UA Communication Professor to Receive Buford Peace Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Mary Meares, associate professor of communication studies and graduate program director in the College of Communication and Information Studies at The University of Alabama, has been selected the winner of the 2015 Lahoma Adams Buford Peace Award.

Established in 2002 by UA Social Work alumnus Tony D. Walker to honor Lahoma Adams Buford, it is given annually to a faculty member at UA who, in his or her teaching, research, professional practice and personal life, has demonstrated exceptional levels of involvement in mediating human disputes, helping overcome prejudice, promoting justice and establishing peace.

“Educators create peace by generating curiosity about those who are different from us and building ties between people from diverse backgrounds,” Meares said.

Growing up in the Carolinas, Meares observed racial, economic and gender differences between groups and the way stereotyping, discrimination and differential treatment limited members of some groups. Access to voice – the ability to have one’s ideas and concerns recognized and to have input into decision making – became a key element of her research agenda as a result.

Meares has focused on issues of diversity and intercultural communication throughout her career. Starting as a student worker assisting Fulbright Scholars coming to the U.S., she has worked with international students, American students studying abroad, immigrants and refugees, Japanese students in Japan, and U.S. college students studying a variety of topics.

Additionally, she has worked with professionals in diversity and intercultural contexts, from corporations, nonprofits, state and local governments and universities.

In her research, Meares examines diversity in the workplace, with particular attention to the experiences of women and minorities. Her research interests focus primarily on interpretive analyses of interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds.

Meares joined the faculty of the UA College of Communication and Information Sciences in 2008, and she was awarded tenure and promoted in 2012.

She served as the director of graduate studies for the Master of Arts in communication studies program from 2009 through 2014. Meares has advised more than 25 graduate students and has served on more than 35 additional thesis, dissertation and comprehensive exam committees.

In addition to her work at the departmental level, and on College and University committees, in the fall of 2014 Meares was one of four faculty members elected to serve on the UA Faculty Senate’s task force for excellence in equity, inclusion and citizenship.

In this year-long project, she worked with other faculty, staff, administrators and students to examine ways to improve the University’s work related to issues of diversity and inclusion.

Since 2013, Meares has been the adviser for the Serbia Fellowship Experience, a student-led international experience for students in the UA Honors College. This highly-selective program, supported by the U.S. State Department, includes a group of UA students who travel to Serbia each May in order to build relationships with Serbian citizens.

For the last 20 years, Meares has also been involved with the Intercultural Communication Institute and the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication.

In addition to teaching classes for professionals on intercultural issues, she provides career counseling for intercultural and diversity professionals. Related to these efforts, she examines human sustainability and burnout, especially among those who do work related to identity and conflict.