Faculty

Keith Berry

Professor 

CV

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email
Office: CIS 3046

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Berry’s research and teaching uses a cultural approach to the study of relational communication, and primarily focuses on issues concerning identity and the relational and performative co-constitution of subjectivity. He uses critically-oriented and interpretive research methodologies and orientations, including autoethnography, ethnography, ethnomethodology, personal narrative and narrative analysis, and queer theory. Assumptions and practices of hermeneutic phenomenology underlie all of his work, as does a commitment to issues of inclusivity and social justice. Vulnerable populations and “taboo” topics are of particular interest. Much of Dr. Berry’s recent research has investigated three applied communication contexts: (1) bullying, (2) LGBTQ cultures, and (3) reflexivity and related research practices inherent to autoethnography.

His most recent book (co-authored with Catherine M. Gillotti and Tony E. Adams) Living Sexuality: Stories of LGBTQ Identities, Relationships, and Desires (Brill/Sense, 2020) explores communication issues that inform, and sometimes govern, the everyday relational lives of LGBTQ bodies and beings. Dr. Berry’s solo-authored book Bullied: Tales of Torment, Identity, and Youth (Routledge, 2016) uses relational and identity approaches to investigate youth bullying, and the challenges and opportunities inherent to using personal stories to respond to, and better understand, bullying. Bullied has received several honors including the 2016 “Best Book Award” by the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association (NCA), the 2017 Goodall/Trujillo “It’s a Way of Life” Award by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the 2017 “Innovator Award” from the Central States Communication Association’s Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Caucus.

His other publications can be found in journals such as Communication Education, Cultural Studies ⇔ Critical Methodologies, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Qualitative Inquiry, and books such as Doing Autoethnography, the Cambridge Handbook of Identity (forthcoming), and the Handbook of Autoethnography.

Dr. Berry is a member and past Co-Chair of NCA’s Anti-Bullying Task Force, and past Chair of NCA’s Ethnography Division. He enjoys drawing on his research and teaching to take part in community engagement activities, and has delivered talks and workshops on issues related to bullying, anti-bullying prevention, LGBTQ cultures, identity, and mindfulness.

RESEARCH AREAS

Relational Communication, Culture, Identity, Bullying, LGBTQ, Autoethnography, Reflexivity