Rate My Professor Larry Erbert

Larry A. Erbert, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He holds additional leadership roles as Director of the Mediation Certificate Program, Chair of the CLAS Council (Dean's Advisory Committee), and member of the MSS/MHUM Steering Committee and the University Honors and Leadership Steering Committee. Erbert earned his Ph.D. in Communication from The University of Iowa in 1996, with specializations in organizational communication, interpersonal communication, conflict, and negotiation; his M.S. in Communication from Fort Hays State University in 1988; and his B.A. in Communication from the same university in 1983. His career includes prior positions as Associate Professor and Founder/Director of the Institute for Peace/Conflict Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso (2001-2007), Assistant Professor at Cleveland State University (1997-2001), and Assistant Professor at Baruch College (1996-1997), along with earlier instructor roles at institutions such as Augustana College and Northwest Missouri State University.

Erbert's research focuses on organizational communication—encompassing organizational change, teamwork, and leadership—environmental communication, conflict, mediation, and negotiation/bargaining. He is currently engaged in a three-year ethnographic study examining conflicts, threats, and challenges to the U.S. National Park System. His scholarly contributions include the co-authored textbook Exploring Communication Theory: Making Sense of Us (Routledge, 2017) with Kory Floyd, Paul Schrodt, and Angela Trethewey. Notable refereed journal articles feature "Organizational sensemaking: Interpretations of workplace 'strangeness'" (International Journal of Business Communication, 2016), "Antagonistic and non-antagonistic dialectical contradictions in organizational conflict" (International Journal of Business Communication, 2014), "Taking the grand out of grandparent: Dialectical tensions in grandparent perceptions of surrogate parenting" (Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2008), and "Perceptions of turning points and dialectical interpretations in organizational team development" (Small Group Research, 2005). Erbert's publications have been cited over 800 times, reflecting his impact in dialectical theory and related areas. At CU Denver since 2007, he has taught and developed 23 courses, including organizational communication, environmental communication, mediation, negotiation, and leadership seminars. Additionally, he works part-time as a mediator for the non-profit Communication Mediation Concepts.