• School of Communication Studies
  • Lasher Hall, 43 West Union
  • Athens, Ohio 45701
  • Phone: (740) 593-4828
  • Fax: (740) 593-4810

Austin Babrow, Ph.D.

 

Professor

Lasher 107

740.597.2783

Education:

Ph.D.  Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986.

Traveling Scholar, Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1983.

M.A.    Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1982.

B.A.    With Distinction in Speech, University of Connecticut at Storrs, 1976.

Professional Experience:

9/08-                Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH

8/03 – 6/08      Professor, Department of Communication, Purdue University at West Lafayette, IN

1/ 04 – 5/04     Visiting Professor, Consortium International University, Paderno del Grappa, TV  Italy

8/92 – 7/03      Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Purdue University

8/86 – 7/92      Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Purdue University

8/84 – 7/86      Lecturer, Department of Speech Communication, Indiana University at Bloomington.

 

Research:

I am interested in communication, uncertainty and values, and particularly the social construction of uncertainty and the profound values associated with health and illness. My work emphasizes variation in the meanings of uncertainty (I have developed a typology that encompasses many, substantially different ontological and epistemological forms of uncertainty), the dynamic relationship between uncertainty/expectations and values, the communicative constitution of ambivalence, and the construction of possibility and impossibility. My work has included collaborative studies of messages related to advance care planning in the context of dialysis, breast cancer screening and social support in both popular and scientific literatures and in interpersonal interaction; uncertainty and value in illness explanation; coping with uncertainty in pre- and perinatal care, and ongoing studies of the social construction of bioterrorism and other risks. I have also begun to study religious wisdom traditions related to health, illness, and suffering.

Teaching:

I teach a variety of courses in communication theory, but my main teaching interests are in the areas of communication theory and health communication, where I teach introductory and various advanced seminars. This coming Spring quarter I will teach the doctoral survey of health communication theory and research. In the near future, I hope to teach seminars in the social construction of risk and problematic integration theory.

Recent Awards and Honors:

2009    Top Paper, Communication as Social Construction Division, National Communication Association.

2009    Summer Scholar, School of Communication Studies, Kent State University.

2007    Lead Scholar-Mentor, Applied Communication Theory and Research Section, Doctoral Honors Seminar Co-Sponsored by the National Communication Association and University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.

2007    Distinguished Article Award, Health Communication Division, National Communication Association (for Babrow, 1992, Communication and problematic integration, Communication Theory, 2, 95-130).

2007    Top Four Paper, Spiritual Communication Division, National Communication Association.

2006    Visiting Scholar, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI.

2005-2007  Anne and Charles Redding Faculty Fellow, Department of Communication, Purdue University.

2005    Invited Scholar-Mentor, Communication Theory and Research Section, Doctoral Honors Seminar Co-Sponsored by the National Communication Association and University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

2004    Director of MA thesis (student E. A. Buenger) receiving the annual National Communication Association/International Communication Association Health Communication Division Thesis of the Year Award.

2003    Rose B. Johnson Article Award for best article published in the Southern Communication Journal, Volume 68, 2003 (with Carol B. Mills).

2003    Charles H. Woolbert Research Award, National Communication Association. For a publication that “has stood the test of time and has become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of communication phenomena” (for Babrow, 1992, Communication and problematic integration, Communication Theory, 2, 95-130).