Dr. Robert Littlefield
Professor
Email Dr. Littlefield
Office: Minard 321E
Phone: (701) 231-7783
How can it be that I am beginning my 31st year as member of
the NDSU academic community? That I took my Ph.D. from the
University of Minnesota in 1983 seems ancient history.
Perhaps my self-proclaimed status as a lifelong learner has
helped me to evolve and grow as an educator for the 21st
Century. I continue to be excited about teaching,
researching, and serving the students of NDSU and citizens of
the great state of North Dakota.
This year, I am serving as Associate Department Head, with a focus on undergraduate education and online programs. During fall semester 2009, I am acting as director of the master's program while Dr. Ross Collins is on sabbatical completing the writing of a book to be published in 2010. In addition to these responsibilities, I direct the Risk+Crisis Communication Project, collaborating with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Great Plains Institute of Food Safety. My research interests include risk and crisis communication, intercultural communication, and forensic education and practice.
My current research projects focus on the impact of culture on risk communication. Through my work with the NCFPD, I am collaborating on a number of projects developing risk messages for diverse cultural groups. This past spring, I signed a contract with Polity Press to write what may be my major contribution to the discipline in the form of a book entitled, Crisis and Risk Communication: A Culture-Centered Approach.
My established research agenda in forensics training and pedagogy remains an area of interest; and I also am co-authoring a book examining critical issues impacting forensics in America during the 20th Century and a textbook on teaching methods for students preparing to teach at the secondary level.
In addition to these projects, in response to the flood of 2009 in the Red River Valley, last spring I gathered a considerable amount of data to study organizational learning and community resilience in the face of natural disasters. Currently, I am working with a research group and colleagues from other institutions to develop a series of manuscripts on various aspects of these topics.
In the classroom, I am co-teaching COMM 216: Intercultural Communication with a doctoral student, Nadene Vevea. We are introducing team-based learning to engage the class of 120 students. We are very excited about the student response thus far. I am also the instructor of record for two online courses in food safety being facilitated by Nadene Vevea and Kimberly Beauchamp. In Spring 2010, I will be teaching COMM 721: Intercultural Communication and COMM 786: Risk Communication.