CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS OF THE COMMUNICATION STUDIES FACULTY - Spring 2008

 

The following list is meant as a guide to what we--the faculty of the department of communication studies--are currently working on and where our scholarly work fits with the four focus areas of the department.  It is also meant to invite you, the reader, into the current research interests of the members of the department.  You can see clearly our current passions and interests in studying communication from the following account…

 

FOCUS AREA 1: PUBLIC VOICE—How can communication scholarship help us to understand and improve the quality of public discourse in the world around us?

 

Dr. Sharon Bracci, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies (communication ethics, argumentation, health communication, bioethics, media ethics).

 

Dr. Bracci’s teaching and research focus on the intersections of rhetoric and ethics to justify public choices, especially in heath care contexts. She theorizes communicative virtues to foster effective and ethical deliberation and equitable decision-making in these contexts.  

 

Dr. Bracci is currently working on the following projects on the quality of public discourse surrounding health care issues that arise across the continuum of human life. Works in progress related to this discourse include:

 

§   An article for submission to Rhetoric and Public Affairs entitled "An Ecology of Engagement" in which she explores the role of the expert in public moral discourse over the moral dimensions of stem cell research.

§   An article under revision for Argumentation and Advocacy examines the prospects for a revitalized concept of practical wisdom to deliberate over quality of life and end of life issues, and draws on public discourse over the Terri Schiavo case to illuminate the prospects for an interdependent social wisdom.

§   A book manuscript, working title, We are all bioethicsts now, examines the prospects for a civic or public bioethics to reinvigorate public discourse on health issues at the extreme ends of life’s continuum. Through a series of case studies, Dr. Bracci conceptualizes a hybrid model that incorporates rhetoric, democratic deliberation, and bioethical discourses. The model also addresses the legitimate boundaries of religious, spiritual, and emotional commitments in public discourse.

 

Dr. Bracci holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Communication Studies from The Ohio State University, and a master’s degree in Bioethics from the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University. She is a former chair of the Communication Ethics Division, National Communication Association and currently is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Communication Research.

 

Dr. Spoma Jovanovic, Associate Professor (community, communication ethics, communication activism, service-learning) conducts research and contributes time in the community to demonstrate that dialogue, critical inquiry, and active participation yield positive results.  She develops and assists with programs for the homeless and working poor, promotes initiatives for economic development, organizes and encourages community dialogue, engages in programs to reduce the high school dropout rate, and supports and critiques the media’s relationship to the community it serves.  She facilitates workshops, consults on communication programs, and researches critical community questions in her work, in addition to picking up trash, serving food, leading discussions with school-age children, and organizing volunteers.
 
The focus of Dr. Jovanovic’s research has been on community initiatives, including a study of the Denver Board of Ethics that aimed to change the culture of that city, and the grassroots effort to reintroduce dialogue about a tragic event that rocked the Greensboro community in 1979.  She has also studied the habits of young leaders in philanthropy and civic engagement, and examined the impact of daily newspaper reading on community participation among low-income housing residents.
 
Dr. Jovanovic received her bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA. She worked for fifteen years in public relations, nonprofit management, and community relations before earning her master’s and doctorate degrees in human communication from the University of Denver. Woven throughout her activities has been a sturdy thread of social awareness and respect for democracy.  
 
The titles of some of Dr. Jovanovic’s current research programs include:
 
·         A Strategic Study of Human Relations in Greensboro: Uncovering Institutional Discrimination to Promote Equal Opportunity.
·         Voices of Ethics and Justice, Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, NC
·         The Service-Learning Journey: Exploring Student Voices, Civic Literacy, and Community Engagement
·         Homeless Voices: Opinions of the Poor and Homeless in Civic Conversations and the Poor People’s Poll

 

Dr. Jody Natalle, Associate Professor, (gender and communication theory, interpersonal processes, feminist criticism) is currently working on a book with the working title of:   The Rhetorical Jacqueline Kennedy:  First Lady Discourse and Public Image.  This book is part of professor Natalle's ongoing look at women's public speaking and specifically focuses on a first lady as a site of rhetorical analysis.  During August of 2007, she was a Theodore Sorensen Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Library.

