I am a communication scholar with expertise in how everyday conversation is consequential for identity negotiation, community building, and empowerment of minority groups. I use discourse analytic and ethnographic methods to draw connections between ways that people negotiate racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities in conversation and larger scale processes, such as identity politics, cross-cultural adaptation, and racism. My research sheds light on ways that everyday conversation provides agency for participants to negotiate the larger scale processes and that shape their lived experiences. Recent publications examine how White and minority business people navigate politics of race and gender through their daily business interactions. I am in the beginning stages of a new research project analyzing how recently resettled refugees in the local Denver area navigate race, ethnicity, gender, and other identities in intercultural contexts.
COMM 2400 - Discourse, Culture and Identities
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
Examines how aspects of talk (e.g., turn-taking, speech acts, narratives, dialect, and stance indicators) link with identities (e.g., ethnic and racial, age, gender, work-related, and personal). Considers how communication is central to constructing who people are and examines social controversies related to talk and identities.
COMM 4220 - Senior Seminar: Functions of Communication
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Topical seminar on the functions of communication across interpersonal, group, organizational, and public contexts. Reviews current theory and research on topics such as communication and conflict, persuasion, and ethical dimensions of communication practices. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours on different topics. Same as COMM 5220.
COMM 4950 - Senior Thesis: Honors
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019 / Spring 2020
For exceptional communication majors who wish to graduate with department honors and receive credit for writing an honors thesis. Recommended prerequisite: COMM 4100 and overall GPA of 3.35 or higher and a COMM or COMN GPA of 3.50 or higher.
COMM 5435 - Readings in Community and Social Interaction
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Focuses on how everyday communication practices shape and are shaped by community contexts. Contains theoretical and empirical readings that illustrate how interactions among group members negotiate and maintain distinct communities and how group communication practices reflect shared norms among community members. Also reviews methods to study everyday interactions among community members (e.g., discourse analysis, qualitative coding, surveys and applied approaches/methods).
COMM 6410 - Discourse Analysis
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Acquaints students with the main types of discourse analysis: conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and rhetorically informed discourse approaches. Teaches how to conduct discourse analysis, including transcribing, selecting excerpts, documenting inferences, and linking findings to scholarly controversies.
