Sandy Pensoneau-Conway | SIU

Communication Studies

Sandy Pensoneau-Conway is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She received a B.S. (cum laude) in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1999), an M.S. in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2001), and a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2006). 

Her teaching and research interests include critical communication pedagogy, communication and identity (particularly disability), and automethods. She works closely with several groups on and off campus, including the annual Conference on Women, the LGBTQ Resource Center, and Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center (where she serves as a board member/treasurer and volunteer). Additionally, she is a member of the Teaching and Learning Council for the National Communication Association, and sits on the editorial boards of journals such as Communication Education, Journal of Communication Pedagogy, and the Journal of Autoethnography. 

Dr. Pensoneau-Conway has received the SIU Emerging Leader University Excellence Award, the John T. Warren Mentor Award from the Central States Communication Association, and the Outstanding Faculty Award in Communication Studies. In her previous position at Wayne State University (Detroit), she was awarded the Harriet Dowdell Bantz, Sandra Petronio, & Charles R. Bantz Faculty Research Award; Commitment to Excellence in Graduate Education Award, President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (nominee), and the Graduate College Teaching Award. She has presented research at local, regional, national, and international conferences. Recent publications include a co-edited book, Doing Autoethnography (Sense Publishers); a co-edited special issue of Communication Teacher (critical communication pedagogy and social change); essays in QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking and Critical Education; and the collections Handbook of Autoethnography, and The Discourse of Disability in Higher Education: Narrative-based Research for Social Change.