Natalie Dollar, Associate Professor of Speech Communication, teaches courses in intercultural and interpersonal communication, community dialogue, communication theory, youth communication outreach, and group communication. Before coming to OSU-Cascades in 2002, Natalie was a member of the Oregon State University faculty in Corvallis (1993-2002) where she was named a College of Liberal Arts Master Teacher and awarded the College of Liberal Arts Dean Wilkins Faculty Development Award.  She teaches in the Speech Communication, Liberal Studies and American Studies programs and is a member of the Graduate School faculty.  She was awarded the OSU-Cascades Teaching Award for 2011-2012.

Natalie received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Mississippi State University, a Masters of Arts in Communication Theory from Arizona State University, and a doctorate in Cultural Communication from the University of Washington.

Natalie's scholarship focuses on identity, culture, and communication. She has published articles and book chapters on "houseless" and street-oriented youth, members of a musical speech community, and ethnographic approaches for studying group--cultural and intercultural--interaction. Her current research interests focus on dialogue as a means for co-constructing relationships among individuals or groups in conflict, teaching community dialogue, and negotiating identities in intracultural interactions.

In March of 2003, she founded The Community Dialogue Project (CDP) that provides educational opportunities for Central Oregonians interested in learning about dialogue as an intentional, distinct form of communication. Working with OSU-Cascades students, Natalie offers an annual Community Dialogue Workshop as part of the CDP.

The Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

Dollar, N.J. (2020). Set break: Mapping Grateful Dead Studies and the 2009 Caucus, Foreward Grateful Dead Scholars Caucus Program, Dead Studies.

Dollar, N.J. (2013). Sometimes you get shown the light: An ethnographer’s meditation on boundaries, barriers and awareness. The Best of Dead Letters, N. Meriwether (Ed.). Scarecrow Press. Invited.

Dollar, N.J. (2012). Mapping the Deadhead social science trip. Reading the Grateful Dead., N. Meriwether (Ed.). Invited.

Gronemyer, K., & Dollar, N.J. (2011). Embedded librarians: Beyond one shot instruction. In C. Kvenild & K. Calkins (Eds). Association of College & Research Libraries.

Dollar, N.J.  (2010). A chronological account of Deadheads' cultural communication code. In J. Tuedio & S. Spector (Eds.), The Grateful Dead in Concert: Esays on Live Improvisation. McFarland Press.

Aden, R., Borchers, T.A., Buxbaum, A.G., Cronn-Mills, K., Davis, S., Dollar, N.J., Mitchell, I., & Ruggerio, A.A. (2009). Communities of Cornhuskers: The generation of place through sports fans' rituals. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication.

Dollar, N. J. (2007). 'Songs of our own': The Deadhead cultural communication code. In N. Meriwether (Ed.), All Graceful Instruments (pp. 176-195). Cambridge Scholars Press.

Dollar, N. J., & Merrigan, G. (2002). An ethnographic approach for understanding group communication. In L. Frey (Ed.), New Directions in Group Communication Theory, Research, and Pedagogy (pp. 59-78). Newbury Park: Sage Press.

Dollar, N. J., & Zimmers, B. G. (1998). Social identity and communicative boundaries: An analysis of youth and young adult street speakers in a U. S. American community. Communication Research, 25 (6), 596-617.

Selected Presentations

Dollar, N.J. (2019, April).  Community Dialogue Project: Communication as radically cultural. Presented at the Northwestern Communication Association Annual Conference, Coeur d'Alene, ID. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335893718_Community_Dialogue_Project_Dialogue_as_Radically_Cultural

Dollar, N.J. & Balter-Reitz, S. (2012, February). You decide if he is wise: Finding authority in a non-authoritative community. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the SWTXPC, Albuquerque, NM.

Dollar, N. J. (2012, February). Betwixt and between the sound bite: Facilitating community dialogue. Paper presented Accessing Civility: Arizona Forum on Civil Communication. Sponsored by the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and the National Communication Association, Tempe, AZ.

Dollar, N.J. (2010, January).  The Grateful Dead and American Culture.  Oregon State University-Cascades Science Pub.  https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_1ghyw0oz

Dollar, N. J. (2007, February). Community dialogue workshop as civil society: A preliminary analysis of "getting below the sound bite". Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western States Communication Association, Seattle, WA.

Dollar, N. J., Hopp, S., Edwards, M. L., & Becraft, D. (2005, April). Bridging the communication gap: Dialogue, the campus, and the local community. Paper presented at the Continuums of Service Annual Conference, Portland, OR