Amanda Weber -

Donal Carbaugh’s (PhD, 1984) successes are a result of his experiences studying and participating in communication cultures. Carbaugh will add one more honor to his list as he joins the Department of Communication Graduation Celebration Thursday, June 9, as the 2011 Distinguished Alumnus and keynote speaker.

Carbaugh is a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts. He has been co-chair of the Five College Committee on Native American Indian Studies, chair of the Language and Social Interaction Division of the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association, and a consultant for U.S. Congress.

Carbaugh was born in a Midwest farming town outside Marion, Indiana. Living in a house with its plumbing frozen over and not enough money to afford milk for the table, he and his family barely got by on his father’s modest teacher’s paycheck.

Growing up in the era of the Vietnam War, Carbaugh was confronted with understanding the social issues surrounding his community and his country, “a central feature in my entire upbringing,” he said. In the midst of this tumultuous time it was a blessing when his father became a professor. But it was his family’s humble beginnings that gave him the motivation to become the accomplished academic he is today. “Those were the formative times for me,” he said. “I saw what education could do for the family I was raised in.”

Carbaugh completed his undergraduate degree at Manchester College in 1977; a double major in communication and anthropology. The Vietnam War continued into the middle of his undergraduate career and Carbaugh turned it into a learning experience. “To be in a place where people were engaged in thinking globally, and how different people can get along together better, and the means for achieving that sort of world — that was a part of my enduring learning and life’s quest,” he said.

Carbaugh continued his graduate education with these ideas in mind. He studied conflict at the University of Montana, and completed his PhD in conflict management and communication in cultures at the UW Department of Communication.

Many people come to mind when he thinks about those who influenced him on his path, but none more than his grandmother. “I’ll never forget her when she was 90 years old sitting down with me, asking, ‘What are kids thinking these days? What’s going on from their point of view?’ She told me to get out in the world,” said Carbaugh, “to go places, learn what’s going on there. Learn and help.”

Carbaugh also remembers key people from UW who were pivotal components to his success, like Tom Scheidel, and his advisor Gerry Philipsen. “I had the gift of superb teachers who were powerful models,” Carbaugh said.

Although he teaches communication, Carbaugh insists that his students are also his teachers, and have been throughout his academic career. “Interactions with students in and out of the classroom have profoundly affected my life,” he said. “Interacting with them about ideas and the world we live in today, and the continued conversations with them beyond the University I think is the joy of a teacher.”

One undergraduate student in particular left a deep impact on Carbaugh, “in her brilliance, but also her ability to move herself and others,” he said. As a student in Carbaugh’s courses, Lisa Coutu says Carbaugh helped her to see that graduate school was something that she could tackle. “He helped me realize that I had a voice, and that’s a lesson that I am grateful for every day,” Coutu said. “His mentorship and friendship over the last nearly 25 years have been invaluable gifts to me.”

Thursday, when he presents the keynote address at the 2011 Department of Communication Graduation Celebration, Carbaugh says that there are certain attitudes he will advise the graduating class to have: “Be humble, keep inquiring, and cultivate awe. The place we live is the place to take those attitudes and work with them to understand such worlds and help make them better.”