Department of Communication: Faculty

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Anita Pomerantz

Ph.D., University of California
Professor
Director of Graduate Studies

Teaching and Research Area/s: Interpersonal and Intercultral Communication, Health Communication
Office: SS 326
Phone: (518) 442-4874
Fax: (518) 442-3884
E-mail: apom@albany.edu
Home Page: http://www.albany.edu/~apom

Teaching and Research Interests
Research Projects
Publications/Presentations
Other Professional Activities
Links

Anita Pomerantz's Teaching and Research Interests:

Analysis of interaction using Conversation Analysis and Ethnomethodology.
Qualitative methodologies with expertise in ethnographic interviewing, participant observation, audio and videotaping of interaction.
Health communication, particularly doctor-patient interaction and communication during clinical training.
Communication strategies for complaining and accusing, seeking information, and delivering bad news.

Publications/Presentations

Publications (1990 to present)

Pomerantz, A. (forthcoming). The value of qualitative studies of interpersonal conversations about health topics: A study of family discussions of organ donation as illustration. In E. M. Alvaro and J. T. Siegel (Eds.) Applied Psychology and Organ Donation: Implementing and Evaluating Health Behavior Interventions . Wiley Blackwell Press.
Denvir, P. & Pomerantz, A. (In press). Exploring perspectives on organ and tissue donation: Complexities, contingencies, and ambivalences. Health Communication.
Pomerantz, A., Gill, V. T., & Denvir, P. (2007). When patients present serious health conditions as unlikely: Managing potentially conflicting issues and constraints. In A. Hepburn and S. Wiggins (Eds.) Discursive Research in Practice: New approaches to psychology and interaction. Cambridge University Press, 127-146.
Pomerantz, A. & Denvir, P., (2007). Enacting the Institutional Role of Chairperson in Upper Management Meetings: The Interactional Realization of Provisional Authority. In F. Cooren (Ed.) Interacting and Organizing: Analyses of a Management Meeting. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 31-51.
Pomerantz, A. (2005). “Using participants' video stimulated comments to complement analyses of interactional practices." In H. te Molder & J. Potter (Eds.) Talk and cognition: Discourse, mind and social interaction (pp. 93-113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pomerantz, A. & Mandelbaum, J. (2004). A Conversation Analytic Approach to Relationships: Their Relevance for Interactional Conduct. In Fitch, K. and Sanders, R.E. (Editors) Handbook of Language and Social Interaction (pp.149-171). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Pomerantz, A. & Rintel, E.S. (2004). Practices for Reporting and Responding to Test Results during Medical Consultations: Enacting the Roles of Paternalism and Independent Expertise. Discourse Studies, 6(1), 9-26.
Pomerantz, A. (2004). Investigative reported absences: ‘Neutrally’ catching the truants. In Lerner, G. (Ed) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation (pp. 109-129). John Benjamins Publishing House.
Pomerantz, A. & Zemel, A. (2003). Perspectives in Interviewers' Queries. In Wetherell, M., Houtkoop, H. & Van den Berg, H. (Eds) Analyzing Race Talk (215-231). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pomerantz, A. (2003). Modeling as a Teaching Strategy in Clinical Training: When Does It Work?" In P. Glenn, LeBaron, C, & Mandelbaum, J. (Ed.), Studies in Language and Social Interaction: In honor of Robert Hopper (pp. 381-391). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Pomerantz, A. (2003). How patients handle their lay diagnoses during medical consultations. In Mey, I., Pizer, G., Su, H., & Szmania (Eds) Proceedings of the Symposium about Language and Society – Austin (SALSA X), (127-138). Texas Linguistic Forum, vol. 45.
Sanders, R. E., Fitch, K. L., & Pomerantz, A. (2000) Core Research Traditions within Language and Social Interaction. Communication Yearbook, 24, Sage Publications, Inc.
Pomerantz, A. (1998) Multiple Interpretations of Context: How are they useful? Research on Language and Social Interaction, 31:1.
Pomerantz, A. & Fehr, B.J. (1997) Conversation Analysis: An Approach to the Study of Social Action as Sense Making Practices. In van Dijk, T. A. (Ed) Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage Publications, 64-91.
Pomerantz, A., Fehr, B.J., & Ende, J. (1997) When Supervising Physicians See Patients: Strategies Used in Difficult Situations. Human Communication Research, 23:4, 589-615.
Pomerantz, A., Ende, J., & Erickson, F. (1995) Precepting in a General Medicine Clinic: How Preceptors Correct. In Morris, G.H. and Chenail, R.J. (Eds) The Talk of the Clinic. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 151-169.
Parker, R., Pomerantz, A., & Fehr, B.J. (1995) Satisfaction Work in an Emergency Situation: The case of the Philadelphia 911 calls. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction & Complaining Behavior, 8, 164-176.
Ende, J., Pomerantz, A., & Erickson, F. (1995) Preceptors’ Strategies for Correcting Residents in an Ambulatory Care Medicine Setting: A Qualitative Analysis. Academic Medicine, 70:3, 224-229.
Pomerantz, A. (1995) How Important is Context in Teaching Interviewing. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 10:7, 411.
Pomerantz, A. (1993) Introduction to special issue: New Directions in Conversation Analysis. Text, 13 (2), 151-155.
Mandelbaum, J. and Pomerantz, A. (1991) What Drives Social Action? In Tracy, K. and Coupland, N. (Eds) Multiple Goals in Discourse. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 151-166.
Pomerantz, A. (1990/1991) Mental Concepts in the Analysis of Social Action. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 24, 299-310.
Pomerantz, A. (1990). On the validity and generalizability of conversation analytic methods: Conversation Analytic Claims. Communication Monographs, 57:3, 231-235.

