Trudy L. Hanson, Ed.D.

Professor, Department Chair

Office: Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex, Room 194
Email: thanson@wtamu.edu
Phone: 806-651-2800
Home Page: www.wtamu.edu/~thanson/

Professional Profile

Dr. Hanson joined the WTAMU faculty in 1989.  She holds a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in speech/English education and a master's degree from Louisiana State in speech communication, with an emphasis in public address.  She completed her doctorate at Texas Tech in higher education with a minor in communication studies.

Teaching and Related Service

Dr. Hanson teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetorical criticism, gender communication and storytelling.  She directs the annual storytelling festival produced by the Panhandle Storytelling Guild, a WTAMU student organization.  She has served as president of the Texas Speech Communication Association, the Southern States Communication Association and as editor of the Texas Speech Communication Journal.

Research and Creative Activity

Dr. Hanson's research interests include popular communication, gender issues and storytelling (her cover story, "The Twelve Dancing Cowboys," appeared on the cover of Storytelling Magazine.)  She also studies issues that impact first-year college students.  She partners with Windows on a Wider World in bringing area elementary school children to the WTAMU campus each spring to attend the annual storytelling festival. She's recently published a collection of stories, Fractured Fairy Tales, Texas Style.

Personal Sketch

Hanson and her husband, Mike, are the parents of four children (Leah, Chad, Ashley and Tori) and six grandchildren. She loves telling stories--to anyone who will listen.  Although she recently successfully completed a Low Ropes certification course, she has no deisre to go rock climbing or jump off tall towers.