DAWN BRAITHWAITE, PhD
Director of Graduate Studies - Department of Communication Studies
Professor - Department of Communication Studies
424 Oldfather Hall
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0329
(402) 472-2239

 

Biography

Dr. Braithwaite is a Willa Cather Professor and Professor of Communication. She is the Director of Graduate Studies in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1988, Masters degree from California State University, Long Beach and Bachelors degree from California State University, Fullerton. She teaches courses in interpersonal communication, family communication, qualitative and interpretive methods, and small group communication.

Dr. Braithwaite's research focuses on communication to manage challenges in personal and family relationships via the study of family rituals, relational dialectics, and social support. Her research focuses on communication of children and adult members of stepfamilies, specifically how stepfamilies interact and become families, and how members of stepfamilies communicate and manage role changes, expectations, and issues of disclosure and privacy. She has studied communication of people who are disabled, focusing on how people with disabilities communicate and manage the uncertainty and discomfort of many nondisabled persons. She has also studied the experiences of women whose husbands live in nursing homes due to Alzheimer's disease and how this affects relationship and family communication. Her newest project is studying fictive/chosen kin; the formation and interaction in families that form outside of blood and legal means. She is interested in how these families form and interact. 

Dr. Braithwaite is the co-editor of the Handbook of Communication and People with Disabilities: Research and Application with Teresa Thompson (Erlbaum), Case Studies in Interpersonal Communication: Processes and Problems with Julia T. Wood (Wadsworth), and Family Communication Theories with Leslie A. Baxter (Sage). Her most recent book is Interpersonal Communication Theories with Leslie A. Baxter (Sage) will be published in 2008.

Dr. Braithwaite has been elected to be President of the National Communication Association in 2010. She will serve as Second and First Vice President of the 8,000-member association in 2008 and 2009. She has been the Director of the association’s Research Board. Dr. Braithwaite serves on the Board of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) in Washington, DC. She is a Past President of the Western States Communication Association and was the 2002 recipient of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Arts & Sciences Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Achievement in the Social Sciences. She received the 2006 Brommel Award for Scholarship and Service in Family Communication from the National Communication Association.

 

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

Schrodt, P., Braithwaite, D. O., Soliz, J., Tye-Williams, S., Miller, A., Lamb, E., & Marko M. (in press). An examination of everyday talk in stepfamily systems. Western Journal of Communication.

Braithwaite, D. O., Toller, P., Daas, K., Durham, W., & Jones, A. (in press). Centered, but not caught in the middle: Stepchildren’s perceptions of contradictions of communication of co-parents. Journal of Applied Communication Research.

Schrodt, P., Baxter, L. A., McBride, C., Braithwaite, D. O., & Fine, M. A. (2006). The divorce decree, communication, and the structuration of co-parenting relationships in stepfamilies. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23, 741-759.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Baxter, L. A. (2006). “You’re my parent but you’re not”: Dialectical tensions in stepchildren’s perceptions about communicating with the nonresidential parent. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34, 30-48.

Baxter, L. A., Braithwaite, D. O., & Bryant, L. (2006). Types of communication triads perceived by young-adult stepchildren in established stepfamilies. Communication Studies, 57, 381-400.

Braithwaite, D. O., Bryant, L., & Wagner, A. (2004). Stepchildren's perceptions of the contradictions in communication with stepparents. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21, 447-467.

Braithwaite, D. O., McBride, M. C., & Schrodt, P. (2003). Parent teams and the everyday interactions of co-parenting children in stepfamilies. Communication Reports, 16, 93-111.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Eckstein, N. (2003). Reconceptualizing supportive interactions: How persons with disabilities communicatively manage assistance. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 31, 1-26.

Baxter L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (2002). Performing marriage: Marriage renewal rituals as cultural performance. Southern Communication Journal, 67, 94-109.

Baxter, L. A., Braithwaite, D. O., Golish, T. D., & Olson, L. N. (2002). Contradictions of interaction for wives of husbands with adult dementia. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 29, 221-247.

Braithwaite, D. O. (2002). "Married widowhood": Maintaining couplehood when one spouse is living in a nursing home. Southern Communication Journal, 67, 160-179.

Book Chapters

Braithwaite, D. O., & Baxter, L. A. (forthcoming). Commentary: Evolving caregiving roles and relationships.  In T. J. Socha & G. H. Stamp (Eds.), Parents and children communicating with society: Exploring communication in parents’ and children’s conjoint relationships outside of home. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Bergen, K. M., & Braithwaite, D. O. (forthcoming). Identity as constituted in communication. In W. F. Eadie (Ed.), 21st Century Communication. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage.

Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (forthcoming). Centering the social in interpersonal  communication. In S. W. Smith & S. R. Wilson (Eds.), New directions in interpersonal communication. Thousand Oaks CA. Sage.

Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (forthcoming). A dialogic rethinking of (un)certainty, self-disclosure, and information regulation. In T. Afifi & W. Afifi (Eds.), Handbook of uncertainty and information regulation. NY: Erlbaum/Routledge.

Metts, S., Braithwaite, D. O., & Fine, M. (in press). Feeling hurt in post-divorce relationships. In A. Vangelisti (Ed),  Feeling hurt in close relationships. Cambridge University Press.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Baxter, L. A. (in press). Introduction:  Meta-theory and theory in interpersonal communication research. In D. O. Braithwaite & L. A. Baxter (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (in press). Relational dialectics theory: Discursive things that go bump in the night. In D. O. Braithwaite & L. A. Baxter (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal  communication: Multiple perspectives.Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Braithwaite, C. A. (in press). Cultural communication of people with disabilities. In L. A. Samovar & R. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader, 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (in press). Social dialectics: The contradictions of relating. In B. Whaley & W. Samter (Eds.), Contemporary communication theories and exemplars. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Japp, P. (in press). "They make us miserable in the name of helping us": Communication between people with disabilities and nondisabled others. In E. B. Ray (Ed.), Case studies in health communication (2nd ed.).

Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (2005). Family communication theories. In D. O. Braithwaite & L. A. Baxter, Family communication theories. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Braithwaite, D. O. (2003). Renewal of wedding vows. In J. J. Ponzetti (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of marriage and the family relationships (2nd ed., pp. 1325-1327). New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Braithwaite, C. A. (2003). "Which is my good leg?": Cultural communication of people with disabilities. In L. A. Samovar & R. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (10th ed., pp. 165-176). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Books

Books

Baxter, L. A., & Braithwaite, D. O. (forthcoming, 2008). Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Braithwaite, D. O., & Baxter, L. A. (Eds.). (2006). Engaging theories in family communication: Multiple perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.