Sara Baker

Ph.D. student in Organizational Communication
B.A. from Virginia Tech
M.A. from San Diego State University

Research interests: the gendering of organizations through the communication of a "hidden curriculum" that privileges hegemonic masculinity and heterosexuality; the use of gay taunting language in organizations to reinforce heteronormativity and limiting the expression of masculinity.

Ewalt, J., & Baker, S.J. (2011). Girls love fashion and boys don't cry: Rhetorical assemblages and the disciplining of queer voices at the Nebraska History Museum. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. [Top Papers, GLBTQ Communication Studies Division]

Ewalt, J., Woods, C., & Baker, S.J. (under review). A paper on the Nebraska History Museum. Rhetoric Society Quarterly.

Baker, S.J. (2011). Creating a home for Transnational Feminist Networks: A case study of the Sisterhood is Global Institute. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Central States Communication Association, Milwaukee, WI.

Work in progress:

Exploring the construction of masculinity in Nebraskan high schools, Case study of sex worker blogs using a workplace dignity approach.

sjbaker@huskers.unl.edu

419 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Kristen Carr

Research interests: communicative development of resilience after negative family events; interpersonal conflict and well-being; individual and interactional sense-making in the darkside of personal and family relationships

Carr, K., & Heiden, E. (in press). Revealing darkness through light: The communicative darkside of mentoring relationships in organization. Australian Journal of Communication.

Carr, K., & Wang, T. (in press)."He's my dad, and I can't ever stop loving him:" Negotiating and communicating forgiveness in family relationships. Journal of Family Communication.

Kranstuber, H., Carr, K., & Hosek, A. (in press). "If you can dream it, you can achieve it." Parent memorable messages as indicators of college student success. Communication Education.

kristencarr@huskers.unl.edu

403 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-6893

Darrel Farmer

dfarmer@huskers.unl.edu

413 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Getachew Dinku Godana 

Research interests: rhetoric of community participation

Work in progress:

The Construction of the “the people” in Charity Singles-“We are the World”and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

getdinku@yahoo.com

419 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Amanda Holman

Research interests: communication and sense-making in family, adolescent, and personal relationships, storytelling of taboo topics in family relationships, narrative development in adolescence, connection between communication, identity, and emotional/physical well-being.

Holman A. & Sillars A. (in-press). Talk about "hooking up": The influence of college student social networks on non-relationship sex. Health Communication

Stephenson-Abetz, J. & Holman, A. (2011, November). "Home is Where the Heart is": Facebook and the Negotiation of Old and New Relationships and Selves During the College Transition. Paper will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. [Top Four Student Paper, Human Communication and Technology Division].

Carr, K., Holman, A., Stephenson-Abetz, J., Koenig Kellas, J., Vagnoni, E. (2011, November). Giving Voice to the Silence: Attributional Variations for Parent-child Estrangement. Paper will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA.

Work in progress:

Parent-adolescent communication and intergroup, female adolescents' narrative "possible-self" identity in science, technology, engineering, and math, narrative development in adolescence.

amanda.holman@huskers.unl.edu

417 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Sarah Jones

Research interests: gender, rhetorical theory and criticism, resistance, transnational feminism, globalization from below

Jones, S.L. (2011, February). Emotional invention: An inquiry. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Communication Association, Monterrey, CA. [Top Student Paper].

Jones, S.L. (2011, February). Gendered location: A genealogical approach to agency.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Communication Association, Monterrey, CA. [Top Paper Award].

Jones, S.L. (2010). Thinking globally, acting locally: Northern Ugandan women and The Open Cage. Women & Language, 33(2), 55-70.

Jones, S.L. (2010, Summer). Howard Zinn and the history of the American empire. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Rhetoric Society of America, Minneapolis, MN.

sarah.jones@huskers.unl.edu

413 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Adam Knowlton

Research interests: Exploring how the myths of democracy and capitalism have attached themselves to discourse surrounding "Web 2.0" technology.

Knowlton, A. (2010). Darfur is dying: a narrative analysis. Paper presented at Flow TV Conference, Austin, TX.

Knowlton, A. (2011). Silent voice of protest: The silent riot of Bagram Prison. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA.

Work in progress:
The rhetorical construction of community. A case study in space and identity in small-town America.

acknowlton@yahoo.com

413 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Haley Kranstuber

Research interests: family sense-making and socialization, narrative theorizing and methodology, understudied families

Kranstuber, H., Carr, K., & Hosek, A. (in press). "If you can dream it, you can achieve it." Parent memorable messages as indicators of college student success. Communication Education.

Kranstuber, H. & Koenig Kellas, J. (2011). Instead of growing under her heart I grew in it: The relationship between adoption entrance narratives and adoptees' self-concept. Communication Quarterly, 59, 179-199.

Colaner, C.W., & Kranstuber, H. (2010). "Forever kind of wondering": Communicatively managing uncertainty in adoptive families. Journal of Family Communication, 10, 236-255.

haley.kranstuber@huskers.unl.edu

415 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Zantel Nichols

Ph.D. Student in Organizational Communication


M.A. Texas Southern University

B.A. University of Iowa

Lucas, K., Nichols, Z., Rick, J. M., & Westling, A. (2010, November). How-to and must-do messages: A comparison of first- and continuing-generation college students' family messages. Paper presented at annual meeting of the National Communication Association, San Francisco, CA.

