Elizabeth Parks

Dr. Elizabeth Parks is an internationally important name in the field of listening. Dr Parks is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO). Her research and teaching blends social scientific and humanistic methods to better understand how we can improve ethical listening with people who are different than ourselves, whether that be based on diverse ethnicity, race, language, culture, gender, ability, or other identity performance. After extensive cross-cultural negotiation in the United States as an American Sign Language interpreter, teaching communication and culture courses in U.S. colleges and universities on both coasts and the Midwest, and international sociolinguistic research with a community development NGO in Latin America and the Caribbean, her scholarship is grounded in the belief that our individual, relational, and organizational lives are enriched by bravely creating hospitable spaces of dialogue across difference.
Dr. Parks is committed to creating academic environments that are not just spaces for deep thinking, but also places where ideas impact individual lives and theories change community processes. As a pragmatist, she strives to lean into paradoxical questions to better understand the values, attitudes, and skills that can make intercultural listening and dialogue a challenging but constructive practice for everyone.

She has presented at professional and academic conferences around the world, winning multiple top paper awards in areas such as Communication Ethics, Ethnicity and Race, Language and Social Interaction, Asian/Pacific American Studies, and Feminist Scholarship. Her work has been published in refereed journals such as Critical Issues in Language Studies, Ethics & Behavior, International Journal of Listening, Listening: Journal of Ethics, Religion, and Culture, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Journal of International Communication, Journal of Research in Gender Studies, Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, Language in Society, Organizational Development Journal, and Sign Language Studies. She has contributed chapters to multiple edited volumes and is the author of the 2018 book “The Ethics of Listening: Creating Space for Sustainable Dialogue.”