Jesse Delia

Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Research Professor of Communications

Professor of Speech Communication

j-delia@uiuc.edu

Primary areas of interest: Analysis of contemporary concepts; empirical investigations of social perceptions among interactive adults; communicative routines and strategies in childhood and adolescence.


Professor Delia's research and graduate teaching focus on issues in human communication theory and on interpersonal communication processes within a life-span developmental framework. His current research explores the socialization of communication skills and prosocial values in children and adolescents. Delia has directed more than thirty doctoral dissertations on these topics and has contributed more than 100 research reports, essays, chapters, and monographs to the professional literature in this field. His scholarship has received awards from the National Communication Association (formerly Speech Communication Association), and he has been a senior Fulbright Scholar to Australia. Delia has been very active at the university level, serving on the Emerging Program Initiatives Implementation Committee, the Advisory Committee of the Program on Cultural Values and Ethics, and a number of policy and budgetary committees. He served as head of the Department of Speech Communication from 1978-1994, and is currently dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Ph.D., Communication and Human Relations, University of Kansas