Rikki Roscoe

Ph.D., University of Missouri

Relationships & Social Interaction
 

Rikki A. Roscoe (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas. Rikki is a critical-interpretive scholar who investigates stigma, identity, and inequity as they impact health communication and organizing. She is particularly interested in how stigma, when understood as an inherently power-laden communication process, impacts health and creates health inequities in a variety of contexts, including mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and autoimmune conditions. Through this work, Rikki hopes to improve health outcomes for underserved communities. Her scholarship has been published in a variety of journals, including Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, and Women’s Reproductive Health. She has presented her research at the National Communication Association (NCA) and Central States Communication Association (CSCA) conferences. In 2022, she was selected to present at the NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar at George Mason University. 

 Rikki is a faculty fellow for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at KU and was recently awarded $86,000 in grant funding to study the social experience and management of Celiac Disease, a chronic autoimmune condition impacting 3 million Americans. You can learn more about this project here: https://bdwh-cobre.ku.edu/roscoe-faculty-fellow-pilot-project.

At KU, Rikki teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in health communication, organizational communication, and qualitative research methods. In addition, Rikki has previously taught courses on gendered communication. 

Rikki was recently awarded the Abbey [Promise] Alumni Award (2024) from the University of Minnesota Crookston, where she attained her undergraduate degree as a first-generation college student and Pell Grant recipient. The Abbey Award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to "sowing the seeds" of transformative change, improving the lives of individuals, communities, or the world through their positive work. Further, as a Ph.D. student, Rikki was awarded the MU Distinguished Dissertation in the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2024) and the Loren Reid Teaching Award (2023), among other honors. As an M.A. student, Rikki was awarded the CSCA Pamela Cooper Award for excellent graduate teaching as well as the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award, which is awarded to the top M.A. thesis by the Graduate School.

Rikki currently serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Board for the Beyond Celiac organization. Previously, Rikki served as an editorial assistant for Management Communication Quarterly for four years and as secretary for the CSCA Health Communication Interest Group. In terms of professional experience, Rikki was the Health Equity Intern for the South Dakota Department of Health in the Department of Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion. In this position, she worked on advancing initiatives related to minimizing health disparities and helping all South Dakotans achieve the highest level of health possible. 

You can learn more about Rikki’s scholarship on her personal website (https://rikkiroscoe.com/) and Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fMV7HEUAAAAJ&hl=en).