ABSTRACT
Group communication research emphasizes the importance of group membership, communication processes, and groups’ relationship to context. The events of 2020 foregrounded the importance of groups in our lives and forced us to shift the way we participate in groups. This chapter uses two personal narratives to explore the implications of group communication research in 2020 and beyond. The first example explores ideas related to group boundaries through describing how the pandemic disrupted family, school, and work-group participation. The second example explores my work with a community-based racial equity coalition during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. This narrative shows the importance of diversity in groups, attention to identity, and designing communication processes to promote inclusion and equity. Both stories highlight the challenges and potentialities of virtual meetings and the need for group scholars to participate in interdisciplinary efforts to address important social issues.
