img_4271Dr. Jennifer Bevan
keeps racking up the praise and awards for her latest book, entitled, “The Communication of Jealousy (Language as a Social Action)”. The book has just won The International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) book award.

“I have studied jealousy since I was in my second semester of graduate school. It interests me because it is something of an interpersonal paradox – by that, I mean that someone feels jealousy because they want to protect a relationship that is close to them, but how they often express it can have negative consequences for the relationship,” says Dr. Bevan.  “Encouraging jealous individuals to communicate in a more constructive way is what drives my jealousy research.”

Dr. Bevan will receive her award in at the IARR conference in July. This is the fourth academic accolade for the book since it was published in 2013. Dr. Bevan has previously been awarded the 2014 Diamond Anniversary Book Award from the National Communication Association (NCA), the 2014 Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Book Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of NCA, and the NCA Communication and Social Cognition Division  2013 Distinguished Book Award.

The book, targeted toward an academic audience, is the first of its kind to examine the subject of jealousy primarily from an interpersonal communication point of view. The book examines, integrates and informs research on jealousy experience and expression. Dr. Bevan’s book draws on research from a variety of academic disciplines ranging from communication to social and clinical psychology, criminology and more. From there, she develops a theory that advances jealousy expression research.

Dr. Bevan teaches a wide variety of courses in Communication, including Senior Seminar and graduate Theories of Health Communication, as well as interesting electives, including Advanced Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, and Conflict, Power, and Negotiation.