Lisa Coutu

Ph.D., University of Washington, 1996
E-Mail: coutu@uw.edu

Lisa Coutu, Teaching Professor Emeritus, specializes in the study of communication and culture, the ethnography of communication, and discourse analysis. In particular, her research interests involve the study of how groups’ ways of speaking are created and maintained within the context of coexisting and competing ways of speaking. Now retired, she taught undergraduate courses in language, culture, and communication, intercultural communication, and communication approaches to the study of war. She was also the Associate Director of the UW Center for Local Strategies Research, and an Associate Director of the Communication Leadership program. In 2003, she received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2008, she received the UW Educational Outreach award for Teaching Excellence in Distance Learning.

Selected publications

  • Coutu, L. M. (2008). Contested social identity and communication in text and talk about the Vietnam War. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 41, 387-407.
  • Friesem, K. & Coutu, L. M. (2005). Aligning in large class instruction. In D. H. Wulff, W. H. Jacobson, K. Freisem, D. H. Hatch, M. Lawrence, & L. R. Lenz (Eds.), Aligning for learning: Strategies for teaching effectiveness. Bolton, MA: Anker.
  • Philipsen, G., Coutu, L., & Covarrubias, P. (2005). Speech Codes Theory: Restatement, revisions, and a response to criticisms. In W. Gudykunst, Ed., Theorizing about communication and culture (55-68). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Invited book chapter).
  • Philipsen, G. & Coutu, L. M. (2005). The ethnography of speaking. In Sanders, R. & Fitch, K. L. (Eds.), Handbook of research on language and social interaction (355-379). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Coutu, L. M. (2004). [Review of the book Discourse and silencing: Representation and the language of displacement (Discourse approaches to politics, society, and culture)]. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 8, 601-609.
  • Coutu, L. M., Alway, M, & Lowell, N. (2002). Technology and student attitudes in large lecture classes. In C. Rust (Ed), Improving student learning: Improving student learning using learning technology (324-334). Oxford: Oxonian Rewley Press.
  • Coutu, L. M. (2000). Communication codes of rationality and spirituality in the discourse of and about Robert S. McNamara’s In Retrospect. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 33, 169-211