Education
Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2003
Personal Statement
I was born and raised in southern Minnesota. When I graduated high school, I flew south for about 15 winters. I was chasing a degree from Florida State University and the opportunity to compete on a water ski team. Dividing my time between books and water, I managed to graduate. What followed was a short career in advertising and public relations working for two agencies. Somewhere around the spring of ‘96 I had a long overdue epiphany. One afternoon’s contemplation driving a black Chevrolet S-10 pickup from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to my home in Columbia has since yielded one wife (Jennifer), two children (Mitchell, Tessa) and posts as assistant professor at the Universities of Kentucky (previous) and Minnesota Duluth. Whew. Be careful about driving that stretch from Myrtle Beach.
Professional Statement
I am in love with being a professor. I chose this job (if it didn’t choose me) because I care tremendously about affecting the consciousness of curious students to take caution in and better advantage of living in a world where communication skill is the coin of the realm. My research interests center on violence in the media. But I generally pursue the social and psychological consequences of children’s exposure to tele-visual media. Currently, I am working on projects involving 1) the relationship between violence exposure and homicidal thinking, 2) copy-cat crimes examined using the case-control methodology, and 3) violence exemplification in the news.
Courses Taught
COMM 1000 - Human Communication Theory
COMM 2101 -Â Foundations of Mass Communication
COMM 2030 - Communication Inquiry: Social Scientific Methods
COMM 3550 -Â Children and Media
COMM 3555 - Mass Media Addiction
COMM 4505 -Â Mass Communication Theory and Research
COMM 5000 - Senior Seminar