Confronting Relationship Challenges

Steve Duck taught at two universities in the United Kingdom before taking up the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa, where he is a professor of communication studies and adjunct professor of psychology. He is also a Dean's Administrative Fellow and Chair of the Rhetoric Department. Duck has taught several interpersonal communication courses, mostly on relationships, but also on nonverbal communication, communication in everyday life, construction of identity, communication theory, organizational leadership, and procedures and practices for leaders. Duck has written or edited 60 books on relationships and founded the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, which he served as Editor for 15 year, and co-founded a series of international conferences on personal relations. His book, Meaningful Relationships: Talking, Sense, and Relating, won the G. R. Miller Book Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Duck has also won several personal awards such as the University of Iowa's first Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2001, the 2004 National Communication Association's Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award, the 2010 Helen Kechriotis Nelson Teaching Award from UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and elected 2010 Distinguished Scholar from the National Communication Association. He hopes to someday appear on a viral YouTube clip and be famous. Julia T. Wood (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Communication Studies and Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches and conducts research on personal relationships, intimate partner violence, feminist theory, and the intersections of gender, communication, and culture. She has authored or edited 23 books, including Who Cares?: Women, Care and Culture, and Gendered Lives, now in its 7th edition. In addition, she has published more than 70 articles and book chapters. During her career she has received 12 awards for scholarship and 11 for teaching.