Professor David Ewoldsen surrounds himself with words and ideas.

The walls in his office are lined floor to ceiling with books — to the great amusement of students, who frequently question why he doesn’t simply invest in e-books. Ewoldsen’s response: “Well, I read a lot of e-books, too.” 

His books (or perhaps the ideas within) helped him set a record for the most hours of detention in junior high. “I argued with the teacher,” he explained. “We had to bring in a book to read every day, and I was reading Marx’s Communist Manifesto. He gave me detention every day I brought it in; it was quite a standstill for a while.”

Ewoldsen’s hunger for the words and ideas capable of influencing society has only grown. Now, he is preparing to carry the torch as an editor of the Journal of Communication (JOC), the flagship journal of the International Communication Association.

Read the full story on the Communication Arts and Sciences website.