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Rebecca Meisenbach

Dr. Rebecca Meisenbach 's research focuses on issues of identity in relation to nonprofit and gendered organizing. She uses both qualitative and rhetorical methods to explore identity at both macro and micro levels. One current project examines the identity negotiations of higher education fundraisers, including how the fundraisers construct positive professional identities in the face of stigmatizing societal discourse. She is also looking at how these fundraisers construct and manage organizational, occupational, and sector-based identifications, and how this negotiation process promotes ethical decision-making. On a macro level, she is developing Habermas's discourse ethics as a moral framework for organizing. Her research has been published in Communication Monographs, Communication Yearbook, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, and more.

Dr. Meisenbach was the first recipient of the Charles Redding Graduate Fellowship at Purdue University, and her dissertation won the John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation on Philanthropy, sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Association of Fund Raising Professionals. She was recognized for excellence in teaching while at Purdue, and her recent paper on fundraising and public relations was awarded top competitive paper in the Public Relations Division at the International Communication Association convention.

Frequently Taught Courses
Comm 3050 - Introduction to Communication
Comm 3460 - Organizational Advocacy
Comm 4974 - Senior Project
Comm 8410 - Seminar in Organizational Communication Theory

Research Interests
Identity Negotiation
Occupational Stigma
Organizational Ethics

Selected Publications
Meisenbach, R. J. (in press). The female breadwinner: Phenomenological experience and gendered identity in work-family spaces. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.

Buzzanell, P. M., Meisenbach, R., Remke, R., Sterk, H., & Turner, L., (2009). Positioning gender as fundamental in applied communication research. In K. Cissna & L. Frey (Eds.), Handbook of applied communication research (pp. 181-202). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Meisenbach, R. J., & Feldner, S. B. (2009). Dialogue, discourse ethics, and Disney. In R. L. Heath, E. L. Toth, & D. Waymer (Eds.), Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations II (pp. 253-271). New York: Routledge.

Meisenbach, R. J. (2008). Working with tensions: Materiality, discourse, and (dis)empowerment in occupational identity negotiations among higher education fund raisers. Management Communication Quarterly, 22, 258-287.

Meisenbach, R., Remke, R., Buzzanell, P. M., & Liu, M. (2008). “They allowed”: Pentadic mapping of women's maternity leave discourse as organizational rhetoric. Communication Monographs, 75, 1-24. LEAD ARTICLE
*Article of the Year Award, OSCLG 2009

Feldner, S. B., & Meisenbach, R. J. (2007). SaveDisney.com and activist challenges: A Habermasian perspective on corporate legitimacy. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 1, 207-226.

Meisenbach, R. J. (2006). Habermas' discourse ethics and principle of universalization as moral framework for organizational communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 20, 39-62.

Meisenbach, R. J., & McMillan, J. J. (2006). Blurring the boundaries: Historical developments and future directions in organizational rhetoric . In C. Beck (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 30 (pp. 99-141). Mahweh, NJ: LEA.

Rebecca Meisenbach

Assistant Professor

education: PhD, Purdue University (2004)
email: meisenbachr@missouri.edu
office: 134 Heinkel Bldg.
phone: 573-882-0747
focus area: Organizational Communication