 

Dr. Roy Schwartzman, Professor (rhetoric and public address, communication about science and emergent technologies, cultural studies, Holocaust studies, argumentation, figurative language) conducts research at the junction of epistemology and social theory. Dr. Schwartzman’s recent research projects include an ongoing study of how perceptions of nanotechnology’s risks and benefits are engineered through language. This line of research developed from his analysis of how science intersects with politics, particularly in Nazi racial doctrines. Another major initiative is the AfterWords Project, the first systematic collection and analysis of Holocaust survivors’ stories about resettlement and establishment of American identity. Throughout his research, Dr. Schwartzman investigates the broad theme known as rhetoric of inquiry, which describes the ways communication intertwines knowledge, power, and human identity.

 

Titles of some of Dr. Schwartzman’s projects include:

 

 

FOCUS AREA 2: VOICES of CHANGE, DIVERSITY and DIFFERENCE, CONFLICT—How can communication scholarship help people to engage with diversity, difference, and divisions in ways that promote understanding and collaborative/democratic change?

 

Dr. David Carlone, Assistant Professor (organizational communication, social and cultural theory, cultural studies of work and organization) studies the new economy because it offers a window onto our contemporary social, cultural, and political existence. He is interested in how communication and culture inform, and are shaped by, people as they organize. For example, in an ongoing study of job re-training for dislocated workers he has found that some dislocated workers refuse new forms of work, such as customer service work, not because the skills are beyond them but because the work violates beliefs about honest work and truthful communication.  In another project, examining the advice of popular management consultants, he focuses on the models of personhood these consultants provide us. In all my research he argues that the resources for and implications of organizing are deeply communicative, social, and cultural, not only economic.

 

Dr. Pete Kellett Associate Professor and Head (conflict analysis and management, narrative methodology) recently created an interdisciplinary research team with faculty from conflict resolution and educational leadership that also includes graduate and undergraduate students.  The team is concerned currently with exploring how and why people engage in and experience conflicts as ways of expressing, navigating, and negotiating challenging or difficult differences.  We are currently writing a paper on how the use of the “N” word impacted a dorm conflict and how campus preparedness for and responses to hate speech more generally can be improved through dialogue as a result of lessons drawn from the analysis of the personal narrative of an African-American female freshman.  We are using a co-cultural framework for this analysis.  We also have in process two larger data gathering projects.  One to collect and examine college roommate conflicts as they illustrate the often difficult communicative challenge of living at close quarters with diverse others.   The second project involves collecting wedding conflict stories as they provide a window into the cultural and communicative challenges of contemporary relationships. 

 

Dr. Kinefuchi, Assistant Professor (critical intercultural communication, interracial relations, identity negotiation across cultures, diaspora and transnational migration) is working on two projects that concern identity negotiation in intercultural contexts.  The first project is an analysis of communicative and structural construction of identity in Japanese diaspora to and “return” migration from Latin America.  She is currently writing a manuscript to be included in the Blackwell Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication (R. T. Halualani & T. K. Nakayama, Eds.).  The second project concerns diversity and race relations.  She is examining how diversity is conceptualized and experienced, and how people position themselves in relation to diversity and race.

 

Dr. Marianne LeGreco, Assistant Professor (health communication, healthcare institutions, public health policy) is developing a research program focused on health policy, promotion, and practice.  She is particularly interested in improving access to food and nutrition resources for low income and immigrant groups.  Dr. LeGreco currently participates in two major research projects focused on promoting healthy eating practices.  The first project extends from her dissertation project on school meal programs.  This project examines how school administrators, food service directors, teachers, parents, and students manage eating practices surrounding a major change in school nutrition policy.  The second project involves an interdisciplinary research team and the Recipes for Success campaign.  This campaign promotes healthy eating practices for individuals and families who participate in the U.S. Food Stamp program.  The team is especially interested in working with Mexican and West African immigrant groups, as well as school children and families.  As part of this project, Dr. LeGreco hopes to examine the cultural and contextual features that keep stakeholders from participating in health promotion programs.  As a whole, her research examines how change and transformation are possible through more participatory approaches to health practice.

