Mark Ward Sr., right, UHV professor of communication, accepts an award from Religious Communication Association president Andre Johnson. The award is one of three he received during the group’s annual conference held Nov. 20 in New Orleans. In addition to being named RCA Scholar of the Year, he received awards for Edited Book of the Year and Book Chapter of the Year. The event was held in conjunction with the annual convention of the National Communication Association, where Ward also received the Outstanding Community Activism, Engagement, and Service Award from the NCA Spiritual Communication Division.

Mark Ward Sr., a University of Houston-Victoria professor of communication, was recently honored by the Religious Communication Association as its 2024 Scholar of the Year. In giving the award, the organization cited Ward for his extensive body of published work and for “ongoing research, which is instrumental in advancing our field.” 

RCA further named Ward’s book, “God Talk: The Problem of Divine-Human Communication,” as Edited Book of the Year. His contribution to that volume, “Toward a Theory of Divine Communication? Prospects and Problems,” was also recognized as Book Chapter of the Year.

For “God Talk,” the RCA selection committee cited Ward for his “editorial vision [that] has resulted in a work that is both intellectually rigorous and highly relevant to contemporary discussions in religious communication. We believe that ‘God Talk’ will have a significant impact on our field, stimulating new conversations and inspiring further research on this crucial topic.”

Ward received the RCA honors at the association’s annual conference held Nov. 20 in New Orleans, La. In delivering the keynote address, he called on researchers who encounter claims of supernatural communication to produce scholarship “grounded in empirical evidence that we follow wherever it may lead and is accessible to other scholars for peer review, even as we’re ethically sensitive about the religious communication that we observe.”

The RCA meeting was held in conjunction with the annual convention of the National Communication Association. At that event, the NCA Spiritual Communication Division named Ward as the recipient of its 2024 Outstanding Community Activism, Engagement, and Service Award. At a presentation held Nov. 21, the division recognized Ward for his work in the Victoria community to promote civic and interfaith dialogue through his monthly opinion columns in the Victoria Advocate newspaper and participation in Victoria’s Communities of Faith. 

Over the past 15 years, Ward has published eight books and more than 40 scholarly articles and essays on religious communication and media.

“As an ethnographer,” Ward said, “I observe how American evangelicals speak to each other in churches and through their media. Then I interpret how their language is built around the assumptions that evangelicals take for granted in their shared culture.”

As editor of “God Talk,” Ward assembled a diverse group of scholars to write chapters that address two fundamental issues in researching religious communication.

“Since supernatural communication can’t be directly observed in the natural world,” Ward said, “how do you research a group that claims to communicate with the supernatural? And if you yourself believe in the supernatural, how do you avoid confirmation bias?”

Since its release last year by Peter Lang Publishers, “God Talk” has been praised by eminent scholars. Clifford G. Christians, research professor of communications emeritus at the University of Illinois, wrote, “The intelligence of this exceptional book is a perfect 10. The theoretical depth of every chapter reflects research brilliance.”

Tina M. Harris, vice president of the National Communication Association and holder of Louisiana State University’s Endowed Chair of Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy, wrote that “as a religious communication scholar who also identifies as a theist-scholar, I found every chapter empowering as they encourage the field to reconsider ... ‘the immeasurable.’ This book is a must!”

Contributors to the book broadly advocated three approaches to the God Problem, Ward said. Some argued that the group is the “expert” on what it knows, and so its beliefs should be accepted as real. Others fully admit their own belief in the supernatural and embrace it in their research. Still others bracket off the supernatural for research purposes, limiting their study to human communication and leaving the supernatural to their own personal faith.

“The latter is my approach,” said Ward. “But I would also add that scholars of no religious faith, whether agnostic or atheist, also make vital contributions to research on communication in religious settings.”

Receiving the award for Outstanding Community Activism, Engagement, and Service was especially gratifying for Ward.

“I’m passionate about my work,” he said. “Part of that passion is using my research in communication so that the public, and especially the Victoria community where I live, can better understand issues of local and national concern and then dialogue about those issues in constructive ways that can bring us together.”