Meet Dawn O. Braithwaite, PhD. Dr. Braithwaite is currently a Willa Cather Professor and Communication Department Chair. Dr. Braithwaite has been interested in Communication Studies from a young age, and has been passionate about her work ever since! Read her spotlight to learn more about the work she does.
What is your position within the Department?
I am a Willa Cather Professor and Department Chair. I came to UNL in Fall of 1998, became the Director of Graduate Studies 1999-2011 and Chair 2011- June 2020.
What drew you to study Communication Studies?
In middle school I saw a sign in my classroom, “Communication is the Beginning of Understanding” and that stuck with me. I was a high school debater in Chicago, and after moving to Southern California I became involved in music and theater which increased my interest. Interpersonal Communication was quite new when I started at community college. I argued my way into a closed section and was hooked! I earned my AA, BA (California State U Fullerton), MA (California State U Long Beach), and PhD (U of Minnesota) in Communication.
What is your research area? What is a specific study or set of studies that you have engaged in or that you are currently working?
I study how people in nontraditional personal and family relationships interact to co-construct and navigate family change and challenge via dialectics of relating and rituals, especially in stepfamilies and among voluntary (fictive) kin (people who feel like family but are not related).
In all of these studies I look at the central role of communication in how people communicate to become, have, and change family relationships.
Right now my research team members from UNL, Arizona, and Arkansas are looking at data from interviews with stepparents who have an overall positive relationship with their stepchildren. We are glad to be focusing on the positive aspects of stepfamilies as so many people focus on the problems.
How do your classes prepare students for the next step after graduation (the job market, graduate school, professional school)?
During my time as Department Chair, I have been teaching more graduate seminars, but all of my classes for undergraduate and graduate students focus on how, through better understanding communication, people in personal and family relationships, as well as in organizations and communities, can widen their repertoire of communication choices. By this I mean the more knowledge we have, the broader set of choices about how to interact and relate will be at our disposal. Communicating flexibly and competently is so important.
What do you like most about working with undergraduate students?
It is exciting to see how people come to important and very practical realizations and understandings about the central role of communication in every aspect of our lives.
What advice would you give an undergraduate student majoring in Communication Studies?
Focus on how the knowledge and theories about communication can apply directly to your life and experiences. Think about, “knowing this, what might I have said or done the same or different?” Do get to know your instructors, ask us questions, visit with us in office hours. We are here to help and this can deepen your education. We love to talk with students!
We'd love to feature you in our Student Spotlight! Contact our Social Media Strategist at commdeptsocial@gmail.com to set up an interview--they'll even take a professional photo to use for the story if you would like!
More details at: https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/COMMConnect