The Basics of Communication: A Relational Perspective

Steve Duck taught at two universities in the United Kingdom before taking up the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa in 1986, where he is also an adjunct professor of psychology. He was recently promoted to Collegiate Administrative Fellow and works with the deans’ caucus in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and as an extension of this position for 2010–2011 he has been appointed interim chair of the Rhetoric Department. He has taught several interpersonal communication courses, mostly on inter­personal communication and relationships but also on nonverbal communication, communication in everyday life, construction of identity, communication theory, organizational leadership, and procedures and practices for leaders. Always, by training, an interdisciplinary thinker, Steve has focused on the development and decline of relationships from many different perspectives, although he has also done research on the dynamics of television produc­tion techniques and persuasive messages in health contexts. Steve has written or edited 50 books on relationships and other matters and was the founder and, for the first 15 years, the editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. His 1994 book Meaningful Relationships: Talking, Sense, and Relating won the G. R. Miller Book Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Steve cofounded a series of international conferences on personal rela­tionships that began in 1982. He won the University of Iowa’s first Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2001 and the National Communication Association’s Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award in 2004 for “dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, acceptance of diversity, and forthrightness.” He was the 2010 recipient of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Helen Kechriotis Nelson Teaching Award for a lifetime of excellence in teaching. He was elected in 2010 as one of the National Communication Association’s elite Distinguished Scholars. He hopes to someday appear on The X Factor and be famous.