Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Gabriela Morales
Associate Professor, Tenure Track Biography
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Hello, all! My name is Dr. Gabriela Morales. I am a newly appointed associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies. It’s been a great experience so far! Before coming to NMSU, I taught at a small liberal arts university in Indiana. I am a border person through and through. I grew up in El Paso/Cd. Juárez and completed my B.A. and M.A. at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and earned my Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico (UNM). |
What do you teach in the department?
At the undergraduate level, I have taught courses in Communication and Culture, Health Communication, Health Campaigns & Media, Honors Introduction to Communication, and Environmental Communication. At the graduate level, I have taught courses in Communication and Culture and Qualitative Research Methods.
What is your research on?
I focus on culture and health communication, including addressing health disparities and the social determinants of health. I examine the intersections of culture and health, focusing on underrepresented narratives in health and health care, as well as in health promotion. I have worked with interdisciplinary academic teams, including colleagues across the university and beyond, on feminist and EID scholarship, and have published several articles and book chapters on these topics.
What's your favorite teaching moment?
Too many to include on here! If I must pick, the entirety of my Communication & Culture undergrad class in the Fall of 2022. We all built a supportive and nurturing environment together. Students took ownership of their education and challenged each other in ways that created new opportunities to practice critical thinking across the many topics we discussed. This came across in their facilitation assignments and in their attention to detail, which demonstrated respect for one another. Going to that class was an indescribable experience, and I thank my students for their willingness to learn and be vulnerable at times.
What do you like most about NMSU?
The community! I always said that if I stayed in academia, I wanted to teach students with a background similar to mine, and I'm getting to do just that! I’ve been at NMSU for the better part of six years now, and that was the case when I first started and has continued to the present day.
Dr. Duli Shi
Assistant Professor, Tenure Track
"I enjoy taking a cross-disciplinary research approach to examining the roles of strategic communication and public relations in a wide range of for-profit and non-profit organizations.Much of my research investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social advocacy (CSA) in social media to examine companies’ strategic communication of their involvement in issues of public concern. My scholarly work has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Corporate Communication: An International Journal, and International Journal of Strategic Communication, among others.
My teaching philosophy centers on developing students’ learning motivation and problem-based learning skills through effective communication strategies. I teach courses in Organizational Communication and Communication Technology."