Communication Studies
Associate Professor (1989)
B.A. Baylor University; M.A. Baylor University; Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin;
Dr. Anderson, a performance studies scholar, focuses his research in the area of narrative theory and performance. He is the author of The Student Companion to William Faulkner (Greenwood, 2007). In addition to publishing articles in Text and Performance Quarterly, he has served as Book Review Co-Editor for the journal. He performs nationally in his one-person shows as authors Henry James, William Faulkner, Washington Irving, Lynn Riggs, and Robert Frost. An audio podcast of his performance as Frost at the Seattle Public Library is accessible at http://www.spl.org/Audio/RobertFrost.mp3. He has received Chautauqua grants to present humanities programs on early America, the Civil War, the 1930s, and the Centennial of Oklahoma statehood. Dr. Anderson is a former Chair of the Performance Studies Division of the National Communication Association and served as Director of the Honors Program at Emerson for ten years.
Amy Ansell
Professor and Dean of Liberal Arts (2010)
B.A. University of Michigan; M.A. Cambridge University; M.Phil. Cambridge University; Ph.D. Cambridge University;
Elizabeth Baeten
Associate Professor (1990)
B.A. University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Ph.D. State University of New York, Stony Brook;
Elizabeth's Baeten primary teaching responsibilities are in the Ethics and Values Perspective curriculum. Though a philosopher by training and temperament, Professor Baeten's interests are broadly interdisciplinary; for example, she has worked with sophomore Honors students on the implications of evolution and natural selection on our conceptions of morality. Professor Baeten's first book, The Magic Mirror: Myth's Abiding Power, is an interdisciplinary examination of myth as a particularly potent cultural force—even our contemporary theories about myth play a role similar to that played by ancient mythical narratives in their original cultural contexts. Her current work in philosophy of biology examines our scientific narratives and how these, like mythic narratives, shape how human beings experience the most fundamental aspects of existence. Of particular interest are evolutionary biology, evolutionary ethics, and evolutionary psychology, which she explores in several of her courses. She has also published essays in these areas, which have appeared in Contemporary Pragmatism, Studies in Practical Philosophy, The Pluralist, and elsewhere.
Sam Binkley
Associate Professor (2003)
B.A. Empire State College; M.A. City University of New York; M.A. New School University; Ph.D. New School University;
Sam Binkley's research and teaching interests focus on identity formation in the context of consumer lifestyles. He has written widely on the counterculture lifestyle movements of the 1960s and 70s, as well as on contemporary anti-consumerist movements. His recent book, Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s (Duke University Press, 2007) examines the role of lifestyle print culture in the shaping of personal identity. More recently, he has researched contemporary identity formation in the context of Cuban socialism, and he has completed a series of studies on the theoretical relevance of Michel Foucault to the study of lifestyle identities. His research has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Rethinking Marxism, Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, Cultural Studies and the Journal for Cultural Research. He is currently working on a new book project on happiness.
Cara Buckley
Lecturer (2007)
B.A. Pennsylvania State University; M.A. Colorado State University;
Cara Buckley's research focuses on the intersections of rhetoric and queer theory with particular interest in the productive, resistive potential of queer identities/kinships and their representations. She is completing her PhD from Indiana University and is currently writing her dissertation on the cultural construct of the "fag hag." In addition, she is a co-editor of the forthcoming book, It's Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era (Routledge, 2007), which examines HBO's impact as a "quality television" powerhouse through its original programming.
Angela Cooke-Jackson
Visiting Assistant Professor (2009)
B.A. Cedarville University; M.S. University of Dayton; M.P.H. University of Kentucky; Ph.D. University of Kentucky;
Angela Cooke-Jackson's research and teaching interests focus on the links between interpersonal relationships, culture, and health among underserved and disparate populations. She has served on a number of research grants and worked as a Health Communication Contractor for the Department of Health in Albuquerque, NM. Her recent co-authored article (Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 2008) and book chapter focuses on Appalachian culture, reality television and hillbilly stereotypes in entertainment media.
She has presented at regional, national and international conferences such as Kentucky Rural Health Association, Eastern Communication Association, National Communication Association, and Media Ethics Colloquium at the University of Hawaii.
