct a fee of $16 US Dollars for receiving a wire transfer in any amount; this will be in addition to any fee your home bank will charge to send the wire (e.g. a German bank would charge around 25-50€ for the transfer). You might contact Prof. Clifford Jones, Treasurer of PCRF, regarding alternative ways to transfer the money (jonesca@law.ufl.edu).