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I earned my PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Denver with a primary focus on interpersonal and family communication and a secondary focus on qualitative methods.
My teaching focuses on interpersonal and relational communication courses and qualitative method courses. In addition, I am building a course pertaining to the "Dark Side" of personal relationships and a course examining the intersection of family communication and health communication.
My research agenda focuses on two primary avenues of scholarship. First, I examine the various ways in which individuals discursively construct meanings of family and familial identities when these identities do not align with culturally privileged understandings of family. This work has allowed me to explore historically underrepresented types of families in family communication research such as lesbian co-mothers and foster families and underrepresented familial experiences such as mental illness within the family. This current and future work is primarily informed by Relational Dialectics Theory and the thinkings of 19th century philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. My second primary research agenda is focused on crystalizing and encouraging the growth of Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication (CIFC) within the larger field of Family Communication Studies. CIFC calls for scholars to focus on centering research around issues of power and families and seeks to diversify the field of Family Communication through the growth of critical theories such as Relational Dialectics Theories and critical research practices and methods.
