Research Labs and Collaborations

Research Labs

Narrative Nebraska

Dr. Jody Koenig Kellas

Research in the Narrative Nebraska lab seeks to investigate the links between storytelling and health and implement interdisciplinary, narrative-based interventions to improve caregiving, communication, and psychosocial well-being for families and care providers. Grounded in the theory of Communicated Narrative Sense-Making, we study the impact of stories; the process of storytelling; and the ways in which narrative research theory, and methods can be used to inform interventions for individuals and families coping with illness and other difficulties.

About Narrative Nebraska

 

Communication and Identity Lab

Dr. Jordan Soliz

Projects in the Communication and Identity Lab examine identity and difference in personal relationships, families, and communities with the goal of understanding how communication facilitates relational and community solidarity, development of worldviews and social attitudes, and individual well-being.

About the Communication and Identity Lab

H.E.A.L. Lab

Dr. Angela Palmer-Wackerly

The HEAL Lab works to improve the Health of ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world through Equity, Advocacy, and Listening.  An ecological perspective is encouraged in this lab, in which participants consider communication from multiple levels (e.g., individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and mass communication/policy). Participants have looked at contexts, ranging from chronic and nonvisible illness to rural and cultural health, and investigated communication processes, such as disclosure, privacy, supportive communication, decision-making, community engagement, patient-family-provider communication.

Contact Dr. Palmer-Wackerly

 

Center for Coalition Praxis and Liberation

Drs. Kate Siegfried, Satveer Kaur-Gill, & Liahnna Stanley

The Center for Coalitional Praxis andLiberation is a collaborative research lab for students, faculty, and community members that foregrounds dynamic communication processes as foundational to the liberation of oppressed, colonized, exploited, and racialized peoples and communities across the globe.

Contact Drs. Siegfried, Kaur-Gill, or Stanley

Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Faculty in the Department of Communication Studies are actively involved in campus-wide interdisciplinary initiatives and program: