Dr. Nicki L. Michalski
Chair of the Department of Communications
Began teaching at Lamar University in 1999
Interviewed by Vidisha Barua Worley on 09/11/2023
Dr. Michalski with her students Jennifer Hinson and Sherri in the early 2000s
Dr. Michalski with colleagues Karen Nichols and O'Brien Stanley in Toronto presenting at the Popular Culture Association Convention in 2002
Dr. Nicki Michalski with current students.
‘I started here in the Fall of 1999. It’s a while and I had gone to the National Communication Association annual convention the year before and had met Mary Alice Baker and she had introduced me to Pat Harrigan and they encouraged me to apply for the open rhetorical position here. Lamar has given me the opportunity to live my calling. I am a teacher and that is the root of who I am. Lamar when Mary Alice described to me all those years ago, it sounded like exactly the sort of place where I wanted to go, where I could work with undergraduates regularly and in that sort of thing and it has been and that is what is the most important I think is actually getting into the classroom with the students. I am a rhetorician. I do primarily textual analysis. As we like to say it’s one of the oldest academic disciplines because from ancient Greece: reading, writing and arithmetic. I’m originally from Michigan which is very different from Southeast Texas and I was caught off guard to start with. I had like most people the image from the Westerns. When I got here, I was just amazed at how different it was than what I had expected. The thing that really stands out the most is just the people and how nice they are and how I think that they definitely have a degree of caring and support and that you don’t necessarily see everywhere and having been here through Rita, and Harvey, and Ike, it just constantly amazes me how everybody just pulls together.’
‘I just really believe in the mission Lamar as a regional University to help the people of the area, the community learn and grow and expand and I think that we really serve a vital purpose and I think that our students really appreciate that. That is part of the reason why we have so many alumni who just truly really love Lamar. I teach a range of things I do some theory classes like today I was doing persuasion. We were talking about how people move from having an attitude through the process of actually doing something. So, we were talking about the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior and I just love it when a student goes, it’s just really nice to hear what I always thought has names. This is how I actually think and this is what it is called and now I know I am not crazy, other people have noticed it too. That is very rewarding.’
‘I just really believe in the mission Lamar as a regional University to help the people of the area, the community learn and grow and expand and I think that we really serve a vital purpose and I think that our students really appreciate that. That is part of the reason why we have so many alumni who just truly really love Lamar. I teach a range of things I do some theory classes like today I was doing persuasion. We were talking about how people move from having an attitude through the process of actually doing something. So, we were talking about the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior and I just love it when a student goes, it’s just really nice to hear what I always thought has names. This is how I actually think and this is what it is called and now I know I am not crazy, other people have noticed it too. That is very rewarding.’