Inspiring, energetic and resourceful. These were the words that Slippery Rock students used to describe one of the university’s newest professors, Dr. Emily Dolan. Dr. Dolan began teaching at Slippery Rock University in the Fall of 2018 however, she is no stranger to the campus. As a professor and advisor, Dr. Dolan is able to provide students with a unique and relatable perspective because just like them, she was once in their shoes as an SRU student. Whether it is: a bond over taking Journalistic Writing with Dr. Harry, working a on campus job at the SGA Bookstore, changing around your major or what exactly you want to do for the rest of your life, all students can relate to Dr. Dolan.
Dr. Dolan did not always see herself going into academia nor staying in Western Pennsylvania for the rest of her life. Growing up in Grove City, PA she had a dream of becoming a professional ballerina. When asked why that plan did not follow through, she laughed, “Well I was not that good.” Through her childhood she acquired the nickname “kook” from her best friend’s father because of her energetic, happy and bubbly personality. She was even named homecoming queen her senior year and tried to be kind and befriend everyone in high school.
She started her undergraduate career at Slippery Rock University in the Fall of 2005 pursuing a double major in Psychology and Criminology. Her dream was to be a criminal psychologist and to understand how a criminal’s mind worked.
“For as long as I could remember I wanted to work for the C.I.A. or the F.B.I. and I wanted to solve things,” said Dolan.
A year and a half into the program Dolan had an epiphany that the field was not for her. She then began taking classes in the communication department, thinking that journalism was the correct path for her. “Ultimately I thought that I could investigate things, tell a story and get to the depths of things from being a journalist,” said Dolan. While she was excited for Dr. Harry’s Journalistic Writing class, she learned that she did not have the best attention to detail and the spunk to be a journalist. She did however love her other communication classes which is where she found her love of research. Through classes such as Communication Research Methods and Communication Law she found that research of communication allowed her to investigate, propose questions and collect data. Communication Law was extra rewarding for Dr. Dolan because that is where she found her passion for writing.
"She was quiet in class, but over the course of the semester I become more and more impressed with the work she was doing and she left quite an impression on me," Dr. Flynn said when asked about having Dr. Dolan as a student some years ago.
Dr. Dolan believes that she fell in love with learning while she was at Slippery Rock. In just 5 years she received a B.A. in Communication and Sociology as well as a minor in French. While her friends would describe her as the energetic and bubbly persona, Dr. Dolan believes her professors would describe her as quiet because she took the approach of “talk less, listen more.”
After her graduation in 2010, Dr. Dolan then went on to pursue her master’s degree in Media Studies from Syracuse University. At Syracuse she was able to further her knowledge in research, complete an assistantship and become a teaching assistant. Her thesis was focused around self-disclosures among women on Facebook and why women post such descriptive life updates.
“I wanted to look at more than just mediated channels of communication and to look at support processes, disclosing emotions and how other people might essentially be able to assist us in regulating our emotions,” Dr. Dolan explained on why she decided to take the next step to receive her doctorate in communication from the University at Buffalo.
Through content analysis and surveys Dr. Dolan proposed a model in her dissertation of how the processes play out from the starting emotion, the factors contributed to it, responses of communication partners and the effects. While she enjoys to research, Dr. Dolan admitted that the research was excruciating, extremely time consuming and at times it was hard to not feel burnt-out. She did not want to follow the saying, “publish or perish” and not live her life to the fullest which is how she found her love for teaching.
“Fortunately, I am at a place where teaching is more of the focus and I can still do research but I don’t feel that pressure,” Dolan shared in regard to becoming an assistant professor at SRU. She loves having her fire back and the opportunity to take a step back and learn from her students, who have inspired future research opportunities such as the concept of “finstagrams” and memes.
What's the weirdest thing about being back? "Half of the professors I had retired, but half of them were still here. It was kind of weird to just call people by their first names," Dolan laughed about the thought.
Baylie McGrady, a senior Integrated Marketing Communication student, was Dr. Dolan's first advisee at Slippery Rock. "With any problem that I had I feel like because she was so personable that I could really go to her about anything," McGrady described her experience getting to know Dr. Dolan throughout her first year here.
Dr. Dolan currently teaches Communication Concepts, Civil Discourse and Persuasion at SRU.
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