1st Edition
Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication Pedagogy Charting New Futurities
Introduction
Mick B. Brewer
Section One. Activating the Bridgework: Coupling Interpersonal and Family Communication Research with Criticality.
Chapter 1: Towards a Pedagogy of Suspicion: Inaugurating the Promising Entanglement of CIFC and Critical Communication Pedagogy
Mick B. Brewer
Chapter 2: Cultivating Change: An Introduction and Invitation to Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication Pedagogy
Veronica A. Droser and Nivea Castenada
Chapter 3: On Being Sex Affirming: Advocating Progressive Sexual Ideals and Practices
Tony E. Adams
Chapter 4: (Re)Introducing Graduate Interpersonal Communication: Reifying new traditions through attending to who is next
Katherine J. Denker, Kathryn Bradley, and Brooke Morenze
Chapter 5: Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication Pedagogy: Reflecting, Questioning, and Re-Constructing Assumptions about Gender and Sexuality in the Classroom
Madison A. Pollino
Chapter 6: A Critical Race Counterstory of Teaching and Learning Interpersonal and Family Communication
Charnell Peters
Chapter 7: Challenging Dualisms in CIFC Traditions: Journeys to Critical Praxis
Jordan Allen
Section Two: Praxiological Criticality: Applying the CIFC Framework in the Classroom.
Chapter 8: Crystalizing, Quilting, and Running for Queen and Community: Practicing Anti-Transcarceral Grief Pedagogy Following a Loss by Suicide
Erin K. Willer
Chapter 9: Intergenerational Connections: An online community engagement project
Sandra L. Faulkner, Wendy K. Watson, and Jaclyn Shetterly
Chapter 10: Cultivating Empathy and Transformation at the Intersections: A CIFC Teaching Activity
Tasha R. Dunn
Chapter 11: #Thatsfamily: Interrogating Family Discourses and Politics Through Social Media
Salvador Guzmán-Villegas and Charissa Stone
Chapter 12: Transforming the Paradigm of Aging: Community Engaged Learning and Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication Pedagogy
Elizabeth A. Suter
Chapter 13: Disrupting Master Narratives Through Intersectional Reflexivity in the Interpersonal Communication Classroom
Olivia Watson and Astrid Villamil
Section Three: Ruminations from the Front Lines: Reflecting on and Confronting Power in and Around the IFC Classroom.
Chapter 14: Performing Female: Using Communication Accommodation Theory to Critically Interrogate Gender Identity Salience in Classroom Encounters
Carli Álvarez and Sandra L. Pensoneau-Conway
Chapter 15: Life in the Learning Zone: Student Engagement Through a Pedagogy of the Taboo
Mark P. Orbe and Jou-Chen Chen
Chapter 16: “It's All in the Family”: BIPOC Professors, Critical Interpersonal Family Communication (CIFC), and Students’ Personal Histories in the Diversity Classroom
Tina M. Harris, Allie Hatchett, and Akie Fukushige Wenk
Chapter 17: Reconciling Difficult Classroom Conversations with Reflexivity, Dialogue, and Vulnerability
Maddison Russell and Keith Berry
Biography
Mick B. Brewer (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Lincoln University of Missouri. His research is situated within the critical tradition and spans various communication subfields including interpersonal communication, critical media studies, sexuality studies, and communication education, and has been published in multiple edited volumes and academic journals including Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication, Culture, & Critique, and Sexuality & Culture.
Sandra L. Faulkner (Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University where she writes, teaches, and researches about close relationships. Faulkner’s interests include qualitative methodology, poetic inquiry, inclusive pedagogy, and critical perspectives on interpersonal and family communication. She engages in community-based research focusing on aging and communication across the life course and uses poetry as a form of social justice and activism. Faulkner is Editor of Communication Studies (2025-2027)
Mick B. Brewer (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Lincoln University of Missouri. His research is situated within the critical tradition and spans various communication subfields including interpersonal communication, critical media studies, sexuality studies, and communication education, and has been published in multiple edited volumes and academic journals including Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication, Culture, & Critique, and Sexuality & Culture.
Sandra L. Faulkner (Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University where she writes, teaches, and researches about close relationships. Faulkner’s interests include qualitative methodology, poetic inquiry, inclusive pedagogy, and critical perspectives on interpersonal and family communication. She engages in community-based research focusing on aging and communication across the life course and uses poetry as a form of social justice and activism.