She enjoys using a variety of qualitative research methodologies and truly believes one can conduct research on topics that one is most passion about. Her keen interest in type II diabetes and the transmission of health information among mother-daughter dyads stems from her own experiences of living with a diabetic mother. Beyond her research with African American mother-daughter dyads she recently completed a project that included survey research on Cervical Cancer and HPV knowledge and behavior among rural college-aged females in Eastern Kentucky.
Cathryn Edelstein
Scholar-In-Residence (2005)
B.S. Boston University; M.A. New York University;
Cathryn became interested in speech communication and linguistics during her Speech Pathology and Audiology undergraduate work at Boston University. Later, while attending graduate school at New York University, she began working with foreign speakers of English, using accent reduction methods, to help them speak more clearly. Returning to Boston in 1982, she opened the consulting firm, Verbal Impact, providing instruction for professionals who desired to reduce their accent and/or improve their English speaking skills.
In addition to instructing undergraduates in Speech Fundamentals, beginning Fall 2009, Cathryn will be teaching International Graduate students here at Emerson College, providing interactive, seminar style courses in professional communication. While interim director of the Fundamentals of Speech program at Emerson (2007-2009), Cathryn created the accompanying course WebCT program which earned the status of a WebCT Exemplary Course Project from the IT department.
Aside from teaching, Cathryn is the faculty advisor for Campus Conversations on Race. She trains the co-facilitators and oversees the sessions that run throughout the year. This program prepares students to lead discussions with peers about race and ethnicity while earning one non-tuition credit through the OPC department.
Along with her consulting experience, Cathryn has taught speech related courses at a few area colleges, designing speech curriculum and providing assistance in training faculty
Cathryn is presently working on a book for non-native English speaking business professionals.
Heather Erickson
Lecturer (2000)
B.A. University of Nebraska, Lincoln; M.A. Suffolk University;
Heather's love of public speaking and argumentation started with a debate class in high school in her hometown of North Platte, Nebraska. She competed in Forensics for 8 years, at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, making it to quarter-finals in Poetry at the AFA national tournament in 1996 and semi-finals in dramatic interpretation in 1997. She then moved to Boston where she coached the forensics team as a graduate student at Suffolk University. After joining the Emerson faculty in 2004, Heather rejuvenated Emerson's Forensics Team and became its new Director. In the Spring of 2008, the team took 2nd place at the New England Regional Championship Tournament. At the NFA National Championship Tournament in Nashville, TN, one of Emerson's eight qualifying students placed 6th in After Dinner Speaking. Heather has also worked as a consultant in public speaking and presentational skills. She is currently pursuing a Psy.D. in Psychology.
Linda Gallant
Graduate Program Director and Assistant Professor (2007)
B.S.J. Suffolk University; M.A. Suffolk University; Ph.D. University of Nebraska, Lincoln;
Dr. Gallant's teaching and research interests include the application of research methods to social computing and the maximization of information and communication technology (ICT) to advance human communication in multiple contexts – healthcare, politics, and the workplace. She is published in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, First Monday, and e-Service Journal. She presents at national and international conferences such as the International Communication Association, the National Communication Association, General Online Research Conference, and Critical Issues in eHealth Research Conference, and Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). She brings a disciplinary background in communication studies to burgeoning area of user experience design. Specifically, she investigates how New Media facilitate human communication by investigating Internet-based technologies as social artifacts. A central interest in her research and teaching is how a technology's design and development (information architecture, usability, and rhetorical strategies) impacts its social and cultural uses, whether these uses were intended or unintended by the technology's original engineers and designers.
Phillip Glenn
Professor (2001)
B.A. University of Texas, Austin; M.A. University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin;
Phillip Glenn's scholarly interests concern interaction, especially negotiation, mediation and conflict; employment interviews; and laughter in everyday talk. His book Laughter in Interaction (Cambridge University Press, 2003) received the Outstanding Scholarly Publication Award from the Language and Social Interaction Division of the National Communication Association. He co-edited Studies in Language and Social Interaction (Erlbaum, 2003), and serves on the editorial board of Research on Language and Social Interaction. His courses at Emerson include Conflict and Negotiation, Negotiation and Group Process, Organizational Communication Theory, and The Laughing Body. He is a volunteer mediator and trainer with Metropolitan Mediation Services in Brookline. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Program on Negotiation in 2008 and held Fulbright Scholar appointments in the Czech Republic (1995) and the Republic of Moldova (2005). He has served four terms as department chair at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Emerson College. Prior to earning his doctorate at UT Austin in 1987, Phillip worked in arts management with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas.
J. Edwin Hollingworth, Jr.
Associate Professor (1963)
B.A. Dartmouth College; M.A. Emerson College;
Mr. Hollingworth is a nationally known speaker, lecturer, and consultant in the public and private sectors. He is also on the staff of the Stanford Institute, the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University, the New England Institute for Law Enforcement Management and the WACUBO Fourth Year Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
William Huddy
Director of the Communication 100 Program and Lecturer (2009)
A.A. Santa Barbara City College; B.A. California State University; M.A. University of Colorado, Colorado Springs;
A California native, Bill's introduction into the world of radio and television came at an early age (17) as reporter/photographer at ABC affiliate KEYT in Santa Barbara. During a 20 year broadcast career that followed, he anchored television news desks in Colorado Springs, Colorado, El Paso, Texas, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Fort Myers, Florida. While working as Director of the Center for Excellence in Oral Communication at UCCS (2005-2009), he led students and was a guest lecturer at the University of Siena (Italy), and the University of Vienna (Austria). He is Past-President (2007) of the Rocky Mountain Communication Association, and an active member of the National Communication Association. Bill is working to finish his Ph.D. in Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver. His most recent publications include "Cooperative Learning Techniques in the Public Speaking Classroom" (Basic Communication Course Practices, 2007), and a co-written article, "The Hostile Media Effect, Biased Assimilation, and Perceptions of a Presidential Debate" (Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2008).
Patrick Johnson
Lecturer (2007)
B.S. Northwest Missouri State University; M.A. Northwest Missouri State University;
Patrick Johnson is a former Director of Forensics at Northwest Missouri State, where he directed an individual events program that was active on the American Forensics Association (AFA) national circuit. Highlights include winning the Missouri state tournament in 2007 and qualifying for the Interstate Oratorical Association National Tournament in 2002, as well as continuing a streak of qualifications for the AFA National Individual Events Tournament. Patrick is also a former president of the Missouri Association of Forensics Activities and member of the AFA District III Committee. Additionally, Patrick is also a faculty member for the Junior Statesman Summer Session at Yale University where he teaches Speech Communication and critique congressional workshop debates. His research interests include presidential rhetoric, public address, and argumentation.
J. Gregory Payne
Associate Professor (1983)
B.A. University of Illinois; M.A. University of Illinois; M.P.A. Harvard University; Ph.D. University of Illinois;
Dr. Payne 's expertise is in political communication, public diplomacy, crisis communication, celebrity/spectacle media events and health communication, protest rhetoric, especially the shootings at Kent State. He has edited the American Behavioral Scientists campaign edition for every presidential election since 1988. He is the founding director of the Saudi American Exchange, the first grass roots public diplomacy effort in the wake of 9/11, which was honored at the inaugural Clinton Global Initiative. He is the past president of the International Academy of Business Disciplines, past Chair of the NCA Political Communication Division, and former Chair of the Communication Studies Dept at Emerson. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Health Communication, Tripodos, American Behavioral Scientist and the Journal of Promotion Management. He is the author of Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream, Mayday: Kent State,and the play Kent State: A Requiem,has authored academic and popular articles and book chapters for publications worldwide, and has provided commentary for print, electronic and new media nationally and internationally. He has consulted with the U.S. State Department, U.S. Dept. of Defense, U.S. Treasury, United Nations, UNICEF, Cities of Los Angeles, Boston, Barcelona and local, national and international businesses and NGO's. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award and Outstanding Service Awards from the University of Illinois, Friends of the Emerson Majestic, U.S. Treasury, Formula 1, International Academy of Business Disciplines, and the Humanitarian Award from the Northwest Communication Association.
