Communication and Media Faculty

Education

• Ph.D., Rutgers University – New Brunswick
• M.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• B.A., University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

Brief Bio

Stephen M. DiDomenico (pronouns: he/they) joined the West Chester University community in 2020 and has previously held faculty positions at the State University of New York (in New Paltz and Plattsburgh), Syracuse University, and Rutgers University.

Interests

• Discourse, conversation, & everyday talk
• Interpersonal relationships & identities in ordinary interaction
• Talk in mental health organizations & help seeking encounters
• Embodied use of technology & objects in interaction
• Oral narrative/storytelling (especially in LGBTQ+ communities)

Courses Taught

• COM 209 - Principles & Practice of PS I
• COM 211 - Comm. Research Literacy & Inquiry
• COM 214 - Relational Communication
• COM 307 - Nonverbal Communication
• COM 309 - Principles & Practice of PS II
• COM 345 - Communicating Gender & Sexuality
• COM 375 - Discourse & Everyday Talk
• COM 397 - Special Topics in Relational Comm: Social Support, Technology, & Loneliness
• COM 490 - Capstone in Communication Studies

Research Program

Most broadly, Dr. DiDomenico’s research lies at the intersection of language & social interaction, interpersonal/relational communication, and organizational communication. Their research interests are interdisciplinary and broadly focus on the moment-by-moment dynamics of everyday interpersonal encounters. In particular, they use qualitative methods - especially conversation and discourse analytic approaches - to examine the situated communication practices that participants use to construct activities, identities, and relationships in a variety of ordinary and professional settings. Recent topics of interest have included mental health help seeking and support services, technology use and embodiment in face-to-face conversation, and genres of oral narrative in LGBTQ communities.

Dr. DiDomenico’s teaching interests span a wide range of areas in Communication Studies. In the past, he has taught courses on topics such as interpersonal communication, research methods, language & social interaction, oral communication, nonverbal/embodied action, oral storytelling, gender & sexuality, interviewing, and technology & communication design, and basic surveys of the discipline, among other courses.

Recent Publications

DiDomenico, S.M (in press). Analyzing narrative & discourse data. In C. Lee & A. Brett (Eds.), The Guide to LGBT+ Research. Emerald Press.

Robles, J. S., DiDomenico, S. M., Raclaw, J., & Joyce, J. B. (2023). Reporting Mobile Device-Mediated Text to Manage Action and Agency in Co-Present Conversation. Social Interaction. Video Based Studies of Human Sociality, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.7146/si.v6i1.137382    

Gipson, T., & DiDomenico, S. M. (2022). Art and perception: How observing and discussing art can support students’ communication education. Communication Teacher, 37(1), 19-23. 

Robles, J. S., DiDomenico, S.M, & Raclaw, J. (2021). Using objects and technologies in the  immediate environment as resources for managing affect displays in troubles talk. In J.S. Robles & A. Weatherall (Eds.), How emotions are made in talk (pp. 101 – 128). John Benjamins Press.  

Committee Memberships & Professional Organizations

• Vice Chair Elect, Language & Social Interaction Division - National Communication Association
• Researcher, Rutgers Conversation Analysis Lab (RUCAL)
• Member, International Communication Association
• Member, International Pragmatics Association
• Member, International Society for Conversation Analysis

Certificates & Licenses

• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) Certificate