Hello!

I’m Dr. Tony Adams, a Professor in the Department of Communication at Bradley University. I teach courses on persuasion, relationships, diversity, autoethnography, and communication theory. With my writing, I explore queer relations, spaces, and communities, media representations of LGBTQ+ lives, ways to maneuver homophobic or transphobic slights, and when and how people “come out” to others, when and how they decide to share certain identities and desires. I also use my writing to support the international and interdisciplinary community of autoethnography—a method that blends personal storytelling with cultural analysis.

I’ve written and edited multiple books and have been fortunate to have my work translated into several languages. I serve as a co-editor of the Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives book series and as the founding co-editor of the Journal of Autoethnography. In 2023, I created the Certificate in Autoethnography program at Bradley University, a program designed to introduce people from around the world to what autoethnography is and how to do it.

I’m a proud first-generation college student. I graduated from Danville Area Community College and continued my education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the University of South Florida. I attended Catholic school as a kid, played Magic The Gathering for several years, worked as a bartender at Yellowstone National Park, played softball for more than a decade, and have been a vegetarian since 1998. These parts of my life—inside and outside the classroom—continue to shape the questions I ask and the ways I approach my work as a writer, teacher, and scholar.

Contact Information

Tony E. Adams, Ph.D.
Caterpillar Professor
Department of Communication
Bradley University
1501 W. Bradley Ave., CGCC 300
Peoria, Illinois 61625
tony.e.adams [at] gmail.com

Curriculum Vita (3/26)