Faculty
Patrick McElearney
Assistant Professor of Instruction
CONTACT INFORMATION
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. McElearney joined the faculty in Fall 2020. Previously, he held faculty appointments at Louisiana State University. His research explores the sociocultural interplay between teenage identity and health through focusing on bodily performance, narrative, (un)controllability, the media, and cognitive and emotional affect. Dr. McElearney鈥檚 primary research takes a critical ethnographic approach to analyze teenage cancer patient鈥檚 telling personal cancer stories online, where he maps new narrative and performative structures for telling an illness story. In addition, Dr. McElearney takes a critical qualitative approach to teenage identity in health campaigns, where he has been Primary Investigator of a team conducting research to (re)implement and to (re)develop a campaign targeting childhood obesity. Outside of academic scholarship, Dr. McElearney has numerous credits for directing, writing, and performing in shows at multiple venues.
RESEARCH AREAS
Health Communication, Performance Studies, Narrative Studies, Critical Culture, Critical Pedagogy, and (Auto)Ethnography
RESEARCH clusters
Health Communication; Interpersonal and Relational Communication; Media, Culture and Performance