Dr. Tara McManus

Dr. Tara McManus is in the hot seat for this episode of COMversations. Tara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies who researches how close friends and family members can communicate more effectively and foster stronger relationships with one another. Tara shares with hosts Kevin and Dave the challenges of playing the violin, trumpet and french horn despite being rhythmically challenged, how her fierce competitive spirit helped introduce her to her now husband, and how she fell in love with the study of Communications despite majoring in Chemistry as an undergrad. 

What is COMversations at UNLV?

In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the faculty and staff of the Department of Communication Studies began working from home and teaching online. Now that faculty and students are returning to campus and having more opportunities for face-to-face interactions, we almost feel like we need to re-introduce ourselves to our colleagues and students. The same is true for other schools and departments in the College of Urban Affairs and across the university. We believe that the best way to (re)introduce ourselves is by sharing the personal stories and backgrounds of our faculty and staff. The goal is to introduce each of our faculty and staff members to students, the public, and each other. Starting with these podcasts, we hope to build a podcasting network devoted to helping students and the public meet the people who teach the classes, conduct the research, and manage media operations. We also hope to get to know each other better and build a richer academic community. So lend an ear to the personal stories of the faculty and staff preparing students for a promising future.

Kevin Stoker

Welcome to COMversations, stories from the faculty of the Department of Communication Studies. And we're lucky today to have Dr. Tara McManus with us. Welcome, Tara.

Tara McManus

Thank you very much.

Kevin Stoker

And my cohort today helping out is Dr. Dave Nourse.

Dave Nourse

Always a pleasure. My friend

Kevin Stoker

Podcaster extraordinaire.

Dave Nourse

Well, I'll take I'll take that hat. I'll wear it today.

Kevin Stoker

Well, Tara, you know, I was thinking, you know, those kind of looking over your CV and what you've done and what got you interested in family communication? What was it that that attracted you to that aspect of communication?

Tara McManus

Excellent question. I could you want the long story, the short story?

Kevin Stoker

I would love the long story.

Tara McManus

So I started college as a chemistry major. And loved chemistry, loved the math, love the scientific method. absolutely in love with it, I got to the lab, and realized I did not love being in the lab, by myself. ironic because I'm a quantitative researcher. And I enjoy actually being in the communication lab. But so did not enjoy that part. But at the same time, I was also taking a intro to communication course at my university. And we were setting everything from intra to inter to small group to Mass Comm. And I just fell in love with it. And everything that I did since then I kept looking back at that course, I'm like, that was fun. And so I ended up in communication. And then through wonderful research, my parents are going through a nasty divorce. But my sisters and I were super close. So trying to figure that out in grad school and realizing this is this is the area that I want to study as close relationships.

Kevin Stoker

So now I know you did your undergraduate at Kentucky, yes. And then this to University of Cincinnati, and then and then on to Penn State. But tell me, tell me a little bit about growing up and where you grew up and everything.

Tara McManus

I grew up in Ohio. So southern Ohio, in the suburbs of Dayton. So right outside of right Pat Air Force Base. So on 911 We heard a nice sonic boom over our house and my dad just about fell to the floor. Because no planes were supposed to be flying that day. And being close being at one of the closest or largest air force bases in the country was a little bit nerve racking for folks. But so grew up in a very much a the suburbs of a military town. A lot of my friends were former military children. And yeah, I'm not sure what more you

Kevin Stoker

Well, you know, you know, in high school, what were you interested in everything else?

Tara McManus

So in high school, I still love science that that had been with me for a long time. So I was taking a lot of chemistry and physics classes. But it was also in marching band, which is very common among much of our department. We all played instruments at some point, it seems. So I played violin trumpet, French horn, I was learning cello. Not good at any of them. But yes, did not continue on after that. Because I have absolutely no sense of rhythm. So

Dave Nourse

I can understand why that might make it a little hard, especially in a marching band. But, you know, springs, spring strings as well as horns. I mean, those are two very disparate instruments. What made the switch because I can see violin and cello, French horn and trumpet but not violin and trumpet or french horn and cello.