 

 

FOCUS AREA 3: VOICES of IDENTITY and RELATIONSHIPS—How can communication scholarship help us understand how people create and sustain desired identities and healthy relationships?


Dr. Chris Poulos, Associate Professor (relational and family communication, ethnography, philosophy of communication and dialogue, communication ethics) is interested in communication in close relationships, particularly in families. He has a special interest in the ethical contours of communication within these relational contexts, and in the uses of dialogue to help people engage in healthy relationships that embrace and transcend difference. He is currently completing a book on family secrecy, entitled Accidental Ethnography: An Inquiry into Family Secrecy, in which he employs autoethnographic and narrative methodologies to explore how the unspoken dark secrets haunting a family may be transformed into an emerging story of healing and connection. He is also working on articles on the perils and promises of autoethnography, on the problem of voice in families, and on further issues related to the "slippage" of secrets into family stories.  

 

Dr. Poulos earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado. Following college, he worked for 17 years in corporate training and organizational development. Along the way, he earned his Master’s degree in Religious Studies and a doctorate in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver.

 

Book Projects
Poulos, C. (2008, in press). Accidental Ethnography: An inquiry into family secrecy. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Poulos, C. (book proposal in process). Families on the Cusp: Stories of Tradition, Transition, and Transformation.

Journal Articles in Process
Poulos, C. (in process). Walk the Line: On the Perils of Autoethnography. Cultural Studies <—> Critical Methodologies.
Poulos, C. (in process). On the Symbolic Value of Goodness. Symbolic Interaction.

 

Patricia Fairfield-Artman, Lecturer.  Current research focuses on female students enrolled in university and also in ROTC candidate program.  The narrative research is to advance the understanding of how female students negotiate identity as a student and as a future military officer in a leadership role.  Professional conference presentations include “The Jessica Lynch Rescue: Three Perspectives” presented at Southern States Communication Association, Tampa, FL. and “Democracy and the Military: recruitment and serving - the moral, ethical and political,” American Educators Studies Association, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

 

 

FOCUS AREA 4: VOICES of DISCOVERY—How can communication scholarship help us understand how people learn to co-construct, share, and critique knowledge?

 

Kim Cuny, Lecturer and Director The University Speaking Center (storytelling, service-learning, scholarship of teaching and learning, communication across the curriculum, and community outreach) is a teaching artist who recently completed her Master in Fine Arts in Theatre for Young Audiences and is certified in training and development.   Kim’s work with the outreach librarian of Greensboro Public Libraries brings theatre art and arts education resources to marginalized childcare givers, teachers, and youth throughout NE Greensboro.  

 

In 2007 Kim developed ten literacy resource kits that foster exploration of imagination, creative play and reading.   They were created for use by childcare providers of  3-to-5 year-olds serviced by the McGirt Horton Branch of Greensboro Public Libraries.   The project, NCTYP STORYTIME!, was funded by a $2,400.00 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.   Over the past three years Kim has designed, secured funding for, and managed three different outreach programs for UNCG’s North Carolina Theatre for Young People.   All three brought theatre to youth in NE Greensboro.

 

Kim’s contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning over the past decade have taken the form of regular publications, conference presentations, and faculty development both on and off campus.   Kim’s current work in this area is focused on the development of a program in public speaking.   Currently in design, it will support high school educators in North Carolina as they work with their students on the state-wide Senior Project.   The educators in attendance will earn credit for attending the ½ day development program at UNCG which will be facilitated by Kim and her staff..

