Jennifer Shamrock, Ph.D., joined Monmouth University in 2004 as a lecturer in the Department of Communications. As a faculty member who teaches students in communication studies, one of the department’s three interest areas, she teaches foundational courses required of all majors such as Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, and Critical Discourse, and also upper division courses such as Research Methods, and Gender, Race, and Media. She is the course coordinator for Intercultural Communication.

Prior to coming to Monmouth, Shamrock was a member of the Department of Speech Communication at Ithaca College. There, she developed and taught courses reflective of her ethnographic and rhetorical research with Holocaust survivors and historically marginalized co-cultures, such as Holocaust Narratives, and Narrative Performance. Many of these courses served as the catalyst for student performances held on campus and in the local community.

Shamrock received her Ph.D. in communication from Arizona State University. The interdisciplinary nature of her degree allowed her to draw upon research and coursework in history, religion, gender studies, and communication as she pursued her interest in holocaust studies. Her unique dissertation, “Constructing Collaboration, Collaborative Constructions: A Holocaust Survivor, Her Interviewer, and Their Relationship”, involves active collaboration with her participant and explores the complexities of bearing witness to a survivor’s testimony.

Shamrock has provided service to the University in a variety of contexts. She served as a cultural diversity specialist on GEOC, was a member of the Writing Committee, and served on the Honors School Faculty Council. Presently, she is Faculty Council’s recording secretary at full faculty meetings, and is a member of the Gender and Intersectionality Studies Executive Committee. Shamrock’s commitment to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion is demonstrated through her contributions to the Global Understanding Convention, Monmouth’s annual Scholarship Week, and through her role as faculty advisor on a research project through the Living and Learning Community Summer Scholars program. As one of eight recipients of the award in its second year, she facilitated an investigation of how the #metoo movement is portrayed in popular media texts, entitled “The Depiction of #metoo in Men’s and Women’s Magazines: Concurrences and Contrasts.” Shamrock’s commitment to student success is reflected in her involvement as a faculty member in the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) at Monmouth, as she teaches a section of Public Speaking each summer as part of a five-week program that allows EOF students to transition to their undergraduate studies.

Shamrock has contributed to the Institute for Global Understanding through her participation in the annual week-long Global Understanding Convention. She served as chair of the conference in 2014 with the theme “Towards Global Equality: Education, Dignity, Prosperity”, and as co-chair in 2015 with the theme “Practicing Non-Violence in a Violent World”. During her tenure, Shamrock helped bring David Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine, and anti-death penalty advocate, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sister Helen Prejean to the conference as keynote speakers.

She is a member of the National Communication Association, Eastern Communication Association, and New Jersey Communication Association (NJCA). She currently serves as an at-large member with NJCA. In addition to attending the conferences of her discipline, she also regularly attends conferences addressing issues of diversity, equity, power, race, and gender, such as The Privilege Institute’s annual White Privilege Conference.