Dr. Yea-Wen Chen
Pronouns: She/Her
Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
School of Communication
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
SDSU
Primary Email: [email protected]
Building/Location
Communication - 244
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego,
CA
92182-4560
Files
Bio
Dr. Chen (Ph.D., The University of New Mexico) is a Professor in the School of Communication at San Diego State University. Her research and pedagogy aim to raise consciousness of the particular and specific ways in which communication—including silence—about cultural identities matters across contexts.
She is the winner of 23 top paper awards at regional, national, and international communication conferences; a co-recipient of the 2020 Exemplary Teacher Award by the Communication & Instructional Interest Group, Western States Communication Association; and the recipient of the 2024 Diversity Excellence Award for Faculty at San Diego State University.
Besides over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, she has co-authored Teaching social justice: Critical tools for the intercultural communication classroom (Roman & Littlefield, 2021), and has co-edited Intercultural memories: Contesting places, spaces, and stories (Peter Lang, 2021), Postcolonial turn and geopolitical uncertainty: Transnational critical intercultural communication pedagogy (Lexington Books, 2021), and Our Voices: Essays in Culture, Ethnicity, and Communication (6th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2015).
At San Diego State University, Dr. Chen teaches courses such as: COMM 371 Intercultural Communication, COMM 462 Ethnography & Communication, COMM 601 Theory and Research Methods in communication, COMM 707 Instructional Communication, and COMM 771 Intercultural Communication.
With extended families in Taiwan and Japan, she lives in San Diego with her husband and child.
Areas of Specialization
Intercultural Communication, Qualitative Research, and Communication and Education
Awards & Honors
- 2025 – Journal of Communication Pedagogy’s Article of the Year Award, Central States Communication Association
- 2024 – Diversity Excellence Award, Faculty Award, San Diego State University
- 2020 – Exemplary Teacher Award, Communication & Instruction Interest Group, Western States Communication Association