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Faculty

Home : Faculty

The faculty takes pride in teaching all manner of communication courses from the introductory level to advanced graduate student seminars. We are dedicated to teaching students both the communication skills required for success in business, family and civic life and the most recent and cutting edge research in communication. The faculty takes pride in their close relationships with undergraduate and graduate students. Student faculty contacts are frequent and informal enough to permit the development of genuine interpersonal exchange. Faculty are willing to engage in team research with all students.

Department Leadership

Name	Role
Ronald Walter Greene	Associate Professor and Chair
Mary Douglas Vavrus	Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Ascan F. Koerner	Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

Core Department Faculty

Name	Areas of Expertise
Rosita D. Albert Ph.D., 1972, University of Michigan	Intercultural Communication; International Relations; Communication Theory; Health Communication.
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell Ph.D. 1968, University of Minnesota	Rhetorical Theory and Criticism; Women in Communication; Presidential Rhetoric.
Ronald Walter Greene Department Chair (Interim) Ph.D. 1995, University of Illinois	Rhetorical Studies; Cultural Studies/Cultural Policy; Citizenship; Philosophy of Communication
Alan G. Gross Ph.D. 1962, Princeton University	Rhetorical criticism and theory. Rhetoric of science. Visual rhetoric.
Dean E. Hewes Ph.D. 1974, Florida State University	Small Group Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Analysis of Social Interaction; Cognitive Bases of Communication; Research Methodology; Bargaining and Negotiation.
Angela Hill Ph.D. 2011, University of California, Berkeley	Rhetorical Theory and Criticism; Cultural Studies / Public Policy and Crime; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Feminist Theory; Race Theory and Western Race Science
Susanne M. Jones Ph.D. 2000, Arizona State University	Interpersonal Communication and Emotional Support Messages, Nonverbal Communication, Communicating Emotional Support, Communication Theory.
Ascan F. Koerner Director of Undergraduate Studies Ph.D. 1998, University of Wisconsin Personal website	Cognitive Processes in Interpersonal Communication; Marital & Family Communication; Persuasion.
Laurie Ouellette Ph.D., 1998, University of Massachusetts, Amherst	Critical Media Studies; Cultural Studies; Feminist Criticism; Television Studies; Reality TV; Citizenship, Governmentality and Media.
Mark Pedelty Ph.D., 1993 University of California, Berkley (Visting Department Faculty, 2012-2013)	Media Ethnography; Media and Social Change; Media Rituals; Media Education; Music.
Gilbert B. Rodman Ph.D. 1996, University of Illinois Personal website	Associate Professor; Critical Media Studies; Cultural Studies; Popular Culture; Communication Technologies; Politics of Race and Ethnicity.
Edward Schiappa Paul W. Frenzel Chair in Liberal Arts Ph.D. 1989, Northwestern University	(On leave 2012-13) Contemporary Rhetorical Theory; Classical Rhetoric; Criticism of Public Address; Argumentation; Cultural Criticism.
Amy Sheldon Ph.D. 1972, University of Texas, Linguistics	Language and Gender; Language and Social Interaction; Child and Adult Language Acquisition; Discourse Analysis.
Catherine Squires Ph.D., 1999, Northwestern (Visiting Department Faculty, 2012-2013)	Media and Racial Groups in the Public Sphere.
Mary Douglas Vavrus Ph.D., 1997, University of Illinois	Feminist theory; Media studies; Media postfeminism; Media masculinity; Political economy of media; Media coverage of political women; gender and media; Media activism
Arthur E. Walzer Ph.D., 1975, University of Minnesota	Rhetorical Theory and Criticism; 18th Century Rhetorical Theory; Ethics and Technical Communication.

Affiliated Graduate Faculty

Name	Areas of Expertise
Richard Graff Ph.D. 2000, Northwestern University	Early History of Rhetoric; Writing and Reading Practices of Ancient Greece and Rome; Theories of Prose Style.
Laura J. Gurak Ph.D. 1994, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Personal website	Rhetorics of Science and Technology; Rhetorical Criticism; Internet Studies; Online Research Methods; Social Aspects of Computing; Technical and Professional Communication.
Elaine Tyler May Ph.D. University of California at Los Angeles, 1975	Twentieth Century History of Intersections between Gender, Sexuality, Domestic Culture, and Politics.
Daniel J. Philippon Ph.D., 1998, University of Virginia	American Studies; Conservation Biology; Development Studies & Social Change; English; Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication; Risk Analysis for Introduced Species and Genotypes.
Mary Lay Schuster Ph.D. 1976, University of New Mexico	Gender and Communication; Reproductive Technologies; Feminist Theory and Rhetoric of Science and Technology.
Jeffry Simpson Ph.D. 1986, University of Minnesota	Interpersonal relationships; Evolution and social behavior; Personality and social behavior; Social influence.
Shayla Thiel-Stern Ph.D. 2004, University of Iowa View Image	Youth and new media; Social media and culture; Media representation of adolescent girls; Gender and mass media production.

Additional Faculty

Name	Areas of Expertise
Donald R. Browne, Emeritus Ph.D. 1961, University of Michigan	Comparative and International Broadcasting; Broadcasting and National Development; International Relations; Historical Research Methodology.
Robert L. Scott, Emeritus Ph.D., 1955, University of Illinois	Rhetorical Theory; Criticism of Public Address; Value Implications in Communication Research and Practice.
Michael Sunnafrank Ph.D., 1979, Michigan State University	Interpersonal Communication; Intercultural Relationships, Communication Theory; Persuasion.