Courtney Hook

Specializations: Organizational Communication, Prison Activism, Health Narratives

Courtney Hook (M.A., San Diego State University) is a 3^rd year doctoral student whose work sits at the intersection of organizational communication, social justice, and health communication. Her ongoing scholarship is guided by an overarching interest in constructions of advocacy, support, and rehabilitation within marginalized communities and institutions of power. Her work spans diverse contexts, including healthcare environments, courtrooms, waxing salons, and prisons. Courtney’s master’s thesis examined the constructions and complications of support among incarcerated women living in a therapeutic housing unit, resulting in a co-authored publication in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. Courtney’s work can also be found in Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare, Dialogues in Social Justice, and Health Communication. Recent work has focused on exploring the identities of vulnerable bodies, including projects surrounding the experiences of incarcerated women who are pregnant or recent mothers navigating a prison nursery, and health messages exchanged between body waxing specialists and their clients. She is also currently engaging in work with courtrooms to understand how organizational silos influence staff identity in municipal spaces. Her dissertation will take a dialectical lens to understanding how the punishment-rehabilitation dialectic is navigated in prison rehabilitation programs.