 

At The University Speaking Center, Kim trains and mentors over 45 undergraduate students and 2 graduate students who serve as peer tutors.   Over the past 5 years Kim has had the pleasure of working with staff members on student-directed outreach as well as research projects in the areas of storytelling, staff development, customer/client training, client and consultant bias, group communication, marketing, needs assessment, communication apprehension, organizational communication, community of practice, and public speaking.   

 

Future plans at the center include the development of an online synchronous speaking center which will support UNCG online courses that engage in oral communication activities.    

 

Jessica Delk McCall, Lecturer is currently researching the undergraduate classroom community and the role of various teaching methodologies (experiential education, dialogue, relationship building, etc.) in evoking critical thinking, authentic personal growth, and a greater appreciation of learning.

 

She is currently working on a co-authored chapter entitled “Teacher education is everybody’s business: Creating a comprehensive professional development high school”, a chapter to be featured in Carol Mullen’s book, Leadership and Building Professional Learning Communities, to be published in 2009. She is working to complete her Dissertation by May 2009.

 

Patricia Fairfield-Artman has received two grants for development of online classes.  Communication in Contemporary was developed by Pat as the first Speaking Intensive class developed at UNCG for distance learning students completing their liberal studies undergraduate degree.  This course serves as a model for expanding online classes with a SI designation at UNCG.  Professional conference presentation include “Leveraging User-Created Content to Empower Learners in Speaking-Intensive Courses Delivered Online”

 

Dr. Killian E. Manning (Lecturer):  Relational Communication, Negotiation and Conflict Management, Introduction to Performance Studies,  Special Topics using performance methodology.

 

Dr. Manning is currently working on two panel presentations with Dr. Poulos for the Fourth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, addressing the notion of responsible creation—creation that is joyous, meaningful, playful, heart-felt, as well as accountable and just.  She is also outlining summer research plans for her upcoming Fall '08 course: Going Green: Communication and the Environment.  Her first step (as a lifelong Mac user) involves investigating Greenpeace's recent (successful!) campaign to "Green my Apple."

 

Dr. Jody Natalle

Dr. Natalle's interests in pedagogy resulted in a new book published in May of 2007 that captures twenty years teaching experience in the interpersonal communication course.  The book, entitled Teaching Interpersonal Communication: Resources and Readings, is published by Bedford/St. Martin’s.  The book is aimed at teachers who are new or may have never taught this course before.

 

Roy Schwartzman’s scholarship on teaching and learning largely concentrates on the use of computer-mediated communication. His hybrid basic course textbook includes service-learning exercises and information management skills as major pedagogical focus areas.


 

Recent Publications by the Faculty in the Four Focus Areas

 

 

FOCUS AREA 1: PUBLIC VOICE


Bracci, S. L. (2007). A Conversation with Sharon L. Bracci about Communication Ethics,

                in Arneson P., Ed. (2007). Exploring Communication Ethics: Interviews with
                InfluentialScholars in the Field, NY: Peter Lang, 21-36.

 

Bracci, S.L. (2007). Linn, S. Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.

                Journal of Moral Education, 36 (1), 126-128.

 

Bracci, S. L. Bioethics: A “New” Prudence for an Emergent Paradigm? Argumentation

                and Advocacy, 38 (3) 151-168.

 

Bracci, S. L. (2001). Managing Health Care in Oregon: The Search for A Civic Bioethics.      

Journal of Applied Communication Research, 29 (2) 171-194.

Bracci, S.L. (2008) Under revision for Argumentation and Advocacy : "The Terri Schiavo

Case: once More, with Feeling and Deliberation."

 

Jovanovic, S. (In press).   Community as Ethical Expression: How Discourse Shapes a

Vision of Hope.  Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theology, Philosophy,

History, and Sciences, 15 (1/2).

 

Jovanovic, S., Steger, C., Symonds, S. & Nelson, D.  (2007). Promoting deliberative              democracy through dialogue:  Communication contributions to a grassroots         movement for truth, justice, and reconciliation.  In L. R. Frey & K. M. Carragee                 (Eds.),   Communication Activism pp. 53-94.  Cresskill, NJ:  Hampton.

