• Best Paper Selection, National Communication Association’s Communication and Military Division, awarded November 2023.
• Selective Membership Award, National Communication Association’s Doctoral Honors Seminar in Rhetoric and Performance Studies, awarded June 2022.
• Club Advisor of the Year, Communication Club of the University of Texas – Permian Basin, awarded May 2018.

Kevin G. Thompson is the director of the Communication & Media Studies Program in the Department of Communication and Writing. He studies how sports influence culture, ideology, and the material world. Much of his scholarship critically examines how public memory sites, like museums and memorials, shape contemporary discourse, popular culture, sports, and individual and collective identities. He is currently working on a research project regarding scandals within college football and how they are remembered among fans, athletes, and university systems.

• Kevin G. Thompson, Gilbert Carter, Edwin S. Lee, Talal Alshamrani, & Andrew C. Billings, “‘We’re Human Too’: Media Coverage of Simone Biles’s Mental Health Disclosure during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” Electronic News, vol. 16, no. 3, 2022, pp. 187-201. DOI: 10.1177/19312431221095207.
• Kevin G. Thompson, “Ben McAdoo Illegally Uses a Walkie Talkie: A Rhetorical Crisis Perspective,” In J. Sanderson (1st ed.) Corruption and Scandal in American Sport: Causes and Consequences. ABC-CLIO Publishing. 2022. ISBN 9781440878374.
• Kevin G. Thompson, “The Milwaukee Bucks’ Bubble Strike: Professional Athletic Labor’s Position in Racist Late-Stage Capitalism.” In T. L. Rentner and D.P. Burns (1st ed.) Social Issues in Sport Communication: You Make the Call. 2022. Routledge. ISBN 9781032288963.