About

Deborah J. Borisoff is a Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU Steinhardt. Her scholarly interests include gender and communication, conflict management, organizational communication, cross-cultural communication, and listening. She has coauthored or coedited ten published books, including titles such as The Power to Communicate: Gender Differences as Barriers, Conflict Management: A Communication Approach, Listening in Everyday Life, and Women and Men Communicating: Challenges and Changes. Professor Borisoff has been recognized as a Distinguished Research Fellow and a Distinguished Teaching Fellow by the Eastern Communication Association. She has also received NYU's Steinhardt School of Education Teaching Excellence Award and the university's Distinguished Teaching Medal in 2004.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Political science
• Social psychology
• Pedagogy

Selected publications

• Wife, Inc: the business of marriage in the twenty-first century

  Feminist Media Studies · 2019-02-07

  article1st authorCorresponding

  "Wife, Inc: the business of marriage in the twenty-first century." Feminist Media Studies, 19(2), pp. 304–305

  PublisherDOI

• Charting the Terrain of Interpersonal Communication and the Landscape of Social Interaction: Traditions, Challenges, and Trajectories

  Atlantic Journal of Communication · 2017-08-08 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An updated version of a chapter originally appearing in A Century of Transformation: Studies in Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Eastern Communication Association, this piece examines the history and continued development of interpersonal communication. We begin by examining the progression of interpersonal communication from the 1920s through the 1980s. We then explore contemporary trends in interpersonal communication since the 1990s. Finally, we consider the challenges and future trajectories of interpersonal communication as it continues to develop and transform. We identify major aspects of research and how they are informed by identity and raise critical challenges to studying interpersonal communication. We end by exploring how transformations in technology are inexorably connected to our understanding and valuing interaction with others, and identify emerging areas of inquiry.

  PublisherDOI

• Communicating Power and Gender

  2011-03-01 · 8 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Interpersonal Communication: Trajectories and Challenges

  2010-01-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Dimensions of Intimacy: The Interrelationship Between Gender and Listening (Doc. ID: ED347581)

  2007-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Male Communication Problems in the Student Body (Doc. ID: ED416552)

  2007-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Dimensions of Intimacy: The Interrelationship Between Gender and Listening

  2007-01-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• “Gender and Communication" 30-minute educational DVD. Served es research consultant and narrator

  2007-10-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Being Effectively Mentored: A Focus on Ph.D.-Granting Private Research Institutions (Doc. ID: ED411566)

  2007-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• What Makes Qualitative Research Qualitative?

  Qualitative Research Reports in Communication · 2007-10-12 · 141 citations

  articleSenior author

  The discipline of communication is marked by an increasing number of means of understanding. Given the recent research explosion, specialization has accordingly become a major way of dealing with research and methodological diversity. Within this context, this analysis is predominantly definitional, seeking to isolate the unique features of qualitative research. This analysis first provides a survey of six major definitions of and approaches to qualitative research. Second, commonly shared characteristics of qualitative research are outlined, including the role that natural setting plays in the research design, the role of the researcher as both observer and participant, how subjects influence the content of a communication study, the influence of subject intentionality on the research report, and the pragmatic uses of qualitative research. Third, it is suggested that qualitative research is theoretically unique, satisfying the requirements for grounded theory. Finally, it is concluded that qualitative research is increasingly finding its own identity when viewed in terms of the goals and procedures of quantitative and critical approaches to communication.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Robert J. Landy

  Reinhardt University

  4 shared

• Dan F. Hahn

  4 shared

• D. Hahn

  3 shared

• Michael Purdy

  Denver Health Medical Center

  3 shared

• David T. McMahan

  Missouri Western State University

  2 shared

• Diane Hahn

  2 shared

• Lisa Merrill

  2 shared

• L. Merrill

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Named Distinguished Research Fellow and Distinguished Teachi…
• Received New York University's Steinhardt School of Educatio…
• Awarded NYU's Distinguished Teaching Medal, 2004