Meet Communication Department Chair Erica Scharrer
By Gabriella Grondalski & Grace Keller
Erica Scharrer holds many roles in the UMass Department of Communication. She is the department chair, a professor, and is always involved in different research projects. When listening to her talk about the Communication major, it’s easy to see how much she adores it. “Studying communication is one of the most interesting and relevant things a person can do, the media aspect of communication is incredibly relevant and only becoming more so… It is vital to understanding the world around you and participating in it. Also, the face to face communication part of major, how do we engage as citizens and as human beings. This has to do with how we relate, communicate, plan action, and understand one another,” she states. These are the skills that our major offers and are important to every human being.
She received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. Her first job after graduating was at the State University of New York Geneseo, where she received her undergraduate degree. She was hired at her former department and worked with her former professors. While she was working at SUNY-Geneseo, her partner was working in Boston and they were trying to find a place where their lives could align. A friend sent Scharrer information on an opening in the UMass Communication Department because she knew it was closer to Boston and that she had always wanted to live in New England. Scharrer researched UMass and found that it was a perfect place for her to apply because it is a major research university and the Communication Department was very strong. She applied and interviewed in March of 1999 and has been in the department ever since.
After a few years of working as a faculty member, she was appointed to the Chair of the Communication Department and remained the Chair for three and a half years. She then stepped down from the role and focused on her teaching and research for eight years until recently her colleagues appointed her back to the position and she accepted. She says, “Being the chair is sometimes a mixed bag because it takes faculty members away from the things they became faculty members to do, which is to teach, do research and do outreach into the community. So it’s hard to do those things still have the managerial role of being chair. But on the other hand, chair has a lot of great aspects to it, such as working with colleagues toward making improvements in how we do things, and thinking carefully about who we are and where we are going in the future, and enacting a vision for the undergrad program, the grad program, anyways that we do the work of the dept. Working together with people on those big picture questions and supporting them when and where I can.” The chair helps to nurture all the members of the department, including newer faculty, and she really enjoys bringing people on board and helping them succeed. She helps give feedback to faculty members about their courses and research. Making change is her favorite part of being a chair, “Not that there is a lot of change that needs to be made but there is always room to do better.” She enjoys the creativity in asking the questions of what should we adjust, what are our priorities, and what are we doing well. The chair gives space to ask these questions.
Sharrer is always working on research projects and she and a co-author recently submitted a book project that they have been working on for the past 4 and a half years. It is a Research Methods book that discusses how to design a quantitative research study with an eye towards social justice, both in terms of the process of designing the study, such as one that is responsive to diversity and inclusion and principles of social justice, and also how to use research in order to make the world a more just and equal place. Scharrer is currently working on survey data from 13-18-year-olds across the US that measure their use of different media types and whether using that media is connected statistically with their views of masculine gender roles. This has been an ongoing part of her research since her dissertation topic in the 1990s.
In addition to being department chair and pursuing her research, she is also teaching one course this semester, COMM 338: Children, Teens, and Media. This course takes students on a tour of issues that exist in the role of media in kids’ lives. It encompasses what forms of media they like, why they’re drawn to those forms, and how much time they spend on media platforms. The class discusses different issues that are prevalent, what Scharrer calls “The good, bad, and the ugly of media in children’s lives.” They discuss learning from educational shows, using social media to connect with people, and to express one’s self politically. Some negative examples of media in the lives of children may be being exposed to different things too early like sex, violence, and bullying, to media disrupting sleep and shaping our ideas about ourselves and other people. The course ends with the role of parents and caregivers and the role of media literacy instruction equipping kids with a critical orientation towards the media so they can be autonomous and hard-working analytical users of media.
Remote learning and teaching have been challenging and it makes her sad to know what is happening all over the world with COVID-19. She was worried about remote teaching because she is a very relational person who gets energized when teaching through looking at her student’s faces. Last semester she was sad while teaching remotely, however, she has come to terms with teaching online and how there is some value to it. Remote teaching can be positive in terms of conversation and dialogue and having people participate. She uses breakout rooms in her classes and her students are having great conversations that may not have been the same in person. Her students also appreciate the videos and asynchronous parts of the class. She was surprised by some of the meaningful pleasures of remote teaching, even if there was an adjustment period.
If you are interested in her COMM 338 class, she will be teaching it in the spring semester. Scharrer will also be continuing her research and making improvements in the Communication Department. We are excited to see what else Scharrer will accomplish during her time as the department chair.