Amanda Young
Associate Professor

Degrees Held

B.A., 1979, Davis and Elkins College
M.A., Eastern Washington University
Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University

Academic Summary

Amanda Young came to the University of Memphis in 2004 after five years at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, where she conducted health communication research in geriatrics. She is particularly interested in the rhetorical construction of agency in healthcare discourse, which she has studied in numerous contexts, including emergency room care, end-of-life care among elderly veterans, decision making among adolescents in two areas (reproductive health and congenital heart disease), and veterinary care. Most recently her work has centered on informed consent and assent in pediatric cancer research, and patient/provider communication on a medical surgical floor in an urban hospital.

She has received funding from the Veterans Health Administration, National Institutes of Health, The Greenwall Foundation, Memphis/Shelby County Health Department, and the University of Memphis. Additionally, Dr. Young is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for the Study of Rhetoric and Applied Communication, the Center for Research on Women, and the Community Health Center.

Courses Taught

Senior Seminar in Rhetoric and Applied Communication
Health Communication
Graduate Seminar in Health Communication
Graduate Seminar in Rhetoric

Major Publications

“Challenges Faced by Research Ethics Committees in El Salvador: Results From a Focus Group Study.” Developing World Ethics (OnlineEarly Articles, 2007): doi:10.1111/j.1471-8847.2007.00225.x. With Jonathan Camp, Raymond Barfield, Virginia Rodriguez, Ruthbeth Finerman, and Miguela Caniza.

“Keeping Users at the Center: Developing A Multimedia Interface For Informed Consent.” Special Issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on Online Health Communication, Amy Koerber and Brian Still, Eds. In Press, 2008. With Loel Kim, Robert Neimeyer, Raymond Barfield, and Justin Baker.

“Polypharmacy and Health Beliefs in Older Outpatients.” The American Journal of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy. 5.4 (2007): 317-323. With Michelle Rossi, Keri Rodriguez, Cathleen Appelt, Robert Maher, Jospeh Hanlon, S. Perera, and Emily Hajaar.

“African American Veterans’ Experiences With Mobile Geriatric Care.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 18 (2007): 44-53. With Keri Rodriguez, Cathleen Appelt, and Andrea Fox.

“Elderly Veterans' Beliefs Concerning Life-Sustaining Treatment And The Control Of Their End-Of-Life Health And Health Care.” Journal of Aging and Health 18.5 (2006): 686-706. With Keri Rodriguez.

“Patients' Perceptions of the Utility or Futility of End-of-Life Treatment.” Journal of Medical Ethics. Thematic Issue: Multidisciplinary research in medical ethics:32 (2006): 444-449. With Keri Rodriguez.

“The Role of Narrative in End-of-Life Care: Eliciting Values and Goals From Text, Subtext, and Context.” Health Communication 19.1 (2006): 49-59. With Keri Rodriguez. 

“Patients’ and Healthcare Providers’ Understandings of Life-Sustaining Treatment: Are Perceptions of Goals Shared or Divergent?” Social Science and Medicine 62.1 (2006): 125-133. With Keri Rodriguez.

“Perspectives of Elderly Veterans Regarding Communication with Medical Providers about End-of-Life Care.” Journal of Palliative Medicine, 8 (2005): 534-544. With Keri Rodriguez.

“Meaning and Agency in Discussing End-of-Life Care: A Study of Elderly Veterans’ Values and Interpretations.” Qualitative Health Research 13.8 (2003): 1-24. With Terri Ofori-Boeteng, Keri Rodriguez, and Judith Plowman.

“Patients as Partners; Patients as Problem Solvers.” Health Communication, 14.1 (2002): 69-98. With Linda Flower.

“The Rhetoric of Fraud in Breast Cancer Trials: Manifestations in Medical Journals and the Mass Media — and Missed Opportunities. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 28.1 (1998): 39-61. With Michael Zerbe and Edward Nagelhout.