Papers Presented (1990 to present)

Pomerantz, A. Features of Competition and Cooperation as Exhibited in Preference Organization. Workshop at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. October 2007.
Gill, V. T., Pomerantz, A., & Denvir, P. "Presenting evidence against candidate explanations during symptom presentations." International Meeting on Conversation Analysis and Clinical Encounters. Exeter, UK. July 2007.
Pomerantz, A. Studying interpersonal conversations about health: The case of family discussions of organ and tissue donation. Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology -- “Implementing and Evaluating Health Behavior Interventions.” Claremont, CA., March 2007.
Pomerantz, A. Benefits and risks of using ethnographic reports in conversation analytic research. Presented in session, “Strange Bedfellows? On the Complementarity of the Ethnography of Communication and Ethnomethodology/Conversation Analysis in LSI Research.” National Communication Association. San Antonio, November 2006.
Denvir, P. & Pomerantz, A. Exploring perspectives on organ and tissue donation: Complexities, contingencies, and ambivalences. Presented in session “Understanding Motivations for Organ Donation.” National Communication Association. San Antonio, November, 2006.
Pomerantz, A. The relationship between meaning and practice: Structuring reports for particular meanings and their implications. Language and Social Interaction – Northeast. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 2006.
Gill, V.T., Pomerantz, A., & Denvir, P. When patients rule out candidate explanations for their symptoms. International Conference on Conversation Analysis. Helsinki, May 2006.
Pomerantz, A. “A Model of Informed Consent: What Happens in Practice?” In session entitled “Ecological Perspectives on Health Care Encounters: Relationships between Interpersonal Interaction and its Institutional Contexts.” Eastern Communication Association. Philadelphia, April 2006.
Pomerantz, A. “How do misunderstandings happen and what can we do about them?” Power of Communication Workshop sponsored by the University Council of Women’s Groups and Women’s Concerns Committee, Albany, April 2006.
Pomerantz, A. “Discourse during a Post-mortem Meeting: A Conversation Analytic Approach to Explicitly Invoking Membership in an Organizational Unit,” National Communication Association, Boston, November 2005.
Pomerantz, A, Denvir, P., and Gill, V. T., “Patients’ Seeking Disconfirmation of Serious Medical Conditions,” National Communication Association, Boston, November 2005.
Pomerantz, A. “Patients’ presenting lay-diagnoses and physicians’ responding,” Conference on Training the Health Professions: Applying interaction research in health educational settings. University of Southern Denmark, Odense, October 2005.
Pomerantz, A., “Patients’ displaying diagnostic reasoning as a solution to interactional dilemmas,” International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, Waltham, MA, August 2005.
Gill, V.T., Pomerantz, A. & Denvir, P. “How patients rule out explanations for illness in medical interviews,” The 14 th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Madison, WI, July 2005.
Pomerantz, A. & Mandelbaum, J., “Conversation Analytic Approaches to the Uses of Explicit Relationship Categories in Interaction,” National Communication Association, Chicago, November 2004.
Gill, V. T., Pomerantz, A., & Denvir, P., “On Patients’ Ruling Out Explanations for Illness: A Case-Building Strategy,” Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, April 2004.
Denvir, P. & Pomerantz, A., “Problematizing the Problematicity of Patient Requests: ‘Symptom-Responsive’ versus ‘Policy-Responsive’ Requests for Medical Services,” National Communication Association, Miami, November 2003.
Pomerantz, A, Williams, C., Harrison, T., Barnett, G., Jacobson, T. & Feeley, T., “Family Discussion and Notification of Organ and Tissue Donation,” National Communication Association, Miami, November 2003.
Pomerantz, A. & Denvir, P., “A Conversation Analytic Approach to Analyzing Actions.” International Pragmatics Association, Toronto, July 2003.
Pomerantz, A. & Denvir, P., "Patients' Seeking Disconfirmation/Confirmation of Lay Diagnoses." International Communication Association, San Diego, May 2003.
Denvir, P. & Pomerantz, A., "Patients' Unmitigated Requests during Medical Consultations." International Communication Association, San Diego, May 2003.
Pomerantz, A. & Rintel, E. S., "Displaying deference while seeking information: Analysis of patients' information seeking strategies." Top Four Papers in LSI Session, National Communication Association, New Orleans, November 2002.
