Meredith Harrigan
Professor & Co-Chair
Blake B 120
(585)245-6331
harrigan@geneseo.edu
she/her
My work as a teacher, scholar, and community member focuses on the interconnectedness between communication and quality-of-life.
The courses I teach, which include Interpersonal Communication; Family Communication; Culture and Communication; Organizational and Group Communication; and Dialogue, Self, and Relationships, position communication as a tool through which people can create and modify meanings and patterns to support personal and relational goals and wellness. These courses prepare learners for a variety of professional positions in human resources, support services, consulting, higher education, and community development. They also prepare learners to be mindful relational partners, family members, friends, colleagues, citizens, and leaders.
As someone who believes in the importance of engagement to learning, I embrace a variety of pedagogical practices that strive to engage all learners by supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging. These include engaged pedagogy, dialogic pedagogy, and a pedagogy of kindness. As illustrated in my recent book project, Noteworthy Expanded: Creating Spaciousness in Higher Education, I find immense value in the material I teach.
My research can be found in the Journal of Family Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Iowa Journal of Communication, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
Spring 2026 Office Hours
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006
M.S., Syracuse University , 1999
B.A., Bloomsburg University, 1997
Affiliations
National Communication Association
Eastern Communication Association
Publications
Harrigan, Meredith and Montanaro, Patrick, 淣oteworthy Expanded: Creating Spaciousness in Higher Education� (2025). Noteworthy. 2.
Harrigan, Meredith and Montanaro, Patrick, 淣oteworthy� (2025). Noteworthy.
Kanemoto, E., M.J. Craig, M.E. Gerringer, J. Lewis, A. Michaels, H.M. Smith, S. Yang, J. Yeoh, M.M. Harrigan (2025). Re-imagining student-faculty relationships: Strengthening social justice efforts through dialogue. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. doi:10.1037/dhe0000602 Available Open Access
Harrigan, M. M. (2023). Donor insemination. In J. Hartenstein (Ed.), Marriage and divorce in America: Issues, trends, and controversies (pp. 190-192). Bloomsbury Academic, Inc.
Miller-Ott, A. E., & Harrigan, M. M. (2023). Using facework to examine complicated conversations in mother-daughter relationships. In S. S. LeBlanc and S. O橲hay (eds.). Casing the family: Theoretical and applied approaches to understanding family communication (2nd ed.). Kendall Hunt Higher Education.
Hosek, M. H. & Harrigan, M. M. (2023) Attributions and framing in working mothers� reports about division of family labor, Journal of Family Communication, 23(1), 63�74. doi: 10.1080/15267431.2023.2165080
Harrigan, M. M., Benz, I., Hauck, C., LaRocca, E., Renders R., & Roney, S. (2021): The dialectical experience of the fear of missing out for U.S. American iGen emerging adult college students, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 49(4), 424�440.
doi: 10.1080/00909882.2021.1898656
Alford, A. M., & Harrigan, M. M. (2019). Role expectations and role evaluations in daughtering: Constructing the good daughter. Journal of Family Communication. 19(4), 348�361. doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2019.1643352
Harrigan, M. M., Hosek, A., & Yang, S. (2019). Busy squirrels, Well-oiled machines, and warm bread: Adult daughters� discursive constructions of their full-time working mothers. Constructing motherhood and daughterhood Across the Lifespan. Peter Lang.
Meadows, M., & Harrigan, M. M. (2019). 淎 different closeness�: Emerging adult daughters depictions of their relational changes with their mothers. Constructing motherhood and daughterhood Across the Lifespan. Peter Lang.
Harrigan, M. M., Priore, A., Wagner, E., & Palka, K. (2017). Preventing face loss in donor-assisted families. Journal of Family Communication, 17(3), 273-287, doi:10.1080/15267431.2017.1322971
Harrigan, M. M. (2017). Sperm donor. Entry in the SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender
Harrigan, M. M., & Bergelson, M. (2015). Bringing theory to practice: Developing facework competence in intercultural collaborations. In A. S. Moore and S. Simon (Eds.), Globally networked teaching in the humanities. Routledge.
Harrigan, M. M., Dieter, S. Leinwohl, J., & Martin, L. (2015). 淚t檚 just who I am� I have brown hair. I have a mysterious father�: An exploration of donor-conceived offspring檚 identity construction. Journal of Family Communication, 15, 75-93.
Harrigan, M.M., Dieter, S., Leinwohl, J., & Martin, L. (2014). Redefining family: An analysis of adult donor-conceived offspring檚 discursive meaning-making. Iowa Journal of Communication, 46, 16-32.
Harrigan, M. M., & Miller-Ott, A. (2013). The multivocality of meaning making: An exploration of the discourses college aged daughters voice in talk about their mothers. Journal of Family Communication. 13,1-18. doi: 10.1080/15267431.2013.768249
Harrigan, M. M. (2012). Instructor檚 manual for Your interpersonal communication by Mottet, T. P., Vogl-Bauer, S., & Houser, M. L. (2012). New York, NY: Pearson.
Harrigan, M. M. (2010). Exploring the narrative process: An analysis of the adoption stories mothers tell their internationally adopted children. Journal of Family Communication, 10, 24-39. doi: 10.1080/15267430903385875
Harrigan, M. M., & Braithwaite, D. O. (2010). Discursive struggles in families formed through visible adoption: An exploration of dialectical unity. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38, 127-144. doi: 10.1080/00909881003639536
Soliz, J., Ribarsky, E., Harrigan, M. M., & Tye-Williams, S. (2010). Family communication with gay and lesbian family members: Implications for relational satisfaction and outgroup attitudes. Communication Quarterly, 58, 77-95. doi: 10.1080/01463370903538622
Harrigan, M. M. (2009). The contradictions of identity-work for parents of visibly adopted children. Journal of Social and Personal Relationship, 26, 634-658.
Schrodt, P., Braithwaite, D. O., Soliz, J., Tye-Williams, S., Miller, A., Norman, E. L., & Harrigan, M. M. (2007). An examination of everyday talk in stepfamily systems. Western Journal of Communication, 71, 216-234. doi 10.1080/10570310701510077
Suter, E. A., Lamb, E. N., Marko, M., & Tye-Williams, S. (2006). Female veteran檚 identity construction, maintenance, and reproduction, Women and Language, 29, 10-15.