Communication & Media Studies Faculty
Michael McFarland
PhD, Northwestern University, 1990
MA, Northwestern University, 1986
BA, Simpson College, 1983
Michael McFarland received his MA and PhD from Northwestern focusing on rhetorical criticism in religion and politics. He is interested in all manner of discourse in the public arena, and its political effect on society. He explores the relation¬ship between politics and religion in the rhetoric and action of social movements, past and present, in both extreme and mainstream manifestations. He is currently working on issues of transitional democracy and the rhetoric of new movements.
Dr. McFarland teaches the following courses: Public Speaking, Ethics in Communication, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, Rhetoric and Film, Junior Seminar on Rhetoric of War Films, History and Criticism of American Public Address: Extremism, Philosophy of Communication, Senior Seminar, and Senior Project. You may contact Dr. McFarland at mmcfarla@stetson.edu
Rebecca B. Watts
PhD, Texas A&M University, 2003
MA, Clemson University, 1998
BA, Stetson University, 1994
Rebecca Watts' research interests center on the application of rhetorical theory and criticism to public culture, including Southern culture, political culture, and popular culture. She is also interested in organizational crisis rhetoric as well as looking at Internet communication as a way of increasing participation in public culture (in everything from political culture to sports culture).
Her book, Contemporary Southern Identity: Community through Controversy (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), reflects her research and teaching interests in the application of rhetorical theory and criticism to understanding Southern culture specifically and public discourse in general. Her current research is related to depictions of slavery at public plantation sites such as those run by the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
However, as a look at her conference presentations and other publications will attest, her scholarly interests are wide-ranging, yet all tied together by an interest in how people use language and symbols to create and present their identities to others, whether through speeches, television, or the Internet.
Dr. Watts teaches the following courses: Intercultural Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Visual Communication; Environmental Communication; Classical Rhetoric; Rhetoric, Culture, and Identity; Rhetorical Theory and Criticism; Editing and Publishing; Gender in Communication; Organizational Communication; Junior Seminar on the Rhetoric of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa; History and Criticism of American Public Address: The Civil Rights Era; Senior Seminar; Senior Project; and Critical Thinking and the Law (Stetson Summer Pre-Law Institute). You may contact Dr. Watts at rwatts@stetson.edu
Tara J. Schuwerk
PhD, Arizona State University, 2008
MA, University of Central Florida, 2002
BA, University of Central Florida, 1997
Tara Schuwerk's research interests focus on the intersection of health and culture as demonstrated in her book chapter, Food Bank Culture: Food & Nutrition Communication in a Hunger-relief Organization. With a specialization in qualitative research methods, she has also addressed various aspects of communication through such research topics as mental health, international and transracial child adoptions, memory and cultural identity, and the culture of college drinking, as well as health campaigns and communication pedagogy. Her co-authored article, An Innovative Dialogue about College Drinking: Developing an Immediate Response Technology Model for Health Promotion, exhibits how her interests in communication and technology also intersect with the contexts of culture and health.
Dr. Schuwerk teaches the following courses: Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication, Organizational Communication, Qualitative Research Theory and Methodology, and First Year Seminar: Are We What We Eat? Food, Health, and Controversy. You may contact Dr. Schuwerk at tschuwer@stetson.edu
Mario Rodriguez
PhD, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2011
MA, University of Florida, 2006
BA, New College of Florida, 2001
Mario Rodriguez' research specialization in social networks brings an innovative perspective to our Communication Studies curriculum. This specialization helps students develop professionally while they learn to critically evaluate social media. His particular emphasis on privacy is not only relevant to the job market; online privacy is an essential topic for cultivating 21st century media literacy. Moreover, social media privacy is a useful framework for discussion of participatory democracy and human agency. It involves intercultural collisions and questions of culturally diverse representation online.
Dr. Rodriguez teaches the following courses: New Media & Privacy, Communication & Technology, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Visual Communication, and Interpersonal Communication. You may contact Dr. Rodriguez at mrodrigu@stetson.edu
Andrew Dehnart
MFA, Bennington College, 2002
BS, Stetson University, 1999
Andy Dehnart's writing on television, culture, and media has appeared in Salon, The Boston Globe, and other publications, and he currently writes television criticism for MSNBC.com. Dehnart publishes and writes reality blurred, an internationally acclaimed web site that "revels in the post-ironic pleasures of reality television," as The New York Times said. For more than five years, since the start of the new wave of reality television, reality blurred has offered impassioned analysis and original reporting on television's newest genre. Dehnart comments regularly about popular culture on the radio and in the press, and is at work on a book of narrative nonfiction about reality television.
Andy Dehnart teaches courses such as Journalism, Magazine Writing, Editing and Publishing, Blogging, Gender in Communication, Creative Non-Fiction Writing, and First Year Seminar: Media in the Age of Facebook. You may contact him at adehnart@stetson.edu