Earning a PhD is difficult, but for University of Memphis alumna Monica Riordan, the feat grew even more challenging year by year because of a hearing impairment.
Do you hear
what I hear? by Anita Houk
Miscommunication was the bane of her life, but Monica Ann Schepers Riordan struggled on. As her hearing waned, decibel by decibel, she focused on catching precious words, deciphering sentences and translating the world of sound. A cochlear implant to improve her hearing hadn’t been a serious consideration. She didn’t know she was even eligible. Riordan (PhD ’11) turned her misadventures in communicating into legitimate research at the University of Memphis. By the time she defended her dissertation in experimental psychology in 2011, she had investigated emotion, psychology and effectiveness 30
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of verbal and nonverbal communication, including email, instant messages, texts and even those funny-face emoticons. “I’m good at piecing things together into a coherent picture. Instead of memorizing different theories, I can see how it fits into my life … or the life of someone I know.” Naturally, her personal experiences influenced her professional endeavors. “I was a teenager when AOL instant messaging came out. All I could think was, ‘Thank God. I can finally dial up my friends and ‘talk’ about boys.’” She had worn hearing aids since pre-school in St. Louis, and, yes, suffered the bullies on the bus who mocked her. As she matured, she
honed her lip-reading skills, allowing her to cloak her worsening disability with aplomb. What she couldn’t do, however, was get a job. First time out, she had graduated in 2007 from the University of Missouri-Columbia magna cum laude, with full university honors, a bachelor of arts in psychology and one in sociology. But employment? No takers. Disappointed but not deterred, she decided to go to graduate school and create her own niche in academia. “I wasn’t aware of her (hearing) issue when she started as a master’s student,” says Dr. THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS