UNCG Department of Communication Studies
Faculty Research Interests and Grant Seeking Sources
Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, the NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. National Communication Association
The field of communication focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media. The field promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication. Association for Communication Administration
David Carlone (Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder) uses ethnographic and discourse methodologies to study the new economy, especially as represented in service work and knowledge intensive work. His project has two strands: 1) understanding how new economy knowledge and practices build upon and transform American culture; and, 2) examining how American culture infects the new economy with possibilities for alternative economic arrangements focused around labor autonomy and non-economic values.
Cerise L. Glenn (Ph.D., Howard University) researches how people interpret discourses relating to their identity (sense of self) and perception of “fit” within organizational and popular media contexts. She examines the following areas: 1) cultural identity and identity negotiation of diverse groups in institutions of higher learning; 2) career socialization and mentoring of diverse groups in the social science and STEM disciplines; and, 3) communication and culture in popular culture.
Pete Kellett (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University) is completing a book chapter on the positive/transformative role of conflict. His collaborative projects currently in development include: 1) a narrative exploration of conflicts experienced by graduates who return to the family home after graduation; and, 2) how college students acquire and develop conflict communication skills throughout their college careers and the longer term implications of conflict learning.
Etsuko Kinefuchi (Ph.D., Arizona State University) studies identity negotiations and representations within and across race, nation, gender, and other socially and culturally significant positions. She is currently interested in two projects involving language as a site of negotiation and contestation: 1) non-professional immigrant women’s cultural adaptation as manifested in language learning; and, 2) discourses of bilingualism and the salience of language to cultural identity in the context of globalization.
Spoma Jovanovic (Ph.D., University of Denver) conducts long-term ethnographic and community-based research programs in partnership with schools, grassroots organizations, and local nonprofits to consider: 1) the communication features that shape public interactions and the factors individuals and groups point to for the success or failure of their social change initiatives; and, 2) how specific pedagogies and curriculum foster democratic sensibilities to inspire participation in public, political action.
Marianne LeGreco (Ph.D., Arizona State University) researches the relationship between food policy, nutrition promotion programs, and healthy eating practices. Her current work focuses on: 1) urban farming and other community food programs; 2) theorizing access as an important concept for health communication; 3) mapping geographic and discursive structures of food deserts; 4) developing a measure of health literacy geared toward food practices; and, 5) community-based participatory research including discourse tracing and multiple methods.
Loreen Olson (Ph.D., University of Nebraska, Lincoln) conducts research on family and interpersonal communication, focusing on the dark side of family communication and the communication of deviance. She has published on intimate partner violence, family secrets, verbal aggressiveness, female-initiated aggression, and the luring communication of child sexual predators. Her current projects examine the communicative aspects of 1) sibling aggression; and, 2) teen dating violence. Dr. Olson is the Editor of the Journal of Family Communication.
Christopher N. Poulos (Ph.D., University of Denver) conducts ethnographic and narrative research into communication in close relationships, with a particular focus on family stories, family identity, and family secrecy. His current work focuses on 1) how people shape their lives through storytelling, dialogue, and secret keeping; and, 2) how our communicative acts, in turn, shape our individual and collective relational identities.
Roy Schwartzman (Ph.D., University of Iowa) conducts personal interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses regarding their process of personal and collective identity construction after the Holocaust. The AfterWords Project, a partnership with the NC Council on the Holocaust, assembles multimedia educational resources about NC’s post-Holocaust immigrants. Material is interfaced with selections from the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. Educational resources are being developed for schools and the public.
