NICHOLAS BRODY, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR / RESEARCHER / SPEAKER / FACILITATOR

Everyone has a horror story — an email sent to the wrong person, a text taken out of context, a work conflict that seems impossible to resolve. These digital miscommunications have become universal experiences in our connected world. Technology has transformed how we communicate, creating both opportunities and challenges in our personal and professional lives. My research at the intersection of communication and technology explores critical issues like cyberbullying, technology's role in relationships, and other online social dynamics, which allows me to help organizations and individuals translate this knowledge into practical strategies that improve digital interactions. Through speaking engagements, workshops, and consulting, I offer evidence-based approaches to the communication challenges we all face in our increasingly connected world.

ABOUT

I am a professor, researcher, speaker, and facilitator. My research specialties focus on the intersection of communication and technology. I explore topics such as cyberbullying and the use of technology and social media in relationships. I have published numerous research articles and book chapters on these topics.

My public scholarship includes op-eds in the Tacoma News Tribune and Austin American Statesman, and I have been quoted in publications such as The Atlantic, Vox, and numerous others.

I am a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.

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CONSULTING

Expert guidance for modern communication challenges

We are always communicating, yet achieving true understanding and connection remains a constant challenge. I regularly serve as an expert panelist and facilitator, helping organizations and individuals navigate the challenges of modern communication. I am available for speaking engagements, workshops, and individual coaching.

I appeared in the documentary The Upstanders, and worked with Indieflix productions to deliver presentations and serve as an expert panelist for schools, hospitals, and community organizations who screened the documentary.

I can work with organizations to deliver panels, sessions, or trainings on:

Contact: nbrody@gmail.com

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

A full list of publications can be found here.

Online Bullying and Harassment

  • Cyberbullying: Topics, strategies, and sex differences. Computers in Human Behavior
  • Bystander intervention in cyberbullying. Communication Monographs
  • Bystander intervention in cyberbullying and online harassment: The role of expectancy violations. International Journal of Communication
  • Textual harassment as a form of bullying, drama, and obsessive relational intrusion. In The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Bullying.

Relational Communication and Technology

  • The great reconnection: Examining motives for relational reconnection and social penetration as a predictor of well-being. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
  • How will your relationship be remembered? Virtual relational curation following a breakup. Information, Communication, and Society
  • The humor and relational functions of memes. First Monday
  • Virtual relationship memory: A conceptual model of mediated communication and relational dissolution. Communication Theory
  • Holding on and letting go: Memory, nostalgia, and effects of virtual possession management practices on post-breakup adjustment. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
  • Opting out of social media: Online communication attitudes mediate the relationship between personality factors and Facebook non-use. Southern Communication Journal

Physiology & Psychology of Social Interaction

  • Reducing social pain: Sex differences in the impact a physical pain reliever. Personal Relationships
  • The physiology of social pain: examining, problematizing, and contextualizing the experience of social pain. In The Oxford Handbook of the Physiology of Interpersonal Communication (Oxford University Press)

TEACHING

I teach university courses on topics including Introduction to Online Communication, Communication Theory, Quantitative Research Methods, Communication and the Internet, Lying and Deception, Communication and Technology in Relationships, and Controversies of Communication and Technology. My previous teaching experience includes courses in Language, Communication, and Culture, Communication in Organizations, Relational Communication, and Public Speaking.

CONTACT

Nicholas Brody, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Communication Studies

University of Puget Sound

Tacoma, WA

Email: nbrody@gmail.com

University Email: nbrody@pugetsound.edu

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