College of Communication > Faculty & Staff > Faculty A-Z > Michaela Winchatz

Michaela Winchatz

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  • mwinchat@depaul.edu
  • Professor, Associ​ate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs
  • ​​PhD (University of Washington)​
  • Communication and Media; Communication Studies
  • Faculty
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  • (312) 362-7927
  • 14 E. Jackson Room 1215 
    Munroe Hall, Room 116 J

Michaela R. Winchatz is a​ 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

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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