New Faculty
Jakob Jensen (2007)
Strategic Communication - Health Communication
Jakob (Jake) Jensen (bio) joined the faculty in Fall 2007. Jake received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 2007.
Jake's research examines the efficacy of using mass communication to change health attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. His work has focused on the utility of specific communication strategies (e.g., gain-frames) and communication channels (e.g., newspapers) to improve public health. His current research projects include experimental studies involving news coverage of cancer research and the development of effective communication strategies to increase public adherence to cancer prevention and detection recommendations.
Robin Jensen (2007)
Rhetoric - Health Communication
Robin Jensen (bio) joined the faculty in Fall 2007. Robin received her PhD from the University of Illinois in 2007.
Robin’s primary interest is in historical and contemporary discourses about health. More specifically, she uses rhetorical criticism, interviewing, and other qualitative methods to explore health disparities that fall along the lines of gender, race, and class. Her current research projects include a book-length exploration of the birth of public sexual education in the United States, interviews with sexual educators about their experiences, expectations, and teaching efficacy, and a review essay analyzing recent studies on historical rhetoric by women. Her latest research received a top paper award from the 2007 National Communication Association Conference’s Public Address Division
Jeong-Nam Kim (2007)
Public Relations
Jeong-Nam Kim (bio) joined the faculty in Fall 2007. Jeong-Nam received his PhD from the University of Maryland in 2005.
Jeong-Nam Kim’s research areas are public opinion, public diplomacy, the strategic management of public relations, and the role of communication and cognition in human problem solving.
Kim and James E. Grunig of the University of Maryland have recently been working on a Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS), a generalized version of the situational theory of publics. Jeong-Nam teaches graduate and undergraduate public relations courses such as seminar of Publics in Public Relations (graduate) and Problems in Public Relations (undergraduate).
Samuel McCormick (2007)
Rhetoric
Samuel (Sam) McCormick (bio) joined the faculty in Fall 2007. Sam received his PhD from the University of Iowa.
Sam is interested in communication and social theory, critical-cultural histories of rhetoric and philosophy, the ideology of the aesthetic, and methodological intersections between rhetorical criticism, interpretive social science, and the new cultural history. He is currently finishing a book-length study of the minor political works of several major Western thinkers—Seneca the Younger, Christine de Pizan, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and W.E.B. DuBois. Sam was recently awarded the Pamela J. Cooper Teaching Award from the Central States Communication Association, the Douglas H. Ehninger Teaching Award from the University of Iowa, and the Donald C. Bryant Rhetorical Studies Award from the University of Iowa.
James Tyler (2006)
Interpersonal Communication
Jim Tyler (bio) joined the faculty in Fall 2006. Jim received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006.
Tyler's research interests center on the interpersonal aspects of the self as embedded within the context of social relationships. More precisely, how do the behavioral, motivational, and emotional components of the self influence people's interpersonal communication and subsequent behavior? His current projects range from examining the relationship between the self's regulatory resources and the capacity to monitor the social environment for relational value cues to the influence that threatening social circumstances exert on people's self-presentation efforts. Underscoring all, however, is the central tenet that people's interpersonal behaviors and emotions are influenced by their concerns about others' impression and social acceptance of them.