Amy Koerber
Email: amy.koerber@ttu.edu
Phone: +1.806.834.8241
Research: Health, Science, Rhetoric, Women's studies, Gender/diversity/inclusion issues, Leadership
Office: 110 (Dean's Office Suite)
Web: http://amykoerber.academia.edu/
PhD, Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication,
University of Minnesota, 2002
MA, English, University of South Dakota, 1996
BS, Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1990.
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Biography
Amy Koerber is Professor in Communication Studies and Associate Dean for Administration & Finance. Research interests include health and science communication, with a specific focus on empowering knowers who are marginalized. Her most recent book, The Predatory Paradox: Ethics, Politics, and Practices in Contemporary Scholarly Publishing, is a coauthored open access book published as the final deliverable for Dr. Koerber and her teams National Science Foundation grant, STEM Training in Ethics of Publication Practices. Previous books include From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History, published by Penn State University Press in April 2018, and Breast or Bottle: Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice, published by University of South Carolina Press in 2013.
Research
Dr. Koerber's research agenda centers around the question of how experts communicate about health, science, and medicine, with a specific focus on marginalized knowledge producers. Toward this end, she employs multiple research methods, including textual analysis as well as interviews and focus groups. Although her doctoral training is based in classical rhetoric, her current research employs a wide variety of theoretical frameworks, and she is especially interested in scholarly approaches that facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge-making. Dr. Koerber's current research seeks to understand a wide range of knowledge production and distribution practices that are characterized as misinformation. Specifically, she has recently finished serving as PI on an NSF grant devoted to the study of “predatory publishing” in the STEM professions, which led to publication of her most recent coauthored book, The Predatory Paradox: Ethics, Politics, and Practices in Contemporary Scholarly Publishing. Prior to this current project, Dr. Koerber published numerous peer-reviewed articles and two academic books, all related to her broadly defined interests in communication of health and science information. A previous book, From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History, was published by Penn State University Press in 2018 and was awarded the TTU Presidents Faculty Book Award in 2020. Her first book, Breast or Bottle: Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice, was published by University of South Carolina Press in 2013, and was awarded the NCTE Award for Best Book in Scientific or Technical Communication.
Methodologies
- In-depth interviews
- Focus group interviews
- Archival research
- Rhetorical analysis
Research Areas
- Health communication
- Science communication
- Rhetoric
- Women's studies
- Gender/diversity/inclusion issues
- Leadership communication
Selected Publications
- Amy Koerber, Jesse C. Starkey, Karin Ardon-Dryer, R. Glenn Cummins, and Kerk F. Kee (co-authors). The Predatory Paradox: Ethics, Politics, and Practices in Contemporary Scholarly Publishing. 2023. Open Book Publishers. (Open access publication available at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0364)
- Amy Koerber, Jesse C. Starkey, Karin Ardon-Dryer, R. Glenn Cummins, Lyombe Eko, Kerk F. Kee. “A Qualitative Content Analysis of Watchlists vs Safelists: How Do They Address the Issue of Predatory Publishing?” Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(6): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102236
- “Is It Fake News or Is It Open Science?” Journal of Business and Technical Communication, published online 22 September 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651920958506
- Amy Koerber, Joseph Provencher, and Jesse Starkey. “Leadership Communication in the STEM Workplace: A Qualitative Study.” Technical Communication Quarterly, published online 20 July 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2020.1794047
- Jesse Starkey, Amy Koerber, Miglena Sternadori, and Bethany Pitchford. "#MeToo Goes Global: Media Framing of Silence Breakers in Four National Settings." Journal of Communication Inquiry 43.4 (September 2019): 437-461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859919865254
- Koerber, A. (2018). From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- King, C., Bivens, K., Pumroy, E., Rauch, S., and Koerber, A. (2018). “IRB problems and solutions in health communication research.” Health Communication, 33, 907-916. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1321164
- Breast or Bottle: Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice. University of South Carolina Press, Series in Rhetoric/Communication: 2013.
Teaching Focus
Dr. Koerber teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in health and science communication.
Most recently, she has developed two new graduate courses that are two of the three
required courses in Texas Tech's newly approved 12-hour graduate certificate in STEM Leadership Communication.
Leadership & Awards
- 2016 Conference on College Composition and Communication Award for Best Dissertation in Scientific and Technical Communication to dissertation advisee Dr. Erin Trauth for “A ‘Natural Miscommunication: An Examination of Front-of-Package Label Claims and User-Centered Food Labeling Practices” (graduated in December 2014).
- 2016 Texas Tech Humanities Center Fellowship for book, The Hormonal Woman: A Critical Exploration of Expert and Public Discourses.
- 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication Award in the category of Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication for Breast or Bottle: Contemporary Controversies in Infant Feeding Policy and Practice (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2013).
College of Media & Communication
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Address
Texas Tech University, Box 43082, Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.6500