Faculty

My teaching focuses on the implementation of a communication-based philosophy of communication practice, whether that be the practices of professional practitioners, system designers, communities or organizations or nations maintaining, making, unmaking, and remaking themselves; or the practices of teachers and researchers studying these terrains. Specific courses I teach focus on communicative approaches to: interviewing, qualitative research, content analysis, understanding the roles and impacts of popular and elite culture, and untangling the interrelationships between communication, power, and knowledge.

My research interests align with my teaching interests and focus on the development and implementation of the Sense-Making Methodology, a philosophically derived approach for studying communication as communication. The methodology is widely used in studies of the needs, interests, and uses of media/information/communication systems and messages by users, patrons, audiences, patients, clients, and citizens. My research is both qualitative and quantitative. There is a web-site focused on my research at:http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/

I am passionate about: ...creatures furry (cats), feathery (birds), and feisty (humans who commit their lives to justice and the improvement of the human condition) ...reading history, philosophy, biography, new age theology, and especially poetry...playing mah jong ...gardening, cooking and arting/crafting with loved ones or alone ...classical music (Mozart and earlier, particularly baroque, and opera)...popular music (zydeco, cajun, folk, celtic). I have lived with humans and cats. The cats have more interesting names. Over the years: Butterscotch, Hekuba, Me and You (twins), Troubles, Mishugena, Maximilian, Ariel. Each name is fraught with meaning. I collect socks. I like being an old lady, temperamental, and persnickety. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I consider myself a postmodern modernist. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, a modern postmodernist. On Saturdays, I rest.