Leah Waks

Senior Lecturer & Director of Undergraduate Studies, University of Maryland

2130 Skinner Building
College Park, MD 20742-7635
Phone: 301-405-6529
Fax: 301-314-9471

Leah Waks (Ph.D. University of Michigan, 1991) is Lecturer and Director of the Undergraduate Studies Program in Communication at the University of Maryland. Her main interest is in studying the interplay of cognitions, attitudes, and emotions in conflict creation and conflict management in organizations and groups. She studies the impact of culture on approaches to conflict resolution and recently co-authored with Deborah Cai " What we know about Chinese negotiation behavior" (in press), in W. S. Jia, R. Heisey, and R. Kluver (Eds.), Chinese Communication Research in the 20h and the 21st centuries: Advances, challenges, and prospects, published by Ablex Publishers. Her Current research includes studying the influence of media messages on individuals' attitudes and political decisions. She teaches communication theory, persuasion, and group dynamics. Her instructional program also includes training in leadership, mediation and conflict management.