William K. Rawlins, Ph.D.
Specialization: Interpersonal Communication; Friendship; Dialogue and Experience; Communication in Public and Private Relationships
William K. Rawlins (Ph.D., Temple University) is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Communication Studies. His book, The Compass of Friendship: Narratives, Identities, and Dialogues (2009), received the Gerald R. Miller Book Award for 2012 from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association, and the 2009 David R. Maines Narrative Research Award from the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research. His book, Friendship Matters: Communication, Dialectics, and the Life Course (1992), was selected as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1993 by the editors of Choice, and received the Gerald R. Miller Book Award in 1994 from the Interpersonal and Small Group Interaction Division of the National Communication Association. In 2002 Professor Rawlins received The Theory That Has Left a Legacy Award: “The Dialectical Perspective” from the Communication Theory Interest Group of the Central States Communication Association. He has published extensively about the unique challenges and dialectical tensions of communicating in friendships. He ongoing research addresses the aesthetics of interpersonal communication, and the role of friendships in accomplishing the well-lived life for individuals and communities.
Professor Rawlins has taught courses in interpersonal and relational communication; communication theory; embodied, ethical and aesthetic perspectives on human communication; dialogue and experience; interpretive and ethnographic inquiry; communication and narrative; Gregory Bateson and communication theory; and communication in friendships across the life course. While at Ohio University, he received the 2013 Julia T. Wood Teacher/Scholar Award from the Pennsylvania Communication Association; the Outstanding Faculty Teacher Award for 2012-2013, as well as the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award for 2012-2013 from the Ohio University School of Communication Studies. He also received the Outstanding Faculty Teacher Award for 2010-2011 from the Ohio University School of Communication Studies. While at Purdue University, he received the W. Charles Redding Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Communication five times, the School of Liberal Arts Departmental Educational Excellence Award for 2000-2001, and the School of Liberal Arts Educational Excellence Award for 2002-2003.