Profiles in Teaching & Research

Dr. Elizabeth Suter, Assistant Professor

Dr. Elizabeth Suter

Dr. Elizabeth Suter's graduate teaching includes courses in family communication, identity and relationships, and research interviewing. Suter's program of research is centrally concerned with the communicative negotiation of identity. She has pursued this program looking at how identities are negotiated via symbolic and discursive means at the borders of relationships and families as a whole.

Research

Her program of research draws attention to how context, culture, and networks impact individual, relational, and family identities. For instance, her research has focused on cultural assumptions (e.g., who counts as family and how families should be, conventional gender role expectations) and ideologies (e.g., heteronomativity, patronymy). Suter's research takes a qualitative approach to her study of family, relational, and gender communication, making use of a broad range of qualitative ways of collecting data, including individual interviews, couple interviews, focus group interviews, and surveys with open-ended questions. Likewise, she employs a variety of methods to analyze such data, such as grounded theory analysis, thematic analysis, qualitative categorical coding verified via inter-rater reliability.

Publications

Suter has published articles in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Journal of Family Communication, Journal of Family Issues, Western Journal of Communication, Sex Roles, Women and Language, Journal of Lesbian Studies, The Communication Review, The Qualitative Report.

Richard Jones, PhD Candidate

Richard Jones

I am currently in the PhD program in Human Communication Studies where my area of concentration is Culture and Communication.

Research

In my research, I focus on critical cultural studies of the intersections of sexuality, gender, and race, with a particular interest in creating sites for connections between critical/queer theory, public and social policy, and activism. In much of my research, I ask: How can/does "everyday" performance work to resist and reinscribe dominant ideologies? While many of my interests overlap, I consistently try to develop and conduct research that is participant-oriented and reflexive. By combining feminist/critical methods, friendship as method, politicized performance of personal narrative, and performance ethnography, I hope to organically create multiple-consciousness raising opportunities for myself and my "research participants."

Teaching

Aside from loving communication and research, I also love teaching. This will be my fifth year teaching at the university level. During that time, I've had the privilege of working with hundreds of undergraduate students. I will be teaching "HCOM 1700: Fundamentals of Intercultural Communication" in the Winter and Spring of 2008 and will be teaching "CREX 1212: Speaking out, Ideas that Matter" in the Spring of 2008 as well.

Caroline Davidson, HCOM Major

Caroline Davidson

Why an HCOM Major?

The primary reason I chose to be a human communication major was because of its many diverse applications. I was originally a journalism major, but I decided that something with a broader and wider base of applications would be a better choice. At the time, I was not certain what career path was right for me so choosing a major that had the potential to lead to many different career paths was essential. I took a communication class and enjoyed it. After taking that first class I knew that I wanted to be a communication major.

What have I learned in some of my classes?

I have learned many important and useful skills in my communication classes. In my eyes, the most important ones have been gaining the ability to think critically and express myself effectively in both written and oral communication. I have also learned how important and essential communication is to our everyday lives. Specifically, in a class titled Dialogue, Culture and Conflict I learned it is possible to break down barriers through communication. I also learned the importance and what an amazing impact that group collaboration can have. I also participated in an independent study course titled, MySpace and Identity where I worked one on one with a professor to develop and conduct a series of focus groups with high school students to learn about how they portray their personal identity on MySpace. I took much away from this course because I learned how to conduct focus groups and carry out a research project from start to finish.

How does my major connect to my future plans?

My major is very connected to my future plans. I recently got accepted and starting taking classes in the 3 +2 graduate program here at DU. I am working to get my masters in business administration with a concentration in integrated marketing communication. My background in communication is obviously very integral and important in this facet of marketing. The skills I learned as a communication major will help me be successful in the future and will allow me to communicate more effectively in advertising and marketing.

Dr. Bernadette Marie Calafell, Assistant Professor

Dr. Bernadette Marie Calafell

Dr. Bernadette Marie Calafell researches and teaches in the area of Culture and Communication. She is also the Director of Graduate Studies. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from Arizona State University and earned her Ph.D. in Communication Studies with an emphasis on Performance Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently the Past-Chair of the Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus of the National Communication Association and on the editorial boards of Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Text and Performance Quarterly, Womens Studies in Communication, Communication and Critical Cultural Studies, and Western Journal of Communication.

Her research converges around issues of performance, rhetoric, and intersectionality, particularly within Chicana/o and Latina/o communities. Methodologically her work in centered in performative writing, performance ethnography, and critical rhetoric. Her work has been published Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Text and Performance Quarterly, The Communication Review, Cultural Studies ó Critical Methodologies, and Communication, Culture, and Critique. Her co-authored piece Reading Latina/o Images: Interrogating Americanos was given the 2004 Distinguished Scholarship Award by the International and Intercultural Division of the National Communication Association. She is also author of the book Latina/o Communication Studies: Theorizing Performance. Most recently, she co-edited a special issue of Text and Performance Quarterly on Latina/o Performativities with Dr. Shane Moreman of California State University, Fresno.

Mentoring is extremely important to Dr. Calafell as she takes great pride in the mentoring relationships she has had with undergraduates and graduate students at Syracuse University and the University of Denver. She has also written about mentoring in her essay, Mentoring and Love published in Cultural Studies ó Critical Methodologies.