Quinten Bernhold attributes his high publication productivity to a work ethic instilled in him by his parents and through the experiences he’s had with mentors in academia. Now, the School of Communication Studies assistant professor is reaping recognition for all the hard work he’s done in recent years as he is ranked in the top 1 percent of communication studies scholars in terms of productivity in a January Communication Education article about scholarly productivity in communication journals from 2017 to 2021. Additionally, once the scholars’ work was weighted by first-author and single-author papers, Bernhold was ranked at number seven overall in productivity.
“I was actually surprised, and then I was just grateful. This speaks to the generosity of John Haas and John Hess, because they’ve been really good about giving me preferred teaching assignments that create time for research. And when I’ve come to one of them about funding for a study, they’ve always said yes; if I had to worry about funding, that would also slow down my productivity,” Bernhold said, referring to the school’s past director (Haas) and current director (Hess).
Bernhold said he also couldn’t have done his work without the guidance of his academic mentor, Howard Giles, who also inspired the line of research around older adults and communication that Bernhold is currently pursuing. Giles was not only on Bernhold’s dissertation committee, but he took extra time and care to teach Bernhold how to write academic papers and get them published when the assistant professor was attending graduate and doctoral programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Besides mentorship and support, Bernhold said he adheres to a simple rule of writing every day during a time that he knows works best for him—a tip he said he’s heard Communication Studies Professor and CCI’s Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Virginia Kupritz share with her students in classes.
“Since I’ve come to UT, one thing I try to do is write in the morning because I’m most energetic and productive in the morning. If I leave writing until the afternoon, I won’t do it. Even if it’s just half an hour, I write every day,” he said.
Bernhold said he doesn’t have any plans to slow down in his research, which currently centers on two areas: how older adults’ communication practices affect their successful aging, and how family members’ communication practices affect their physical and mental health.
“It’s the perfect career for me, learning and teaching at the same time,” he said.
