Bio
Courses I teach
ComSt 3010: Human Communication Theory
ComSt 3140: Organizational Communication
ComSt 3170: Small Group Communication
ComSt 4040: Research Seminar
SpCm 3230: Gender and Communication
Engl. 3020: Business Communication
Engl. 5920D: Narrative and Organizational Communication
About my teaching
I enjoy working with students to challenge the assumptions made about organizations to determine alternative ways of understanding and knowing. I teach students to go beyond taking the ways we talk in and about organizations at face value and begin to ask why. Articulations of organizations are socially constructed meaning that they are created and sustained through communication. Through class discussion and assignments students develop an awareness that socially constructed structures can be altered and improved through communication. Ultimately, if we have an awareness of the power of communication we can make a positive difference in our communities, our organizations, and our world. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Research areas
Incivility and Civility in the Workplace; Workplace Bullying; Organizing for Positive Change; Work Life Negotiation; Emotion; Narrative
Current research
I am currently working on a project examining the telling of workplace bullying narratives and agency. I am also comparing international perceptions of workplace bullying narratives. In addition, I am exploring how community members communicate in ways that facilitate growth and development. Finally, I am working on a project that examines how a small group of people can organize and become mobilized to have a positive impact on their communities.
Outside of the university…
I enjoy spending time with my husband and young sons. Most of the time you can find us outside having bucket drum rock concerts, building castles out of sand or rocks or snow (whatever is handy), riding bikes, or working in the garden.