Tara McManus

I don't know, I think just in my elementary school at the time, we were allowed to do orchestra and band at both. And so I tried out both and I enjoyed doing both. We moved at one point. And so they didn't have an orchestra at that school, which is why I continued playing trumpet and then brought on French horn there. Yeah. Marching band concert band tried jazz band, but again, no rhythm. So that didn't work out too well. Has

Kevin Stoker

there been this kind of kind of conflict or tension between the artistic side and the science side? You really love science. On the other hand, it's art and communication, you know, this kind of like, has this been an ongoing battle throughout your life?

Tara McManus

It has I love reading I loved literature classes, I loved history classes. So and when I took my master's degree, it was the first time I'd ever taken a rhetoric class. So it was the first time I was getting to read historical texts using some of those similar types of analytical tools. And so there was a brief moment where I thought about studying rhetoric and then realize that I that wasn't going to work. So just because I love science that much so

Kevin Stoker

and then and then you just got got so involved in interpersonal communication What was it about interpersonal communication that really just caught you by the lapels and pulled you in?

Tara McManus

To me, that's where we spend the majority of our lives is in our relationships, whether it's work relationships, our families, our romantic relationships, our friendships, these are all the major bonds that we have that just make every day worth kind of getting through. They're the people who help us get through those difficult moments. They're the people who we have the most enjoyable moments with. And so it becomes became important to me to understand how can we communicate better in those relationships to make those relationships more rewarding? Because sometimes it is difficult to turn to your friend or your romantic partner and say, Hey, I think like with my research is, hey, I think I might have an STD. And then to be able to openly communicate about that and get the help and assistance and guidance. We know that there's a lot of judgment there. So how can we kind of try to get rid of that, so we can have more open conversations to kind of take care of each other and take care of each other cells?

Kevin Stoker

Which gets into one of your really interesting research areas, which is sexual communication?

Tara McManus

Mm hmm. Yeah. So that actually came about because I was getting burned out on some of the disclosure and Family Research. I wasn't enjoying it, I wasn't kind of experiencing a lot of like, interesting questions that I really wanted to answer. And so a friend of mine was starting to think about some issues having to do with kind of sexual health and communication with friends. I'm like, Oh, I'll jump onto that. And now my she's starting to leave academia, and my research is kind of taking over where she left off. So

Kevin Stoker

that's great. What's probably been some of the most interesting journeys, research journeys you've had

Tara McManus

interesting research journeys. I think, kind of as things have unfolded over the last several years, where I'm getting ideas to research and how those are starting to unfold, I think has been what has been at least energizing for me, maybe not interesting. Those have been the ones that have gotten me excited to get back into kind of collecting data and analyzing data, those are the projects that are helping me build kind of networks is taking a look at kind of how do we talk about sexual health issues, what's going on in society that's impacting our, our ability to talk about these issues. So right now, I'm working on a kind of a large project, looking at our memorable messages about pregnancy and abortion to try and understand kind of what motivates people. And kind of what are the sticky messages in our head that influenced the way that we understand this more public conversation, and kind of influences the way that we make assessments about our own behaviors and what other people do so that way, hopefully, we can have a better way of understanding why people have their positions kind of socially, as well as thinking about how can we help each other better understand and accept one another's positions? So I don't know if that really answers the most interesting question.

Kevin Stoker

But it is fascinating research.

Dave Nourse

When you moved your line of inquiry towards this line, this particular focus, you know, admittedly, you said what you were doing kind of wasn't exciting you to the point where you were feeling that fulfillment, what's fulfilling, you know, about about this particular line? I mean, obviously, there's, there's, there's an interest and there's a need for this type of research. But what do you find personally, gratifying as you're doing this work, especially as you're kind of taking on more responsibility, as your colleague is kind of is transitioning out?

