Lawrence R. Frey

Lawrence (Larry) R. Frey is an emerit professor in the Department of Communication. He is the author/editor of 17 books and more than 110 other publications. His research has contributed to (a) broadening and deepening group communication research through studying natural/bona fide groups and by employing qualitative methods; (b) legitimizing and establishing applied communication research as a scholarly pursuit; (c) theorizing and offering empirical evidence of the communicative construction of community; and, most recently, (d) conceptualizing and institutionalizing social justice communication activism research and pedagogy (in which, respectively, researchers employ and educators offer students opportunities to use their communication knowledge, resources, and competencies to engage in and study their collaborative communication interventions to advance the social justice goals of oppressed communities and/or activist groups and organizations).

Larry has received more than 25 scholarly awards, including, from the National Communication Association, the Distinguished Scholar Award, Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship, and the Group Communication Division’s Career Achievement Award, with an association-wide award named in his honor (for distinguished communication and social justice activism research); and he has been inducted into the Central States Communication Association’s (CSCA) Hall of Fame. His teaching included graduate courses on applied communication research and qualitative methods; and undergraduate courses on quantitative methods, qualitative methods, and an experiential interpersonal communication senior seminar. Teaching awards received include CSCA’s Outstanding Young Teacher Award and the Western States Communication Association Communication and Instruction Interest Group’s Master Teacher Award.