Ward, J. W., Campbell, K. D., & Nichols, Z. D. (2009). Essentials of business and professional communication. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press.

Nichols, Z.D. (in progress). Communicating organizational identity in grassroots organizations associated with stigma. IRB approval granted, data collection Spring 2011.

znichols2012@gmail.com

422 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Audra Nuru

Research interests: the communicative negotiation of conflicting identities, parent-child messages in multi-ethnic families, how families communicate about stressful/traumatic life changes

Nuru, A. K. (2009, October). Misconceptions About Silence and Passivity: How American Students Perceive Asian International Students' Use of Passivity in the Classroom. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Florida Communication Association, Lake Buena Vista, FL. [Top Graduate Paper].

Work in progress:

Nuru, A.K. Unable to escape: investigating the effects of social networking and cyberbullying on perceptions of self-esteem and perceived homophily.

Nuru, A.K. Understanding how multiethnic children raised in single-parent, monoethnic households, communicate a multiethnic identity.

anuru784@yahoo.com

417 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Jessy Ohl

Ph.D. student in Rhetoric & Public Culture B.S. from Kansas State University
M.A. from The University of Alabama

Research interests: political communication, public memory, war rhetoric, rhetorical theory

Ohl, J. (2011, November). "Speaking for the Dead: The Rhetorical Construction of the Pat Tillman Death Narrative." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association Conference. New Orleans, LA.

Ohl, J. (2011, March). "Awaiting Madame Vice President: Gendered Representations of Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin in United States News Media." Top Paper Panel at the annual meeting of the Central States Communication Association, Milwaukee, WI.

Work in progress:

"Picturing the Past: The (Re) Appropriation of Lynching Photographs in Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America."

jjohl10@gmail.com

422 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Jenna Stephenson-Abetz

Research Interests: communicative negotiation of relational identity during times of transition and challenge; construction of gender through messages; family socialization

Stephenson-Abetz, J. & Alemán, M. W. (2011). Creating a consciousness of leadership: A case study of a university women's CR group. In A. Holba & E. Ruminski (Eds.) Communicative understandings of women's leadership: From ceilings of glass to labyrinth paths. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD.

Stephenson-Abetz, J. & Holman, A. (2011, November). Home is where the heart is: Facebook and the negotiation of old and new relationships and selves during the college transition. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. [Top Four Student Paper, Human Communication and Technology Division]

Work in progress:

Stephenson-Abetz, J. Everyday activism as a dialogic experience: Voices of the daughters of feminist mothers. Women's Studies in Communication.

jstephenson@huskers.unl.edu

423 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Rachel Stohr

Research interests: organizing for social justice, rhetorical approaches to citizenship, gendered discourses of organizational culture and politics, dialogic communication

Schuetz, J. & Stohr, R (2011). Cyber Advocacy and the Evolution of the Tea Party Movement. In Reasoned Argument and Social Change, Proceedings of the 2011 Alta Conference (Annandale, VA: NCA).

Stohr, R.A. (November, 2011). Organizing dialogical citizenship: A pluralistic alternative to exclusionary liberalism. Paper accepted for presentation to the Peace and Conflict Communication Division at the National Communication Association's annual convention, New Orleans, LA. [Top-four Paper]

Stohr, R.A. (November, 2011). Asserting contested power: Exploring the control-resistance dialectic in the World Trade Organization's discourse of globalization. Paper accepted for presentation to the Organizational Communication Division at the National Communication Association's annual convention, New Orleans, LA.

rstohr84@gmail.com

422 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

David Tuck

M.A. student in Rhetoric & Public Culture and Assistant Speech & Debate Coach
B.A. from George Mason University

Research interests: rhetoric and philosophy, emerging communication technologies, rhetorical constructions of selfhood both inside and outside cyberspace through transhuman lenses, rhetoric(s) of digitally-native vernacular communities, bureaucratic rhetoric(s) in cyberspace.

Work in progress:

Rhetorical constructions of digitally-native vernacular discourses.

dtuck@huskers.unl.edu

413 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

Tiffany Wang

Research interests: communication and relational change, educational socialization, social support during college transition

Carr, K., & Wang, T. R. (2012). "Forgiveness isn't a simple process - It's a vast undertaking": Negotiating and communicating forgiveness in nonvoluntary family relationships. Journal of Family Communication, 12, 1-17. doi:10.1080/152647431.2011.629970

Wang, T. R., & Schrodt, P. (2010). Are emotional intelligence and contagion moderators of the association between instructors' nonverbal immediacy cues and students' affective learning? Communication Reports, 23, 26-38. doi:10.1080/08934211003598775

Shannon, J., & Wang, T. R. (2010). A model for university-community engagement: Continuing education's role as convener. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 58, 108-112. doi:10.1080/07377361003661499

tiffany.wang@huskers.unl.edu

423 Oldfather Hall
(402) 472-3348

The UNL Communication Studies Department welcomes our 2011-12 New or Returning Graduate Students.

RHETORIC AND PUBLIC CULTURE
Blanton, Raymond
raymondblanton@gmail.com

Ewalt, Joshua
joshua.ewalt3@huskers.unl.edu

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Utah, Chigozirim
ciutah@gmail.com

INTERPERSONAL AND FAMILY COMMUNICATION

Waters, Alexis
awater4@gmail.com

Wertley, Chad
cwertley@unlserve.unl.edu