Tara McManus

Yeah. What I find kind of personally rewarding is that I think it impacts not just me, but it impacts other people on like a daily social level. So it's helping us find a way to better have conversations about really difficult issues. And hopefully, at least provide some understanding as to why we hold these positions as to why we act the way that we do when it comes to our sexual health and well being and our pertinent and our pregnancy decisions and things to that extent, knowing that the research has an impact above and beyond what I find daily intriguing, and that it's helping other people I think, is really what's motivating.

Dave Nourse

I can see that I mean, there really is it at least in our society, sometimes there's a real reluctance to have some of these conversations and to be able to do some research that can hopefully help improve that level of communication. I can understand I would feel very rewarded about being able to contribute as well.

Tara McManus

and doing it and at an interpersonal level, I think is a little bit different than what a lot of my colleagues are doing within the department kind of studying these things at very public message level, but really focusing in on the interpersonal relationships because we communicate differently with people that we know than we do with strangers. So and kind of, it's, if we can start to build some sense of community and identity with the people that were close to, it makes those larger conversations, I think, I hope a little bit easier. Even my rhetoric colleagues will talk about the importance of identification and a message. So at an interpersonal level, we it's easier for us to build those.

Kevin Stoker

So you do you know, you're doing your research and interpersonal communication? Do you ever have family members or friends kind of saying, Oh, no, you're just don't make me part of your research project or something like that.

Tara McManus

It's funny that you say that I hear stories about how you met your partner are very important in these conversations. That was one of the first questions my husband said to me when he and I started dating. He's like, are you going to analyze my conversations for your research? And that was kind of one of the baseline conversations that we had before we even got into dating. That's great. So yeah, and so like that in like, friends, family, how do I handle this? I'm like, I'm not a therapist. So I think that's, you know, it's it's funny for me. But it's also difficult, because they really are coming to me because they want help. And that's why you go to your friends is because you want help and assistance. So it is I'm not, I'm not a therapist, I can't tell you what to do. But I am your friend. So I can tell you what to do. Kind of balancing that is a challenge. So

Kevin Stoker

it will tell us about how you met your husband and everything else was that in college or in? You know, after graduating,

Tara McManus

I he and I met here in Las Vegas. So at a boot camp. So being very active, he and I are both fairly active. And so we met at a boot camp and here in Las Vegas. So I was already here at UNLV. And he was already living here in Las Vegas at the time. Yeah,

Kevin Stoker

a boot camp. Well, no, it's a boot camp.

Tara McManus

So it bootcamp is kind of like an it back at the time. I don't see them advertised that

Dave Nourse

much anymore. It's all about CrossFit right now. And yeah, yeah. And so ABS may be out of favor,

Tara McManus

right. And so it was kind of like CrossFit, but outside. So it's like a group exercise class where you're doing both physical, like strength training, as well as a little bit of endurance training, but you're doing it as a group and a lot like sometimes you would do like group exercises, but sometimes you'd kind of compete a little bit. And basically, it was kind of one of the last exercises of that particular bootcamp day out at this park. And he and I were kind of in the same group competing against each other. And it was we had to like run around in a circle. I'm an endurance athlete. So I kept getting closer and closer, and I ended up beating him by the end of Pol Pot pass is he got a little frustrated, but it was enough to get him to introduce himself. So

Kevin Stoker

actually, that leads me to another question because my wife and I are very competitive when it comes to racquetball. Ah, so do you guys. Are you still competitive? Is there any ongoing competition that keeps you guys going?

Tara McManus

I think we're supportive competitive with each other. Like we're good about cheering each other on with things largely because our sports of interest don't really overlap. He hates running. I love running I strength train because I know it's good for me, not because I enjoy it, but he actually enjoys it. So we've always been really good about kind of supporting each other and cheering each other on and encouraging one another to do one another's activities, because we know the health benefits of it. But we're not especially kind of competitive and with like a mean streak, if that makes sense. Like it kind of one up one another. We don't really do that too much.

