Deanna Dannels

Bio

Dr. Deanna P. Dannels (University of Utah, 1999) is Professor of Communication and Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research explores theoretical and curricular protocols for teacher development, as well as instructional models for designing, implementing, and assessing communication within the disciplines. She has published widely in areas of teacher training, communication across the curriculum, pedagogy, design and engineering education, business and technical communication, oral communication genres, and professional identity construction. Her cross-curricular writing focuses on the distinct nature of oral genre learning—specifically, her contributions include the “communication in the disciplines” and “relational genre knowledge” frameworks for oral communication across the curriculum. Her work also explores the communication-related questions and concerns that emerge in teacher development and training. Her book Eight Essential Questions Teachers Ask:  A Guidebook for Communicating with Students delineates these questions based on ten years of empirical data; providing research-grounded recommendations for addressing emergent teacher concerns. Additionally, her co-authored book, Oral Communication in the Disciplines: A Resource for Teacher Development and Training, provides practical advice, based on scholarly evidence, for teachers in all disciplines invested in supporting the development of students’ communication competence. Dr. Dannels served as the editor of Communication Education, a major national journal focused on scholarship that explores the intersections of communication, teaching and learning (2018-2020).