Tara Schuwerk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Integrative Health Science
Dr. Schuwerk holds a joint appointment at Stetson University as an assistant professor in Communication Studies and in Integrative Health Sciences. She earned her interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Human Communication from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University with specializations in health communication, intercultural communication, and qualitative research methods. She has a passion for understanding how people perceive and construct ideas of health, specifically in the area of food and nutrition. To this end, Dr. Schuwerk is currently researching areas of hunger relief, specifically the food banking system. Her research projects in the past have included such topics as communication and mental health, international and transracial child adoptions, memory and cultural identity, and the culture of college drinking.
Education
- Ph.D., Communication, Arizona State University
- M.A., Communication, University of Central Florida
- B.A., Organizational Communication, University of Central Florida
Research
- Food and communication; including food security and hunger relief, food and nutrition discourse in the media, the social construction of food and social identities, policy, culture, the environment, and food in organizational settings.
- The interaction of communication, health, culture, and public discourse; including how race/ethnicity, sex/gender, sexuality, socio-economic status/class, and communication influence how people think about health and health outcomes.
- Women’s Health
- The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Courses
- Health Communication
- Qualitative Theory and Methodology
- Intercultural Communication
- Are We What We Eat? Food, Health, and Controversy
- Food and Nutrition in the Media
- Interpersonal Communication
- Organizational Communication
Publications
- Schuwerk, T. J. (2011). "Food bank culture: Food and nutrition communication in a hunger-relief organization." In J. M. Cramer, C. P. Greene, and L. M. Walters (Eds.), Food as communication/communication as food (pp. 381-403). New York: Peter Lang.
- LeGreco, M., Hess, A., Lederman, L. C., Schuwerk, T. J., and LaValley, A. G. (2010). "An innovative dialogue about college drinking: Developing an Immediate Response Technology Model for health promotion." Communication Education, 59(3), 389-404
- Schuwerk, T. J. (2010). "Verbal language use: Translating for the situation." In L. A., Janusik, R. M. Berko, and L. Graham (Eds.), Instructor’s resource manual for communicating: A social, career and cultural focus (11th ed., pp. 94-95). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
- Schuwerk, T. J. (2010). "Human outline." In L. A., Janusik, R. M. Berko, and L. Graham (Eds.), Instructor’s resource manual for communicating: A social, career and cultural focus (11th ed., pp. 273-277). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
- Lederman, L. C., LeGreco, M., Schuwerk, T. J., Cripe, E. T. (2008). "A final word: Framing the future of health communication." In L.C. Lederman (Ed.), Beyond these walls: Readings in health communication (pp. 395-408). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Lederman, L. C., Stewart, L., Greenberg, J., Bates, C., LeGreco, M., and Schuwerk, T. J. (2007). "LET'S TALK ABOUT IT." New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Health Services.
