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Rebecca Meisenbach

Dr. Rebecca Meisenbach 's research focuses on issues of ethics and identity in relation to nonprofit and gendered organizing. She uses both qualitative and rhetorical methods to explore these issues 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, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 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 has received Article of the Year awards for two of her recent publications.

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
Organizational Ethics
Stigma Management

Selected Publications
Meisenbach, R. J. (2010). Stigma management communication: A theory and agenda for applied research on how individuals manage moments of stigmatized identity. Journal of Applied Communication Research , 38 , 268-292.

Meisenbach, R. J. (2010). The female breadwinner: Phenomenological experience and gendered identity in work-family spaces. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research . 62 (1&2), 2-19.

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.

Rebecca Meisenbach

Associate Professor

education: PhD, Purdue University (2004)
email: meisenbachr@missouri.edu
office: 218 Switzler Hall
phone: 573-882-0747
focus area: Organizational Communication