Kevin Stoker

We don't do it either. Except it she does remind me I lose regularly. racquetball? Well, you know, one of the things I was interested in to was, who have been your mentors,

Tara McManus

my mentors, so probably some of my best mentors have been Tamra Fifi. She was my descent might have first she was not my dissertation advisor. She was going to be who is of extremely well known family communication scholar. But she had moved to another university. So John Nussbaum became my my dissertation advisor, and he was an excellent mentor for me for several years. And even after finishing my PhD, he really did an excellent job of showing me what it was to be a good mentor, a good human and what it meant to be a good scholar or a good human scholar, I guess. Losing the phrase that I want to say but like, what it meant to be a good person in the scholarly community, which is kind of juxtaposing kind of people who are kind of a little bit more bullish and things like that, because I was dealing with some of that at the university as well in grad school. So kind of seeing both of those kind of models, both from Tammy in John, as well as some of the other models that I had around me, he really provided an excellent kind of ideal of what you want to be in terms of just supporting people in good healthy ways, and encouraging people to be themselves as scholars, while embracing and recognizing what it meant to be a scholar in in academia today. So he was he's probably my first big mentor. And then David Henry, who was a former department chair was my other mentor, especially once I came here and started transitioning into being a professor.

Kevin Stoker

And since you've been here, you've actually done a lot of services. Well, you've served as undergraduate coordinator, and graduate coordinator, you've not graduate coordinator, just undergraduate coordinator. But I know you've been very involved in service to the department.

Tara McManus

Sir, I think service is important. I mean, a the university can't run our professions can't run without kind of the additional work that we do to kind of help things kind of happen. I mean, undergraduate programs can't be managed or students course needs, their see their kind of matriculation needs can't be met if we're not paying attention to it. And the primary role of a university, before research even is to be teaching and to kind of be giving to the community so that they're well educated and able to engage in the community themselves. So it becomes an imperative for us to be fulfilling those roles at some level, and also rotating through those roles as well. So

Dave Nourse

talk to us a little bit about your teaching. Maybe tell us about some of the classes that you teach. And do you have a particular teaching philosophy that you try to embody in the classroom?

Tara McManus

Yes. So I think for me, when it comes to teaching, it becomes imperative that students are engaged in the learning process. And that can mean and take on a lot of different kind of looks right? So they I want them both engaged in the classroom and having discussion with each other had engaging in discussion, a discussion kind of roundtable with everybody, small groups, large groups, but also thinking about how those ideas that we're unpacking and explaining and applying in the classroom. What does that mean for me, right kind of self reflecting and analyzing their own actions and behaviors so that they can be more informed about who they are and what they need and what skills need to be developed and what their strengths are. But also in get you taking that translating that and going into the community with it. So thinking about some of the classes in my advanced relational comm course. They we talk about interpersonal relational communication theories, but then we take a look at social issues. And we apply those theories in their final project, they have to analyze that social issue. So for instance, I had several groups one semester, take a look at domestic violence. And they applied the theories that we were taking a look at to offer a solution to kind of how can we help not necessarily a solution, but a course of improvement? Maybe? How can we improve the lives of these individuals who are experiencing domestic violence, and engage them in different ways. And we had three, one semester, I had three different groups looking at this problem. And they all offered three different solutions, using the same theory, but offering different routes for individuals to help out. In my I am teaching a resilience building course. So we talk a lot about stress and coping at the individual level, and how we do that within our relationships to really help them recognize what are the resources that I have? What are the skills and resources that I need? And how can I continue to build those in the future to make me stronger to make me and my loved ones more resilient. And so there's a lot of self reflection, there's a lot of discussion, and they do a lot of like personal inventories to kind of get a sense of where they're at on things.

Kevin Stoker

So as you teach, and you have these experiences, what has there been some moments that kind of stand out to you kind of moments in the classroom or even post classroom with with students?

