Faculty/Staff Directory
Faculty/Staff
Thomas Burkholder, Ph.D., Chair and Associate Professor
Professor Burkholder (Ph.D., University of Kansas) teaches courses in
rhetorical theory and criticism and the history of U.S. public address.
His research interests include 19th-century U.S. public address, the rhetoric
of woman suffrage, and political and presidential rhetoric. He
is co-author, with Karlyn Kohrs-Campbell, of the second edition of Critiques
of Contemporary Rhetoric and is co-editor, with Martha Watson, of The
Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Reform, Vol. V, of A Rhetorical History
of the United States.
E-mail: tom.burkholder@unlv.edu
Donovan Conley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Professor Conley (Ph.D., University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) studies
the rhetorical production of citizenship, with a focus on materiality,
aesthetics, nationalism, and subjectivity. His recent work appears
in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Social Identities:
Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture, and Critical Studies
in Media Communication.
E-mail: donovan.conley@unlv.edu
Tara Emmers-Sommer, Ph.D., Professor and Graduate
Coordinator
Professor Emmers-Sommer (Ph.D., Ohio University) serves as the department's
graduate coordinator. Her research areas include interpersonal and
health communication, media, and sex and gender issues. Emmers-Sommer's
work focuses specifically on sexual coercion, safer sex, and the impact
of mediated sexual violence on attitudes toward women. An award-winning
instructor, her work appears in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships,
Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, and Sex Roles, among others.
E-mail: tara.emmerssommer@unlv.edu
Erika Engstrom, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Professor Engstrom (Ph.D., University of Florida) teaches courses in
gender and nonverbal communication. Her research interests include
mass media portrayals of gender and weddings.
E-mail: erika.engstrom@unlv.edu
Website
David Henry, Ph.D., Professor
Professor Henry (Ph.D., Indiana University) teaches courses in political
communication, rhetorical theory and criticism, persuasion, and argumentation.
He is past editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech (2005-07)
and the Western Journal of Communication (2000-02), and he served
as executive director of the Rhetoric Society of America (2003-08).
His research is in the critical analysis of political speech, with
emphasis on presidential rhetoric, social movements, and nuclear culture.
E-mail: david.henry@unlv.edu
Tara McManus, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor
Professor McManus (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) teaches courses
and conducts research in the areas of family and interpersonal communication.
Her research examines information regulation and stress and coping
in families. She focuses primarily on post-divorce families and parent-child
relationships.
E-mail: tara.mcmanus@unlv.edu
Erin Sahlstein, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor
Professor Sahlstein (Ph.D., University of Iowa) teaches courses in interpersonal
communication, communication theory, and research methods. Her research
focuses on communication issues in long-distance relationships, most
recently military marriages, deployment, and the war on terror. Sahlstein
studies relationships from a dialectical perspective, focusing on the
contradictions couples experience and how they communicatively manage
their relationships. Her research involves interviews, surveys, and
meta-analysis.
E-mail: erin.sahlstein@unlv.edu
Jacob Thompson, Ph.D,
Director of the Sanford I. Berman Debate Forum
and Assistant Professor in Residence
Professor Thompson (Ph.D., University of Kansas) researches argumentation
theory and pedagogy, the state argumentation in the American public sphere,
and rhetorical criticism of current foreign policy issues. He also directs
and coaches UNLV's new NDT/CEDA policy debate team and the Sanford I.
Berman Debate Forum, representing UNLV in national competition. He teaches
courses in argumentation and debate, public speaking, and rhetorical
criticism.
E-mail: jacob.thompson@unlv.edu
UNLV Debate Team Website
Joseph M. Valenzano III, Ph.D.,
Basic Course Director and Assistant
Professor in Residence
Professor Valenzano's (Ph.D., Georgia State University) research interests
include rhetoric, presidential communication, and terrorism — in
particular, justifications offered for the war on terror and its impact
on certain domestic concerns and practices. Valenzano serves as the basic
course director and supervises instructors for Oral Communication and
Introduction to Interpersonal Communication. He teaches courses in political
communication, rhetorical criticism, persuasion, and communication pedagogy.
E-mail: joseph.valenzano@unlv.edu
Sabrina Ramos, Administrative Assistant
Sabrina serves as the department’s office manager dealing with all aspects of the office operations. She started working at UNLV in 1997 with the Career Services Department. She has also worked for the department of Psychology and the Dental School located on the Charleston Campus. In 2004 Sigma Theta Psi chose her as their advisor, a position in which she remains actively involved. She is also on the Classified Council where she served on the retreat committee during the 50 year celebration of the campus. She got her first taste of working in academia when she worked for The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena California. Sabrina says “I am delighted, and it is an honor, to be apart of the Communication Studies Department”.
Visiting Instructors
Bill Belk
E-mail: belkw@unlv.nevada.edu
Beth DeLisle,
E-mail:
beth.delisle@unlv.edu
Kevin Mitchell
E-mail: kevin.mitchell@unlv.edu
