Charles Rudick

University of Northern Iowa | UNI · Department of Communication Studies

Engage and Activate: Navigating College and Beyond introduces readers to the cultural and social tools they will need to be successful in higher education while identifying opportunities within academic life to connect with others, effect change, and create communities that are more just, humane, and sustainable. The authors address important issu...

Given the political Right's attacks on U.S. academics as too liberal, we broach questions about knowledge production and curriculum development. We first explore how the Right has used arguments for freedom of speech and ideological diversity to undermine higher education’s mission in the hope of polluting the public sphere with ideas that are deep...

In this study, we explore how students identify and navigate the social structure of higher education and how, in doing so, they communicatively (re)produce socializing norms. To this end, we draw upon the work of the late educational sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to outline a critical communication pedagogical understanding of institutional socializ...

In this article, we argue that critical communication scholars have largely overlooked the study of politeness as a constitutive component of identity, culture, and power. We offer a critical-performative framework for critical scholars interested in studying politeness as a political, discursive, and embodied act. To develop this agenda, we first...

The researchers engaged in a qualitative analysis (using journaling and focus group methodology) of the communicative behaviors of Hispanic students with White institutional members at a medium-sized, Southwest HSI. Utilizing Co-Cultural Theory and Elaborative Coding analysis, the authors mapped how Hispanic students narrated their co-cultural comm...

Critical Communication Pedagogy (CCP) signals a critical approach to Communication and Instruction scholarship. Critical signals a recognition that social reality is inherently political and encourages individuals to work with/in communities to identify, intervene into, and change oppressive systems. Communication and Instruction scholarship refers...

In this study, we explore the heuristic decision-making skills of undergraduate students as they incorporate information into their persuasive speeches. We interviewed 26 students enrolled in an introductory communication course to ascertain their information literacy for vetting sources for their public speeches. From their responses, we generated...

Teaching From the Heart: Critical Communication Pedagogy in the Communication Classroom uses a social-justice framework to introduce beginning instructors to classroom pedagogy. Readers will learn the history, vocabulary, and skill set needed to recognize teaching and learning as sites for humanization, transformation, and growth. Topics include...

Critical communication pedagogy (CCP) emerged from an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationships between communication and instruction that draws from and extends critical theory. This critical turn has influenced how the communication studies discipline defines and practices communication education (i.e., learning in communication or how b...

In this study, the authors draw upon critical whiteness studies to explore how White students' understanding of race-talk within higher education (re)produces whiteness. Through an analysis of interview data, they generated 3 categories describing whiteness-informed civility (WIC): (a) WIC functions to create a good White identity, (b) WIC function...

Navigating contradiction represents an integral part of the teaching process. While educational literature has discussed the paradoxes that teachers experience in the classroom, minimal empirical research has analyzed the strategies teachers employ to address these paradoxes. Using relational dialectics as a theoretical framework for understanding...

Course: Mixed-Method Communication Research Methods Objective: The purpose of this semester-long activity is to provide students with opportunities to cultivate mixed-method communication research skills through a social justice-informed service-learning format. Completing this course, students will be able to: recognize the unique strengths of qua...

This study utilized a critical organizational communication framework to understand how student resistance is performed in relation to hegemonic systems that are (re)constituted through communication within and beyond the classroom (i.e., an institutional culture). I conducted multiple semistructured interviews with 14 self-identified students of c...

This study explores two relatively untapped areas of instructional communication scholarship: Hispanic students’ communicative behaviors and the influence of context in student-to-student communication. Specifically, we utilize Co-Cultural Theory (CCT) to explore what, if any, differences exist in Hispanic students’ reports of their co-cultural com...

This chapter provides the philosophical and methodological tools to articulate and pursue a critical agenda with respect to communication and learning. To do so, we first trace the history of critical communication pedagogy (CCP) and its evolution as a discipline-specific form of critical pedagogy. Next, we define and clarify the ten commitments of...

The authors present an assessment of a seminar conducted at an academic conference using a faculty learning community (FLC) format. The purpose was to evaluate the utility of using components of an FLC in a five-hour seminar to create an improved professional development experience. The results were mixed. Although the seminar enhanced faculty deve...

n 2009, Toyosaki, Pensoneau-Conway, Wendt, and Leathers developed a collaborative writing method called community autoethnography (CAE). Participants dialogically collaborate through writing in order to “resituate identified social/cultural and sensitive issues” with the explicit goals of community-building and “cultural and social intervention.” I...

Extant research utilizing the Relational Communication Perspective has provided important insights concerning the student–teacher relationship. However, we believe that there is a wider epistemological terrain for communication and instruction scholarship to explore than has been to date. This essay draws upon Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT) to...