Pomerantz, A., "Directions in Future Conversation Analytic Research." Presenter in a Round Table on Directions in future sociolinguistic research. First Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, Albany, March 2002.
Pomerantz, A. & Mandelbaum, J., "A Conversation Analytic Approach to Studying Relationships." The Handbook of Language and Social Interaction Preview II: Language and Texts. National Communication Association, Atlanta, November 2001.
Pomerantz, A., "Negotiating Participation and Enacting Identities in a High Level Management Meeting of a Corporation in Transition." International Communication Association, Washington D.C., May 2001.
Pomerantz, A., “Investigating misunderstandings within families.” National Communication Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, November 2000.
Pomerantz, A., “The Consequences of Methodological Choices in Studying Misunderstandings.” American Sociological Association 95th Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., August 2000.
Pomerantz, A., “How Supervisors Teach Residents in Front of Patients.” National Communication Association, Chicago, November 1997.
Pomerantz, A., “Robert E. Sanders: Spotlight on Scholarship.” National Communication Association, Chicago, November 1997.
Pomerantz, A., “Implications of Speakers’ Selecting and Orienting.” International Communication Association, Montreal, May 1997.
Pomerantz, A., “The Process of Doing Discourse Analysis: A Conversation Analytic Perspective.” 6th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Ottawa, May 1997.
Pomerantz, A., “Discursive Practices for Casting Categories of People in Moral Terms.” Workshop on Discourse Analytic Methods, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, March 1997.
Pomerantz, A., “When a Supervising Physician Sees the Intern’s Patient: It’ a Risky Business.” Georgetown Linguistics Society 1996 Conference, Georgetown, October 1996.
Pomerantz, A., “Emanual Schegloff’s Contributions to Conversation Analysis.” Speech Communication Association, Chicago, May 1996.
Pomerantz, A., “Using Stimulated Recall in a Collaborative Study of Medical Precepting.” Speech Communication Association, San Antonio, November 1995.
Pomerantz, A., "Clinical Training in Internal Medicine: A Conversation Analytic and Ethnographic Study." Guest lecture at the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Harvard University, April 1995.
Pomerantz, A., "Training and Supervision of Professionals in Medical Settings." Second Symposium on Talk in Organizations, Free University of Amsterdam, March 1995.
Pomerantz, A., "Information Seeking in Everyday Interaction." Guest speaker at the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies, Rutgers University, February 1995.
Pomerantz, A., "An Indisciplinary Look at Conversation Analysis: A View from Speech Communication." Speech Communication Association, New Orleans, November 1994.
Pomerantz, A., "Implications of Mitigated Corrections in Physician Training." Seminar sponsored by Program for Assessing and Revitalizing the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, December 1993.
Pomerantz, A., "Correcting and Directing in a Medical Setting." Speech Communication Association, Miami Beach, November 1993.
Pomerantz, A., "Training Medical Students in Outpatient Clinics." Ethnography of Communication Conference, Portland, August 1992.
Pomerantz, A., "Clinical Training of Interns." Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, May 1992.
Pomerantz, A., "Some Communicative Practices in Medical Training." Speech Communication Association, Atlanta, November 1991.
Pomerantz, A., "'Correcting' as part of medical training." International Conference on Current Work in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, Amsterdam, July 1991.
Pomerantz, A., "The Role of Feedback in Clinical Medical Education." Humanities Grand Rounds Lecture, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, March 1991.
Pomerantz, A., "What are findings in conversation analysis?" Speech Communication Association, Chicago, 1990.
Pomerantz, A., "Using Possibly Inaccurate Records." International Pragmatics Association, Barcelona, 1990.
Pomerantz, A., "Referencing Poorly Documented Matters." International Communication Association, Dublin, 1990.
Pomerantz, A., "A current problem for communication research." Conference on Across Research Contexts, University of Albany - SUNY, Rensselaerville, NY, February 1990.

Other Professional Activities (1990 to present)