Michaela Winchatz

Degrees

BA in German from Rutgers College of Rutgers University in New Jersey. After receiving two Fulbright grants for study in Munich, Germany, she completed an MA in psycholinguistics/speech communication from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany. During her doctoral studies in the United States she returned to Germany on a DAAD grant to conduct dissertation research in the town of Landau. She received her PhD in speech communication from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Languages

• English, German

Areas of Interest and Specialization

• She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cultures in conversation, gender and communication, intercultural communication, language and power, and fieldwork methods.

Publications and Research

Her research interests include ethnography of communication, ethnographic fieldwork methods, discourse analysis, intercultural communication, as well as German language and culture. She has published research articles and reviews in such journals as Communication Monographs, Discourse Studies, Field Methods, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Friendship Studies (AMITY), Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Research on Language and Social Interaction (ROLSI).

Her most recent research focuses on cultural terms for talk in both German and English, the study of which provides insight into how talk itself is valued differently across societies, and, in turn, unveils deep normative systems that often lie at the base of intercultural misunderstandings.

Selected Publications

• Winchatz, M. R., Martin, D. L., and Elia, E. (2021). There’s no such thing as a free lunch: A dialectical analysis of social cheating during financial transactions among friends. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies, 7(1): 49-63.
• Von Over, B., Dori-Hacohen, G., & Winchatz, M.R. (2018). Policing the boundaries of the sayable: The public negotiation of profane, prohibited, and proscribed speech. In Scollo, Michelle and Trudy Milburn (Eds.), Cultural Discourse Analysis in Situated Contexts: A Tribute to Donal Carbaugh. *NCA Language & Social Interaction Outstanding Scholarly Publication Award (November 13, 2020)
• Winchatz, M. R. (2017). Ethnography of cultural communication. In Young Yun Kim (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication. Malden, MA: Wiley & Sons.
• Winchatz, M. R. (2016). Jammern as a German way of speaking. In Carbaugh, Donal (Ed.), Handbook of Communication in Cross-Cultural Perspective (pp. 65-75). London: Routledge.
• Winchatz, M. R. (2010). Participant-observation and the nonnative ethnographer: Implications of positioning on discourse-centered fieldwork. Field Methods, 22(4), 340-356.
• Winchatz, M. R., and Kozin, A. (2008). Comical hypothetical: Arguing for a conversational phenomenon. Discourse Studies, 10(3), 383-405.
• Winchatz, M. R. (2007). German pronominal systems in conflict: The discursive negotiation of du and Sie. International Journal of Communication, 17(1), 67-90.

Awards and Honors

International

• 2018 - Keynote speech, "When Germans see a light at the end of the tunnel, they tend to make the tunnel longer: German Jammern and the speech code of despondency," presented at the International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies, Chicago, IL.
• 2009 - DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Re-Invitation Grant for a three-month research stay in Landau, Germany
• 1995/1996 - DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Annual Grant to German (10 months)
• 1991/1992 - Fulbright Renewal Grant to Germany (12 months)
• 1990/1991 - Fulbright Full Grant to Germany (10 months)

National

• 2016 - Commendation from the DePaul University Board of Trustees for Five Years as Faculty Council President
• 2013 - Louise de Marillac Women of Spirit & Action Award
• 2009 - Excellence in Teaching Award - College of Communication, DePaul University
• 2009 - DePaul University Faculty Research Leave awarded for winter and spring quarters
• 2008 - College of Communication Faculty Summer Research Grant
• 2006 - DePaul University Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (assistant granted for summer and fall quarters)

Professional Organizations

• International Communication Association
• National Communication Association
• Fulbright Alumni Association
• DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Alumni Association

Media

• Interviewed on "The Roundtable Perspective" on WYIN (a PBS affiliate) by Thomas J. Roach, PhD (Purdue University Northwest) on “Ethnography of Communication.” Aired November 9 and 11, 2018.
• "Task Force Reviews V2018 in Light of Emerging Educational Trends" (DePaul Newsline)
• "Difficult Conversations" (DePaul Distinctions)