 

Jovanovic, S. & Wood, R.V. (2007).  Dialectical interactions:  Decoupling and

                integrating ethics in ethics codes. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17 (2), 217-238.

 

Jovanovic, S. & Wood, R. V.  (2006). Communication ethics and ethical culture:  A

study of the ethics initiative in Denver City Government.  Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34 (4), 386-405.

 

Jovanovic, S., Steger, C., Symonds, S., & Nelson, D. (2007).  Promoting deliberative

democracy through dialogue: Communication contributions to a grassroots movement

for truth, justice, and reconciliation.  In Frey, L, & Carragee, K (Eds.)  Communication activism .  Cresskill, NJ: 

 

Schwartzman, R. (2007). Scientific and political promotion of racial hygiene in Nazi

Germany: A content analysis. In Proceedings of the fifth annual Hawaii international

conference on arts and humanities (pp. 4607-4639). Honolulu: Hawaii International

Conference on Arts and Humanities.

 

Schwartzman, R., & Carlone, D. (2008). A rhetorical reconsideration of knowledge management:

                Discursive dynamics of nanotechnology risks. In A. Koohang (Ed.), Knowledge

management: Foundation and principles (pp. 1-39). Santa Rosa, CA: Informing

Science Press.




 

FOCUS AREA 2: VOICES of CHANGE, DIVERSITY and DIFFERENCE, CONFLICT

 

Jovanovic, S.  (2003). Difficult conversations as moral imperative:  Negotiating ethnic           identities during war. Communication Quarterly, 51(1), 57-72.

 

Kellett, P.M.  (2007). Conflict dialogue: Working with layers of meaning for productive

                relationships.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

 

Kinefuchi, E. (2008). What’s (not) in a Label?:  Understanding Korean American Adoptee Identity through Self-Identified Labels. In L. A. Samovar, R. E. Porter, & E. R. McDaniel (eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (12th ed.) (pp. 104-115). Belmont, CA: Thompson.

 

Kinefuchi, E. & Orbe, M. P. (2008). Situating oneself in racialized world: Understanding student reactions to Crash through standpoint theory and context-positionality frame. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 1(1), 70-90.

 

Kinefuchi, E. (in press). From authenticity to geographies: Unpacking Japaneseness in the construction of Nikkeijin identity. International and Intercultural Communication Annual, 31.

 

Orbe, M. P. & Kinefuchi, E. (in press). Crash under investigation: Engaging complications of complicity, coherence, and implicature through critical analysis. Critical Studies in Media Communication, (second issue under the editorialship of Eric King Watts 2008)

 

Lederman, L.C., LeGreco, M., Schuwerk, T.J., & Cripe, E.T. (2007). A final word: Framing the future of health communication. In Linda C. Lederman (Ed.). Beyond these Walls: Readings in Health Communication (pp. 395-408). Los Angeles: Roxbury.

 

 

FOCUS AREA 3: VOICES of IDENTITY and RELATIONSHIPS

 

Jovanovic, S. & Wood, R. V.  (2004).  Speaking at the bedrock of ethics.  Philosophy  & Rhetoric,

                37 (2), 317-334.

Poulos, C. (2008). Narrative Conscience and the autoethnographic adventure: Probing memories,

                secrets, shadows, and possibilities. Qualitative Inquiry 14:1.
Poulos, C. (2008, in press). Accidental Dialogue: The search for dialogic moments in everyday

                life. Communication Theory , 18:1.

 

FOCUS AREA 4: VOICES of DISCOVERY

 

Artman, P. (2005).  Co-authored Instructor Manual and all auxiliary material for revised Goodall

                Business & Professional textbook. Publication date 2005

 

Artman, P. (2007). Co-authored chapter, “Bewitched…the 1960s Sitcom Revisited: A Queer

Read.” In Media Literacy: A Reader (2007). Eds. D. Macedo & S.R. Stein. New York.

Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

 

Cuny, K. M. & Wilde, S. M. (2007). Increasing immediacy behaviors, In L. & B. Hugenberg (Eds.),

                Teaching ideas  for the basic communication course (Vol. 11). Dubuque : Kendall Hunt.

 

Wilde, S. M., Cuny, K. M., & Vizzier, A. L. (2006) Peer-to-peer tutoring: A model for utilizing

                empathetic listening  to build client relationships in the communication center,

                International Journal of Listening , (20), 70-75.

 

Cuny, K. M. & Wilde, S. M. (2005). Rhetorical proof: Aristotle in a box, In L. & B. Hugenberg

                (Eds.),   Teaching ideas for the basic communication course (Vol. 9). Dubuque: Kendall

                Hunt.

 

Cuny, K. M. (2005). Helping students have more positive experiences in the classroom: Part 2,

                The Successful Professor (4)2, 3-6.

 

Cuny, K. M. & Wilde, S. M. (2004).   Communication in the classroom for english teachers,

                Virginia Association of  Teachers of English Bulletin.

 

Cuny, K. M. & Wilde, S. M. (2004). Fishbowl discussion: Using student voices to teach group

                work, In L. & B.

 

Hugenberg (Ed’s.),   Teaching ideas for the basic communication course (Vol. 8). Dubuque:

                Kendall Hunt.

 

Cuny, K. M. (2003). Exploring cultural practices: The informative speech, In L. & B. Hugenberg

                (Eds.), Teaching  ideas for the basic communication course (Vol. 7). Dubuque:

                Kendall Hunt.

 

Delk, J.(2005). Organizing in Groups. In B. Hugenberg’s and L.W. Hugenberg’s 

Teaching Ideas for the Basic Communication Course (Vol. 9). Iowa: 

Kendall/Hunt

 

Delk, J. (2005). Instructor’s Resource Manual for Verderber and Verderber’s

Communicate (11th ed.). United States: Thomson/Wadsworth.

 

Delk, J. (2006).After the Crash: Moving from a Discourse of Deficit to a Discourse of

Potential. Taboo,10 (1), p.121-128.

 

Jovanovic, S. (2008) Mindful Speech (Ch. 13) in A. Weston’s A 21st Century Ethics

Toolbox, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Jovanovic, S.  (2003). Communication as critical inquiry in service-learning.  Academic

Exchange Quarterly, 7, 81-85.

 

Schwartzman, R., Cuny, K. M., Wilde, S. M. & Kreizinger, J. (2007). Speakers, speeches,

and audiences, In R. Schwartzman, Fundamentals of oral communication.

Dubuque: Kendall Hunt.

 

Schwartzman, R. Fox-Hines, R., Cuny, K. M., & Wilde, S. M. (2007). Interpersonal

Relationships, In R. Schwartzman, Fundamentals of oral communication.

Dubuque: Kendall Hunt.

 

Schwartzman, R. (2007). Electronifying oral communication: Refining the conceptual

framework for online instruction. College Student Journal, 41, 37-50.

 

Schwartzman, R. (2007). Fundamentals of oral communication . Dubuque, IA:

Kendall/Hunt.

 

Schwartzman, R. (2007). Refining the question: How can online instruction maximize

                opportunities for all students? Communication Education, 56 , 113-117.

 

Schwartzman, R., Runyon, D., & von Holzen, R. (2007). Where theory meets practice:

Design and deployment of learning objects. In A. Koohang & K. Harman (Eds.),

Learning objects: Theory, praxis, issues, and trends (pp. 1-44). Santa Rosa, CA:

Informing Science Press.

 

Wilde, S.M. (2004). Helping students have more positive learning experiences in the

      classroom. (part one of a two part essay) The successful professor . Online

      International Teaching Journal.

 

Wilde, S.M. (2006).   Miracle Worker:   The Development of Self and Self-Concept as it

      Relates to Maslow’s Hierarchy Teaching Ideas for the basic communication course

     (Volume 10).  Kendall Hunt.