Contact Information

    Tony Docan-Morgan, Ph.D.
    Communication Studies
    University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
    319 Center for the Arts
    La Crosse, WI 54601
    Office: (608) 785-6722
Email: docan.anth@uwlax.edu

Education

    A.A., Los Angeles Valley College
    B.A., California State University, Northridge
    M.A., University of New Mexico
    Ph.D., University of Washington

RelationalTurningPoints.org
enriching relationships between educators and students

Dedicated to enriching relationships between educators and their students

Tony Docan-Morgan

Bio

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I have had the privilege of teaching at the college level for the last 11 years. I have taught or currently teach courses titled Communicating Effectively, Public Speaking, Advanced Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication Studies, Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Lying and Deception in Human Interaction, and Theories of Communication. I believe that the closeness and trust I develop with many of my students—alongside a passion for the topics we discuss—prompts them to invest in the course topics and invest in me as long-term resource and mentor.

My research interests include interpersonal communication, instructional communication, and public speaking pedagogy. I am particularly interested in how one-time communicative events change human relationships (i.e., in college teacher-student relationships, romantic relationships). To disseminate my research on this topic, I publish in scholarly journals (see below), deliver workshops, and maintain RelationalTurningPoints.org. I also serve on UW-L's Institutional Review Board.

Please contact me if you would like to collaborate or have any comments or questions.

Contact Information Education

Tony Docan-Morgan, Ph.D.                                             A.A., Los Angeles Valley College
Communication Studies                                                    B.A., California State University, Northridge
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse M.A., University of New Mexico
4231 Centennial Hall                                                 Ph.D., University of Washington
La Crosse, WI 54601
Office: (608) 785-6722
Email: tdocan@uwlax.edu

Publications

Interpersonal & Instructional Communication

Manusov, V. L., Docan-Morgan, T., Harvey, J. (in press). Nonverbal firsts: When nonverbal cues are the impetus of relational and personal change in romantic relationships. In A. Kostic & D. Chadee (Eds.), Social Psychology of Nonverbal Communication. Palgrave Macmillan.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2011). “Everything changed”: Relational turning point events in college teacher-student relationships from teachers’ perspectives. Communication Education, 60, 20-50.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2010). Mindmapping and beyond: Teaching students to select and narrow communication research topics. Journal of Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri, 40, 145-151.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2010). "You're a grounded theorist for the day": Teaching students the grounded theory approach. Communication Teacher, 24, 203-207.

Docan-Morgan, S., & Docan-Morgan, T. (2010). Compassion, moderation, and humility in interpersonal relationships. In D. Newton, W. Fong, & N. Van Leuven (Eds.), Communications for everyday life (pp.89-112). Toronto: Ginger Post Imprints.

Docan-Morgan, S., & Docan-Morgan, T. (2009). Compassion, moderation, and humility in interpersonal relationships. In N. Van Leuven & A. B. Chan (Eds.), The Dao of communication (pp. 97-121). Toronto: Ginger Post Imprints.

Docan-Morgan, T., & Manusov, V. (2009). Relational turning point events and their outcomes in college teacher-student relationships from students’ perspectives. Communication Education, 58, 155-188.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2009). A typology of relational turning point events in college teacher student relationships. Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9, 82-97.

Docan-Morgan, T., & McDermott, V. (2009). Becoming a better listener: The listening log project. Journal of Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri, 39, 93-99.

Docan-Morgan, T., & McDermott, V. (2009). The listening log assignment. In B. Hugenberg & L. Hugenberg (Eds.), Teaching ideas for the basic communication course 12 (pp. 175-182). Dubuque, IA: Great River Technologies.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2008). Review of Infidelity: A Practitioner’s Guide to Working with Couples in Crisis edited by Paul R. Peluso. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 13, 481-484.

Docan-Morgan, T., & Docan, C. A. (2007). Infidelity on the Internet: Double standards and the differing views of women and men. Communication Quarterly, 55, 317-342.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2007). Training law enforcement officers to detect deception: A critique of previous research and framework for the future. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 3, 143-171.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2007). Writing and communicating instructional objectives. In B. Hugenberg, L. Hugenberg, S. Morreale, D. Worley, & D. Worley (Eds.), Basic communication course best practices: A training manual for instructors (pp. 25-41). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Docan, T. (2006). Positive and negative incentives in the classroom: An analysis of grading systems and student motivation. Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6, 21-40.

Docan, T. (2006). Using Jenga® to teach system theory. Communication Teacher, 20,11-13.

Public Speaking Pedagogy

Docan-Morgan, T., & Schmidt, T. (2012). Reducing public speaking anxiety for native and non-native English speakers: The value of systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring, and skills training. Cross-Cultural Communication, 8(5), 16-19.

Docan-Morgan, T. (2009). “I now see how I can use these skills”: An applied project for the public speaking course. Communication Teacher, 23, 110-116.

Docan-Morgan, T., & Docan-Morgan, S. (2007). A transparency is worth a thousand words: The picture speech assignment. In B. Hugenberg & L. Hugenberg (Eds.), Teaching ideas for the basic communication course 11 (pp. 31-37). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Docan, T. (2004). A tale of two ideologies: Winona LaDuke’s Vice Presidential nomination acceptance speech. In S. Foss (Ed.), Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice (3rd ed.) (pp. 280-293). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.