Valerie Rubinsky

Overview of Research, Interdisciplinarity & Teaching Approach

Val is an active social and behavioral researcher grounded both in the discipline of communication and the interdisciplinary sexuality, relationship, and family sciences. She researches communication content related to sex, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health, and communication processes related to disclosure (i.e., revealing personal information), memorable messages (i.e., lasting messages from influential others), and the management of the increasingly multimodal features of our personal and professional relationships. Her PhD in interpersonal communication (Ohio University), M.A. in communication management, public relations, and stakeholder communication (Emerson College), and B.A. in journalism (Temple University) prepare her to teach a variety of courses related to communication.

In addition to formal training in communication, Val is a relationship scientist by practice. She has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in the interdisciplinary fields of Relationship Science and Sexuality Studies (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aXpViuwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao). Currently, she serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and is guest-editing a special issue of LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

In her classes, she emphasizes the development of communication competencies. Her classes embrace the knowledge and insights from multiple fields of study in guiding students through instruction and skill-building activities. She loves working with students to uncover the practical insights from communication, relationship, and sexuality research and theory as they learn how to access and apply the core take-aways from scientific work. She also loves empowering students to engage critically with both the production and consumption of knowledge, and has worked with several UMA students to conduct and even publish their own research studies.

Recent Publications

See CV for full list of publications and conference presentations »