Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock, communication studies professor and director of performance studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, has been named the recipient of the Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies from the National Communication Association. The award is given annually for outstanding published research and creative scholarship in interpretation and performance studies during the previous three-year period.
Scott-Pollock’s work centers on the personalized stories of stigmatized bodies. The National Communication Association commended Scott-Pollock for her book Embodied Performance as Applied Research, Art, and Pedagogy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). The association described it as a “profoundly personal and emotional account of and handbook for those who would do the kind of community-based work Dr. Scott-Pollock has done with performance ensembles.”
“To have my national peers choose my book as the most influential work in the past three years tells me that storytelling for social justice matters and has impact,” said Dr. Scott-Pollock. “I’m deeply grateful that UNCW and the department of communication studies has created an environment where my research and my teaching can be integrated on a level that can enable me to create a book that resonates on a national level.”
Professsor Scott-Pollock joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2010. She was promoted to full professor in 2019.
Dr. Scott-Pollock is a graduate of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where she majored in English and communication. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Maine.