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Kuhn, Timothy

Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • I'm interested in the ways communication constitutes organizational life--a move that suggests that groups and organizations should be understood as ongoing systems of interconnected sociomaterial practices that depend on, and generate, knowledge, identity, and conceptions of ethics. An interest in these communicative practices is translated into four more specific research themes: (1) The investigation of individual and organizational processes of “knowing,” including how these lead to learning and complex change processes; (2) Identity negotiation and conceptions of meaningfulness in work; (3) Ethical (and unethical) action in organizational settings, and (4) How groups comprised of various stakeholders collaborate and make decisions. Central to these issues is an interest in distinctly communicative forms of explanation, in which the symbolic and material intertwine in the construction and disruption of meanings.

keywords

  • Communication theory, organizational communication, organization studies, communication theory, new materialism, discourse, disorganization, ethics, practice theory

Publications

selected publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • COMM 2650 - Business and Professional Communication
    Secondary Instructor - Spring 2022
    Develops knowledge of concepts and skills required for successful participation in contemporary workplace communication. Focuses on communication processes associated with contexts such as sales, leadership, diversity, teamwork, customer service, and conflict. Facilitates students conduct of self-assessment, networking, interviewing, and other career-development strategies. Provides students training in informative and persuasive business presentations. Recommended prerequisites: COMM 1300 and COMM 1600.
  • COMM 3210 - Human Communication Theory
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
    Reviews multiple theories of communication and how they address a variety of personal, relational, group, organizational, and social problems. Develops new approaches to understanding and improving human communication.
  • COMM 3340 - Political Communication
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2022
    Explores the role of communication in politics, emphasizing how language drives policies and campaigns. Students learn communication strategies in order to craft innovative campaign messaging. Recommended prerequisites: COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
  • COMM 3410 - Intercultural Communication
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2022
    Explores complex relationships between culture and communication processes from various conceptual perspectives. Considers the important role of context (e.g., social, historical, and cultural) in intercultural interactions. Recommended Prerequisites: COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
  • COMM 3630 - Organizational Communication
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2022
    Learn to understand and critique organizations and organizing from a communication perspective. Addresses topics such as organizational theory, organizational culture, power, technology, decision making, teamwork, leadership, diversity, gender, socialization, and ethics. Recommended prerequisites: COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
  • COMM 4600 - Senior Seminar: Organizational Communication
    Primary Instructor - Summer 2018
    Reviews current theory and research on topics such as communication and organizational decision making, organizational culture, gender relations, communication technology, and power and control in organizations. Same as COMM 5600.
  • COMM 5210 - Readings in Communication Theory
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019
    Critical overview of leading theoretical traditions in communication studies. Gives attention to metatheoretical issues, including epistemological foundations, the structure of communication theory as a field, and reflexivity between communication theory and cultural practice. Required for doctoral students in communication; optional for master's students.
  • COMM 5620 - Readings in Organizational Communication
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2020
    Survey of historical and contemporary readings in organizational communication. Treats theory, research, and application from a variety of perspectives.
  • COMM 6200 - Seminar: Selected Topics
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018
    Facilitates understanding of current and past theory and research on a selected topic in communication and the ability to develop new theory and research on that topic. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours on different topics.
  • ORGL 5420 - Knowledge Management
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2019 / Summer 2020
    Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives typically define knowledge as a commodity that is easily stored and transferred; explores how technological advancements and claims to knowledge ownership constitute management in KM. The course then presents alternative models of knowledge and management in which knowledge is understood as a component of communicative action, and management is portrayed as the construction of communities of practice that share responsibility for innovation.

Background

awards and honors

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