Gender in Applied Communication Contexts

Gender in Applied Communication Contexts explores the intersection and integration of feminist theory as applied to four important areas: organizational communication, health communication, family communication, and instructional communication. This collection of readings links theoretical insights and contributions to pragmatic ways of improving the lives of women and men in a variety of professional and personal situations.  

Features of this text include:

• Extensive use of narrative. The situations the authors describe in these chapters are those confronted by students, scholars, and family members and friends in daily life: telecommuting, work/life balance, sexual harassment, cancer, disability, AIDS, verbal and nonverbal communication applications in learning.
• Applied communication approach: The text applies feminist theory to analysis and construction of realistic interventions for achieving greater workplace equity, enhanced health outcomes for women, and more inclusive and thought-provoking classroom (and training workshop) practices.
• Strong framing pedagogy. In each Part introduction, top scholars in that area discuss what is theoretically and pragmatically significant about the Part and how the ideas in the chapters might be extended.
• Original, cutting-edge academic work. All of the chapters in this text are original theoretical contributions that have not been published elsewhere, giving students access to the most contemporary thinking and research in the field.  

While this text spans the diverse landscape of communication contexts, the central theme of feminist theory praxis makes it appropriate for a number of different courses. Gender in Applied Communication Contexts is recommended for upper-division and graduate-level courses in gender and communication, feminist theory, organizational communication, health communication, instructional communication, and applied communication. This anthology is also recommended as a research resource for scholars in Women′s Studies, Family Studies, and Business and Management.  

Patrice M. Buzzanell (Ph.D., Purdue University) returned to her alma mater as a professor in the Department of Communication at Purdue University where she earned her Ph.D. in organizational communication. Her research interests center on feminist organizational communication theorizing and the construction of gendered workplace identities, interactions, and structures, particularly as they relate to career processes and outcomes. She has published in Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and other communication journals and edited books. For her edited book, Rethinking Organizational and Managerial Communication from Feminist Perspectives (SAGE, 2000), she received the Central States Communication Association’s Theory Book Award in 2002. She also earned the W. Charles Redding Dissertation from the International Communication Association in 1988, and received some top paper awards. In addition to editing Management Communication Quarterly, she has served as chairperson of the Organizational Communication Division of ICA, secretary of the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association, as President of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender, and as a current editorial board member for eight journals and a handbook. For this and other work, she was awarded the Outstanding Member Award from her ICA division and the Alumnus of the Year Award from the School of Interpersonal Communication at Ohio University.

Helen Sterk (Ph.D., University of Iowa) is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and Director of the Gender Studies Minor at Calvin College. She was appointed to Calvin College′s William Spoelhof Teacher Scholar Chair in 1997. Dr. Sterk has written widely on rhetoric, feminism, gender, and popular culture and has co-authored or co-edited several books, including her most recent collaboration, Who′s Having This Baby? Perspectives on Birthing (Michigan State University Press, 2002), as well as Differences That Make a Difference (edited with Lynn Turner; Bergin & Garvey, 1994) and Constructing and Reconstructing Gender (edited with Linda A. M. Perry and Lynn Turner; State University of New York Press, 1992). Her work has been published in journals, such as the Western Journal of Communication and the Journal of Communication, and in edited collections, such as Evaluating Women’s Health Messages: A Resourcebook (SAGE, 1996) and In My Father’s House: Rhetoric and Religion in the Post-Modern South (University of Alabama Press, forthcoming). She currently serves on three editorial boards. She also has served as President for the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender and the Religious Communication Association, as Chapter President for the American Association of University Professors, and as a member of the state executive board for the AAUP (Michigan).

Lynn H. Turner (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is Professor of Communication Studies in the College of Communication at Marquette University. Her research areas of interest include interpersonal, gendered, and family communication.  She is the co-author or co-editor of over 10 books as well as several articles and book chapters (many with Rich West). Lynn has served in a number of different positions: Director of Graduate Studies for the College of Communication at Marquette University; President of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender (OSCLG), President of Central States Communication Association (CSCA), and Chair of the Family Communication Division for the National Communication Association.  In her free time, Lynn delights in babysitting for her grandchildren.