Tara McManus

So I think some of them I've had several students email me over the years. Dr. McManus your class was so hard, but my boss at work the other day came up to me and asked me how did how, how did you know all of this stuff about research methods? And I'm like, Well Dr. McManus this class of course, I And he had been out of the class like 10 years at that point. And he had emailed me like, I think like six or eight months ago, but he was explaining like how to create a customer service survey to his boss at work. And so those are the kind of the moments that stand out the most not necessarily like, I love it, when the light bulb you can see the light bulb like turning on bright in the classroom. And all of a sudden, things start kind of falling into place for everyone. But I also appreciate those moments when like, five 810 years later, someone emails me like, I still use that stuff today. And so that makes me realize I'm really having an impact. And not just kind of in the moment, but also kind of long term for people.

Kevin Stoker

Yeah, we wish they'd get that epiphany of short term rather than long term.

Tara McManus

Right. But I mean, short term is really important, because hopefully it sticks with them, and carries into the long term. But I think sometimes it takes some practice with ideas before it really gels. And so the short term, sometimes it helps sometimes you just need more practice with the ideas. So

Kevin Stoker

well, is there something that we should have asked you in this podcast that we haven't did something that the the?

Dave Nourse

I've got a question before we get there? Okay. Tara, we've talked a lot about what you do kind of for your research in the classroom, we did get to chat a little bit about how you met your husband. But when you leave UNLV, what do you like to do? Tell us? Tell us a little bit about something when you turn off that academic part of your brain? If you can do that, right? But you're just trying to have some fun? What do you like to do,

Tara McManus

I love to go out for a run. That is where I find my peace. That is where I find my calm, that is where I can just relax and be with myself. I read a lot and I travel as much as I can. So we just got back from death valley doing some hiking and such out there. We go down to Arizona a couple times a year, just relax and unplug. Kind of in a rural place just south of Sedona. We go I mean, I a couple years ago, we went to Paris, I've been to Prague. So anytime I can kind of get out see different cultures kind of experienced those places. And we try not to stay in the hotels, we try to like rent out an apartment or something for a few days and kind of try to pretend like we live there or something to kind of experience it as much as possible. Those are the things that I love to do the most. And if I can't really get out out least I'm at home quiet with my dogs and kind of relaxing. I'm a bit of an introvert. So

Dave Nourse

that sounds good. Do you have of all the places that you have traveled? Is there a place that really has struck you as I feel myself being at home here, even if you're 1000s of miles away?

Tara McManus

Probably anywhere in kind of the west coast of Ireland, oh, it is just beautifully green and calm there. And there is just kind of a sense of like, every And granted, I'm on vacation. I didn't take any books with me. So it's very easy to feel calm there. But it was that everybody was friendly, but not nosy. Like it was easy to kind of get around and towns without having to drive everywhere. And so kind of building those more resilient communities, right that we talked about here. So often, a lot of those talons are a lot more like that. It felt like of course, I was a tourist. So living there might be different, but um, that was probably probably the one space I would love to like, if I were to have a second home that would probably be at

Dave Nourse

West coast of Ireland. All right, I'm gonna file that one away. Place place I may need to go check out

Kevin Stoker

and then tell us about your dogs.

Tara McManus

Oh, I have two dogs. One I got about a year after I moved to Las Vegas. So she's 14 years old. She is my heart and soul and my husband's a little jealous of how much I love her. And then she but she's a little bit picky. She likes mom and not much anyone else. And then I also have a pug named bacon. Because he makes pig noises in he is super friendly and will make friends with anybody. So those are those. Those are who I curl up with at the end of the day.

Kevin Stoker

Awesome. Well, okay. Is there something we should have asked you about? In this interview? The we haven't

Tara McManus

the dogs but you already did. So there you go.

Kevin Stoker

Great. Well, thanks, Tara. We so appreciate this. It was so nice to get to know you more. And thank you for your time.

Tara McManus

Of course. Thank you.

Dave Nourse

Thanks