Tema O. Milstein, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Washington, 2007  Office: Room 226	Assistant Professor Communication

Research:

My interests tend to be focused on the nature of culture and the culture of nature. My work generally fits in the categories of cultural, intercultural, and environmental communication. My methodology is largely critical, cultural, and interpretive. One of my ongoing projects is a long-term ethnographic study focused on the interplay of communication, tourism, and endangered marine wildlife at the Canada-U.S. Pacific border. I am particularly interested in these questions:

• How are cultural and ecological perceptions and practices reproduced or transformed through communication?
• How is the self altered through culture, environment, and communication?
• How does nature mediate communication and culture?

Sample Publications:

• Milstein, Tema. (in press). "When whales 'speak for themselves':
  Communication as a mediating force in wildlife tourism." Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 2 (2).
• Milstein, Tema. (in press). "The nature inside our heads: Exploring possibilities for widespread cultural paradigm shifts about nature." Drain: Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture, 9.
• Milstein, Tema. (2007). "Animal Discourse:  How Human Communication Informs and Shapes the Human Relationship with Other Animals." In Marc Bekoff (ed.) Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships: A Global Exploration of Our Connections with Animals.   Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Manusov, Valerie, and Milstein, Tema. (2005). "Interpreting Nonverbal Behavior: Representation and Transformation Frames in Israeli and Palestinian Media Coverage of the 1993 Rabin-Arafat Handshake." Western Journal of Communication , 69 (3), 183-201.
• Milstein, Tema (2005).  "Transformation Abroad: Sojourning and the Perceived Enhancement of Self-Efficacy."  International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 29 (2), 217-238 .
• Howard, Philip; Carr, John; and Milstein, Tema. (2005). "Digital technology and the market for political surveillance."  Surveillance & Society, 3 (1), 59-73

Authors: Donna Haraway, Donal Carbaugh, Val Plumwood, Arturo Escobar, Stuart Hall, Norman Fairclough, bell hooks, Michel Foucault, etc.

Teaching Style: I strive for a highly interactive and experiential pedagogy that engages students in transformative learning. I am interested in helping students discover ways to critically apply their learning to their work and their lives.

Awards: First Place Top Paper, Environmental Communication Division. National Communication Association. 2006.

Why UNM?: I have strong personal and academic ties to New Mexico. I went to high school here, earned my B.A. in the pre-merger Journalism Department, worked as a reporter and editor in print media in Albuquerque (and as a volunteer public radio talk show host at KUNM), taught in the C&J Department as a professional journalist, and later earned my M.A. here with an emphasis in intercultural communication. Plus, I'm a chile addict.

Spare Time: Gardening, yoga, being outdoors, snowboarding, travel, being with friends and family.