Dr. Verlaine McDonald

Professor of CommunicationCommunication

Portrait of Dr. Verlaine McDonald

Contact

Office Location

  • CMIT 329

Office Hours

  • Mon/Wed: 10:00am-noon
  • Tues/Thur: 3:00-4:00pm
  • Appointments by Zoom available by request

Biography

I grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch in northeastern Montana. I’ve lived in Berea since 1995 when I joined the Berea College faculty. Before that, I was a professor at Seattle Pacific University; an assistant lecturer at the University of Southern California (where I did my graduate work); a high school teacher in northern California; and an office manager in Washington, D.C.

I accepted Berea College’s job offer because I was impressed by its powerful mission and history, small-town setting, and the amazing students, faculty, and staff I met during my interview. I have never regretted the decision to come to Berea!

Most of my published research has explored historical topics from a communication perspective, such as the way activists persuaded many farmers and workers in my home county in Montana to embrace radical politics in the 1920s.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my husband and two daughters, gardening, reading contemporary fiction, and traveling to new places.

Degrees

  • PhD Communication Arts & Sciences, University of Southern California, 1994
  • MA Communication Arts & Sciences, University of Southern California, 1993
  • BA Communication and English Education, Seattle Pacific University, 1987

Publications & Works

  • Selected Publications

    • McDonald, Andrew T. and Verlaine Stoner McDonald. Democracy in a Kimono: Paul Rusch and the Shaping of Post-War Japan. University Press of Kentucky: 2018.
    • Stoner, Helen Wagnild and Verlaine Stoner McDonald. Sheridan County. Arcadia Publishing,  2013.
    • “Democracy in a Kimono: The Kiyosato Education Experiment Project as Burkean Comic Corrective.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the International Conference on Narrative (Manchester, England: June 2013).
    • McDonald, Verlaine Stoner. The Red Corner: The Rise and Fall of Communism in Northeastern Montana. Helena: Montana State Historical Society Press, 2010.
    • “Civic Engagement in Japan and Appalachia: A Burkean Analysis of the Kiyosato Education Experiment Project.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the annual convention of the Central States Communication Association (Cincinnati: April 2010).
    • “Burke’s ‘The People’ Edict and American Communism’s Evolving Narrative.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the International Conference on Narrative (Birmingham, England: June 2009).
    • “Revolutionary Symbolism in the Electronic Age: Burke and the Contemporary Communist Party.” Peer-reviewed paper presented at the annual convention of the National Communication Association (formerly the Speech Communication Association; hereafter NCA) (San Diego: November, 2008).
    • “A Paper of, by and for the People’: The Producers News and the Farmers’ Movement in Northeastern Montana,1918-1937.” Montana Legacy: Essays on History, People, and Place. Ed. Harry W. Fritz, Mary Murphy, Robert R. Swartout, Jr. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2002.

  • Current Research

    My current research focuses on Governor Martha Layne Collins of Kentucky.