Michaela R. Winchatz is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs in the College of Communication. An award-winning instructor, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of cultural and intercultural communication, gender and communication, language and social interaction, and fieldwork methods.
As an ethnographer of communication, her research focuses on the discovery and interpretation of cultural patterns in everyday communication as well as the investigation, application, and advancement of ethnographic methods in various contexts. Her research interests include ethnography of communication, ethnographic fieldwork methods, discourse analysis, intercultural communication, as well as German language and culture. She has published research articles and reviews in such journals as Communication Education, Communication Monographs, Discourse Studies, Field Methods, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Friendship Studies (AMITY), Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Research on Language and Social Interaction (ROLSI).
Michaela R. Winchatz received her B.A. in German from Rutgers College of Rutgers University in New Jersey. After receiving two Fulbright grants for study in Munich, Germany, she completed an MA in psycholinguistics/speech communication from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany. During her doctoral studies, she received a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) grant to conduct dissertation research in the town of Landau, Germany. Winchatz received her PhD in speech communication from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Selected Publications
- Winchatz, M. R., Ho, E., & Sprain, L. (2023). A spectrum of speech codes: Review of thirty years of empirical research for methodological insights. The Annals of the International Communication Association.
- Martin, D. R., Winchatz, M. R., Knight, K., & Burrows, L. (2023). Managing workplace boredom: Employee coping strategies, supervisor communication, and job satisfaction. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 30(3), 314-326.
- Winchatz, M. R., Ho, E., & Sprain, L. (in press 2023) Stories of speech codes in the field. In G. Philipsen and T. Hart (Eds.), Contending with codes in a world of difference. Rowan & Littlefield.
- Winchatz, M. R., Sprain, L., Poutiainen, S., and Ho, E. (2022). “We don't say that word out loud": A grounded practical theory for analyzing difficult data in language and social interaction classrooms. Communication Education, 72(2), 147-167.
- Winchatz, M. R., Martin, D. L., and Elia, E. (2021). There's no such thing as a free lunch: A dialectical analysis of social cheating during financial transactions among friends. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies, 7(1): 49-63.
- Von Over, B., Dori-Hacohen, G., & Winchatz, M.R. (2018). Policing the boundaries of the sayable: The public negotiation of profane, prohibited, and proscribed speech. In Scollo, Michelle and Trudy Milburn (Eds.), Cultural Discourse Analysis in Situated Contexts: A Tribute to Donal Carbaugh. *This publication received the NCA Language & Social Interaction Outstanding Scholarly Publication Award (November 13, 2020)
- Winchatz, M. R. (2017). Ethnography of cultural communication. In Young Yun Kim (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication. Malden, MA: Wiley & Sons.
- Winchatz, M. R. (2016). Jammern as a German way of speaking. In Carbaugh, Donal (Ed.), Handbook of Communication in Cross-Cultural Perspective (pp. 65-75). London: Routledge.
- Winchatz, M. R. (2010). Participant-observation and the nonnative ethnographer: Implications of positioning on discourse-centered fieldwork. Field Methods, 22(4), 340-356.
- Winchatz, M. R., and Kozin, A. (2008). Comical hypothetical: Arguing for a conversational phenomenon. Discourse Studies, 10(3), 383-405.
- Winchatz, M. R. (2007). German pronominal systems in conflict: The discursive negotiation of du and Sie. International Journal of Communication, 17(1), 67-90.
- Winchatz, M. R. (Feb. 1, 2006). Fieldworker or foreigner?: Ethnographic interviewing in non-native languages. Field Methods, 18(1), 83-97.
- Winchatz, M. R. (2004). Taking matters into their own hands: Blind students' perspectives on teaching, trust, and telescopes. Future Reflections, 23(3), 16-20.
- Winchatz, M. R. (2001). Social meanings in German interactions: An ethnographic analysis of the second-person pronoun Sie. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 34(3), 337-369.
- Manusov, V., Winchatz, M. R., & Manning, L. M. (1997). Acting out our minds: Incorporating behavior into models of stereotype-based expectancies for cross-cultural interactions. Communication Monographs, 64, 119-139.
- Philipsen, G., Aoki, E., Castor, T. R., Coutu, L., Covarrubias, P., Jabs, L., Kane, M., & Winchatz, M. R. (1997). Reading Ella Cara Deloria's Waterlily for cultured speech. Iowa Journal of Communication, 29, 31-49.
Awards, Grants, and Honors
National and International
- 2019 - Competitively selected/completed the Faculty Success Program of the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
- 2018 - Competitively selected/completed the Mid-Career Scholars' Writing
- Retreat (sponsored by National Communication Association), University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL.
- 2018 - Keynote speech, "When Germans see a light at the end of the tunnel, they tend to make the tunnel longer: German Jammern and the speech code of despondency," presented at the International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies, Chicago, IL.
- 2009 - DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Re-Invitation Grant for a three-month research stay in Landau, Germany
- 1995/1996 - DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Annual Grant to German (10 months)
- 1991/1992 - Fulbright Renewal Grant to Germany (12 months)
- 1990/1991 - Fulbright Full Grant to Germany (10 months)
DePaul
- 2016 - Board of Trustees and President of DePaul University Joint Resolution honoring Michaela Winchatz for exemplary service as Faculty Council President (2011-2016)
- 2013 - Louise de Marillac Women of Spirit & Action Award
- 2009 - Excellence in Teaching Award - College of Communication, DePaul University
- 2009 - DePaul University Faculty Research Leave awarded for winter and spring quarters
- 2008 - College of Communication Faculty Summer Research Grant
- 2006 - DePaul University Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (assistant granted for summer and fall quarters)
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