Ashley Duggan, professor of communication at Boston College has been selected as the recipient of the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association. Professor Duggan is being honored for her book Health and Illness in Close Relationships (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Synthesizing empirical evidence and associated theoretical constructs from the literature on health/illness in close relationships, Professor Duggan compares foundational assumptions of research on relational processes and research on health and illness. Using this approach, she provides a cohesive, cross-disciplinary understanding of relevant theoretical and empirical issues and why health/illness provides a unique context for understanding close relationships.
Dr. Duggan joined the faculty at Boston College in 2004. She was promoted to associate professor in 2011 and to full professor in 2021. She is also an adjunct faculty member in Public Health and Community Medicine and in Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Professor Duggan will spend 2023 as a Fulbright Scholar at the Center for Positive Psychology and Health of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Professor Duggan is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she majored in journalism. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in speech communication from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara.