Aaron T. Phillips, PhD, MA

Aaron T. Phillips is an Assistant Professor/Lecturer in the Management department. He teaches Foundations of Business Thought (BUS 1050), Business & Professional Communication (MGT 3810), and Advanced Professional Communication (BUS 4810). Prior to coming to the David Eccles School of Business, he taught in the field of Writing and Rhetoric Studies, working with students in first-year writing classes, creative nonfiction, environmental writing, and a range of other courses. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and a Ph.D. in Communication. His dissertation research examined the communication problems associated with the reintroduction of the gray wolf into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Professor Philllips’s research interests span the areas of environmental communication and resource management, particularly the communication of risk/reward and practitioner behavior. He is currently developing a course on environmental sustainability in organizations. His teaching philosophy centers on cultivating respect in learning communities, disrupting calcified learning habits, and ensuring higher education’s relevance in communities and organizations.

Professor Phillips’s research on wild horse advocacy has recently appeared in the journal American Journalism. His research on gray wolf management in the Intermountain West and on the curation of natural history has appeared in the journal Environmental Communication, and he has an article forthcoming in a complication focusing on experiential learning. His future projects center on the communication of risk and reward in outdoor recreation.

In his leisure time, he enjoys competing in and coaching for cycling and cross-country skiing races, reading widely, and writing creative nonfiction.

Research Statement

I seek to investigate how we communicate about the environment and how literate practices, particularly in written communication, are shaped by technology.

Communication about the environment: my research focuses on the ways in whch language as a social practice shapes behavior, particularly decisions, about the management of natural resources. This interest extends across agency types, from federal land management agencies, to state wildlife agencies, to commercial and private outdoor recreation providers.

Literate practices and technology: my research in this area considers, broadly, the nature of mediated experience and learning/literacy. How do we interact productively in high-context experiential teaching/learning situations such as field-based courses? What technologies are at play in such interactions? Alternatively, how do technological tools that mediate experience affect literate practices, particularly those involved in writing?

Selected Publications