Awards

Lieber Memorial Associate Instructor Award - 1988

About Douglas M. Gaerte

Douglas Gaerte received a BS in 1983 from Grace College, and an MA and PhD from Indiana University. A native of Indiana, Gaerte still gets homesick for “Hoosier Hysteria” when basketball season gets under way, despite living in New York for almost two decades. While at IU, he received several prestigious awards for teaching, and most recently in 2010, the W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service.

Gaerte is Professor of Communications at Houghton College, joining the faculty in 1988. Over the years he's taught more than a dozen different courses – from communication theory and public speaking to interpersonal communication and mass media. Doug's primary research interests fall at the intersection of politics, history and communication. He studies speeches in their historical context in order to understand how public discourse has shaped important social and political issues. While he enjoys all areas of communication, he is most interested in helping his students learn to use rhetoric in civic life to become a positive force for social change.

Outside of the classroom, Doug enjoys attending theater productions with his family. Doug is active at the Houghton Wesleyan Church, and loves to read anything he can about the connections between faith, politics and media.