I am an Associate Professor of Global Communication at Utah State University. I earned my PhD from the Department of Communication at the University of Washington where I focused on global political communication. My research program focuses on the strategic creation, dissemination, and effects of particularly potent national and international ideas—such as American exceptionalism, transnationalism, anti-Americanism, hard and soft power—that are regularly communicated within and across national and cultural borders. A central component of this research currently focuses on examining the production and impacts of the culturally potent idea of American exceptionalism. I am also very interested in the roles that nationality, race, gender, and sexual orientation play in the ways that people around the world navigate their everyday lives.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
National Identity Discourse
American exceptionalism, nationalism, patriotism
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Presidential Discourse - Domestic and International
Strategic diplomacy, public diplomacy
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Media Effects
Effects of global discourse on cognition, public opinion, and national identity
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Communicating Human Difference
Race, nationality, gender, sexuality in public discourse
EDUCATION
2013
University of Washington
PhD - Global Political Communication
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2007
University of Colorado at Denver
MSS - International Studies
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1999
University of Colorado at Denver
BA - International Studies
AWARDS
Teaching and Service
Teacher of the Year 2017/2018
Awarded by the department of Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies
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USU President's Faculty Diversity Award 2016/2017
Awarded to one faculty member for championing issues of diversity and inclusion.
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Dean's Giraffe Award 2016
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Awarded to one faculty member for innovation and risk taking.
Research
Top Paper Panel Award NCA 2018 - Political Communication
Partisan patriotism in the American presidency: American exceptionalism, issue ownership, and the age of Trump.
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Top Paper Panel Award NCA 2016 - Political Communication
The culmination of American exceptionalism in the age of Obama: Presidential discourse, national crises, and challenges to patriotism.
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2016 Article of the Year - Communication Studies
American exceptionalism in the American mind: Presidential discourse, national identity and U.S. public opinion
Journalism
Second Place Radio Documentary 2019
Awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists Utah Chapter for the radio series: King's Road: Where Do We Go From Here?
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First Place Radio Series 2017
Awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists Utah Chapter for the radio series: 54 Strong: Women of the Civil Rights Movement.
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Third Place Radio Series 2017
Awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists for the radio series: Roots of Brazil.
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First Place Radio Series 2016
Awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists for the radio series: 52 Strong: A Civil Rights Pilgrimage.