William R. Cupach, an internationally recognized communication research scholar, will give a presentation on “The Dark Side of Interpersonal Attraction: Obsessive Relational Intrusion and Stalking” at the University of Central Florida.
The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in room 125 of the Harris Corp. Engineering Center. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Nicholson School of Communication as part of the College of Sciences’ Distinguished Speaker Series.
Cupach’s research in areas of interpersonal communication is directed at understanding how individuals manage problematic, challenging, awkward or aversive social and personal relations. He has investigated relational redefinition or termination, interpersonal conflict, embarrassing predicaments, relational transgressions, safe-sex negotiation, obsessive relational intrusions and stalking.
Recently he has concentrated on the phenomena of stalking and obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), a term he introduced with co-author Brian H. Spitzberg to capture a broader range of obsessive pursuit behaviors. ORI is the repeated and unwanted pursuit and invasion of one’s sense of physical and symbolic privacy by another person who desires or presumes an intimate relationship. Persistent and threatening ORI constitutes stalking.
Cupach’s work on ORI has been reported in 21 journal articles and book chapters in the last 12 years, as well as during numerous conference presentations. His book, “The Dark Side of Relationship Pursuit: From Attraction to Obsession and Stalking,” provides the most comprehensive treatment available on the subject of stalking and obsessive pursuit.
Cupach has a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in Communication Arts and Sciences. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Illinois State University in the School of Communication since 1992. Among Cupach’s teaching interests are interpersonal communication, persuasion and social influence, quantitative research methods and conflict management.
He is the author or co-author of 13 books and edited works, as well as more than 50 highly influential refereed journal articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries.
After Cupach’s presentation, Nicholson School of Communication students, staff, faculty and alumni are invited to join him at a reception at 8 p.m. in the atrium area of the Harris Corp. Engineering Center.