Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor and Chair
Communication Studies
University of Minnesota
Affliate Faculty, Health Law & Bioethics Concentration
Univ. of Minnesota Law School
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Bioethics
Univ. of Minnesota
Visiting Professor, Health Communication
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Email: Elaine Hsieh
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1993-4976
NEWS
Trauma Communication
Journal of Family Nursing
This is one of the first publications that I share with new collaborators at the University of Minnesota. In this study, we examine mothers' narratives about how they discuss their truama as a war refugess with thei children. For more info, please see Hoffman SJ, Fredkove WM, Vukovich MM, et al. Ushering a Witness: A Psychosocial Theory of Maternal Intrafamily Trauma Communication in the Refugee Family System. Journal of Family Nursing. 2024.
Upcoming Book
Cambridge Elements 2026
I'm delighted to share some exciting news—our book, Intercultural Health Communication: Cultural Lens and Shared Horizons as a Theoretical Framework, by Hsieh, E. & Terui, S., is now officially under contract with Cambridge University Press. 🎉 Set to be published in 2026, this book is a labor of love and passion. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive cultural framework that will advance the field of health communication.
Masonic Cross-Department Grant
February 13, 2024
Dr. Elaine Hsieh recently received the Masonic Cross-Departmental Grant. The 2024-2026 project is titled "Reimagining Language Equity: Defining Best Practices in Partnering with Informal Interpreters of Somali Families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit." Dr. Jennifer Needle (PI; Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine; Associate Professor, Bioethics) and Dr. Elaine Hsieh (PI; Professor, Communication Studies) will work with community partners to examine naturalistic interpreter-mediated interactions in the neonatal intensive care unit and explore the critical roles and impacts of informal interpreters in healthcare delivery.
Book Review
Health Communication, published online
"Elaine Hsieh and Eric M. Kramer draw from their own groundbreaking research [...] to conceptualize the field of health communication writ large through the lens of intercultural encounters. They accomplish this task in a way that both serves as a welcoming introduction to the field for students and emergent scholars and, at the same time, as a nuanced, theoretically rich resource for senior scholars already well familiar with the field, its history, and its core theoretical trajectories.." Jensen & Almuaili
Recent Activities
2025 UMass Amherst
Webinar: Feb. 14
Hsieh, E. (2025). A Systems Approach to Healthcare Interpreting: Why Ai-Based adn Remote Interpreting Can Short-change the Quality and Equity of Care. Faculty and Community Seminar on Interpreting Studies and Practice. University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA.
2024 Rutgers
Invited Talk: Nov. 8, 2024
Dr. Elaine Hsieh shared her research experiences and provided advice to faculty members and students who are intterested in langauge-discordant community-based work and interpreter-mediated resaerch. See recorded talk here.
2024 Fu Jen Catholic University
Invited Talk: May 4, 2024
Dr. Hsieh presented her recent work, " Healthcare interpreting as a contextually situated, locally managed communicative activity," as a part of Cross-Cultural Communication and Medical Interpreting Workshop hosted by the Graduate Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan.
2024 UNC
Center for Bioethics
Dr. Hsieh provided a lecture at the Clinical Ethics Grand Rounds hosted by the Center of Bioethics, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. See the recorded letecture.