Tulasi Srinivas
Assistant Professor (2007)
B.A. Bangalore University; M.A. University of Southern California; Ph.D. Boston University;
Tulasi Srinivas is a specialist on South Asia, specifically India. Her research concerns the cultural politics of religion and the processes of cultural globalization through an inter-disciplinary and comparative analysis of ideology, experience and subjectivity. Initially trained as an architect, Srinivas brings an interest in public space and cities to her analysis of cultural globalization. She received her Ph.D.from Boston University in the prestigious University Professors Program. Prior to joining Emerson College Faculty she was a fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University (2006-2007). She has held several prestigious fellowships including the Earhart women fellowship at Boston University (1997), a teaching fellowship at Boston University (2001), and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University (2002). Between 1998 and 1999 Srinivas was the site director for India of a ten nation study on cultural globalization undertaken by the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University, and the Harvard Academy of International and Area studies, funded by the Pew foundation. Based on seven years of research (1999-2006) her book Winged Faith: Rethinking Religion and Globalization through the Sathya Sai Movement (Columbia University Press forthcoming 2009) tells the promising and problematic story of a rapidly globalizing Indic syncretic sect. Her next project tentatively titled Crucible of Faith: Dynamic Ritual, Innovative Priests and Ambivalent Globalization in Bangalore City, explores the metamorphosis of the city of Bangalore into a world-wide knowledgeware capital, and the accompanying changes in everyday ritual practices in neighborhood Hindu temples of the city.
Tracey Stark
Assistant Professor (2002)
B.A. Regis University; M.A. Boston College; Ph.D. Boston College;
Dr. Stark was on the Emerson faculty last year on a term appointment and rejoins the faculty this year as tenure-track Assistant Professor. Dr. Stark's research interests involve ethics from a social and political perspective. She is on the Board of Directors of The New Thinking Institute, has written a chapter, "Even Better Than a Cow, Zarathustra," in a book coming out this fall entitled "A Nietzsche Bestiary," and recently attended the International Association of Philosophy and Literature's conference in Leeds, England. Dr. Stark is currently writing on women and issues of war and peace and also on the philosophy of "The Matrix."
Allen Vietzke
Lecturer (2007)
B.S. Eastern Michigan University; M.A. Eastern Michigan University;
Allen arrived at Emerson with over a decade of competitive speech and debate experience. He achieved national recognition while an undergraduate student at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), one of the most successful forensics programs in the country. After graduation, Allen worked with independent film and theatre companies before returning to school to study Communication, focusing on Performance Studies. While an Assistant Director of EMU's team, Allen is proud to have coached many regional and national champions. He brings this enthusiasm for the art of public discourse to the classroom where he encourages students to recognize the power of their own voices.
Michael Weiler
Associate Professor (1989)
B.S. University of Utah; M.F.A. University of Pittsburgh; Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh;
Michael Weiler, a member of the faculty since 1989, is an expert in argument, rhetoric, and political communication. His research has appeared in Argumentation and Advocacy, Informal Logic, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and he has co-authored a collection of essays on the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan. He is director of Emerson Community Debate, a program that promotes debating activities at Boston elementary and secondary schools.
Richard West
Chair and Professor (2008)
B.A. Illinois State University; M.A. Illinois State University; Ph.D. Ohio University;
As Chair, Rich is busy showcasing the excellent faculty, promoting our talented students, and connecting with our outstanding alums! Professionally, he is quite active in the regional and national communication associations. At the regional level, Rich is the Immediate Past President of the Eastern Communication Association, the oldest professional communication organization in the country. At the national level, Rich is the immediate past Director of the Educational Policies Board of the National Communication Association (NCA). He was recently elected NCA's Second Vice-President and will become the association's President in 2012. Rich's scholarship intersects the area of family and culture. He is currently working on research exploring college student perceptions of GLBT parents. He has also written extensively in the area of classroom communication and was recognized as a "Leading Scholar" in classroom communication by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship. Rich is the co-author of 4 books in multiple editions (Gender and Communication, Understanding Interpersonal Communication: Making Choices in Changing Times, Perspectives on Family Communication, and Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Applications). He is also co-editor of The Family Communication Sourcebook. In addition, Rich has (co) authored dozens of articles and book chapters and is a current member of 7 journal editorial boards in communication studies. Rich's research has been featured in a number of media outlets including USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Toronto Globe & Mail www.cbsnews.com, the Paul Harvey Show, among others. When he has some free time, Rich also enjoys working on his 100 year-old summer home in Maine.
