Bradford Hall

Biography

Bradford ‘J' Hall, Ph.D. (University of Washington, 1989) is Head of the Department of Communication Studies and Philosophy at Utah State University. He teaches primarily in the areas of intercultural communication, communication theory and the link between our talk, thoughts and actions. In his own words, his teaching style is best described as "intensely laid-back,” "confusingly clear” and "routinely varied.” He believes that learning is best accomplished through consistent effort and the serendipity of unexpected insights.

His research deals with issues of culture, identity, membership, conflict and everyday conversation. In particular he has looked at cultural misunderstandings in everyday conversations in which understanding is assumed, to more widespread conflicts over such things as treaty rights and human rights. He has also studied the ways people account for prejudice and socially undesirable attitudes or actions. Although he believes in the value of a plurality of methods, most of his work is grounded in discourse and narrative analysis. His work has been published in journals such as, Communication Monographs, Research on Language and Social Interaction, Communication Theory, Human Relations, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, and Human Communication Research. He recently published the third edition of his text Among Cultures: The Challenge of Communication (2018).