Aaron Bacue

Aaron E. Bacue is a seasoned communication educator and professional with almost 20 years of experience teaching communication at the university level, coaching public speaking, and managing competitive grant-, state-, and privately-funded research projects.  Before joining the faculty of Kent State University’s School of Communication Studies in August 2015, he taught at James Madison University, Penn State University, and West Chester University, where he was renowned for his ability to connect with the students in his classes, his stimulating and thought-provoking lessons, and his remarkable use of humor, visual aids, and pop-culture references to facilitate comprehension of complex theories and concepts, as well as knowledge of how course materials apply to “real world” life and experiences.  In addition to teaching, Professor Bacue has spent the past 12 years working as an independent consultant to small and large businesses seeking to improve their internal and external communication, person-centered marketing, or market research initiatives.  He also has used the experience he gained as a four-time national finalist in competitive public speaking to coach community members and students to improve their public speaking skills (including multiple nationally-competitive undergraduate speakers).

Although Professor Bacue’s primary professional focus is instruction and training, he also is an accomplished academic researcher.  His primary research focus has concerned the “dark side” of communication skill in interpersonal relationships, focusing on romantic partners’ use of verbal and nonverbal skills to actualize “dark” relational outcomes such as hurting one’s romantic partner, making him/her feel jealous, bullying, and manipulation.  However, he also collaboratively designed, implemented, and managed a $3.5 million National Science Foundation-funded multi-institutional research project designed to develop automated text-, acoustic-, and video-based tools to aid the military in detecting and countering deception in the joint battle space infosphere — this is in addition to research projects examining social support, condom use, and television representations of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality (funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation). 

Aaron Bacue has worked for a variety of institutions, but he is most excited to be a part of Kent State University’s School of Communication Studies, stating that, “In addition to having some of the most renowned faculty in the world, as well as staff and administration that strive to make a large university feel intimate and home-like, Kent seems to have the best students of any institution at which I’ve worked.”