CCSN Senior Fellow
Professor and Chair of Communication Studies, Eastern University (retired)
Dr. Hatch became interested in the intersection of faith, communication, and culture through his involvement in Youth With A Mission in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Navajoland during the 1980s. After getting his master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language, he worked in Kazakhstan for nearly three years as a visiting lecturer at Ahmed Yasawi University. During his doctoral studies at Regent University, his intercultural interests broadened, and he began to focus on race relations and public reconciliation initiatives.
Upon completion of his Ph.D., John taught for eight years at the University of Dubuque, including four years in an endowed faculty position within the Wendt Center for Character and Ethics. He then taught at Eastern University for 11 years, chairing its Communication Studies Department during the latter half of that period. Upon his retirement in 2022, he began serving as a Senior Fellow of CCSN.
Dr. Hatch’s research interests include racial reconciliation, public apologies, dialogic rhetoric, religious discourse, the rhetoric of popular music, and contemporary Christian music. He has made numerous presentations at academic conferences on these topics. His published essays appear in such peer-reviewed journals as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Communication Quarterly, Western Journal of Communication, the Journal of Communication & Religion, and CCSN’s Journal of Christian Teaching Practice, as well as several edited books. He is the author of an award-winning scholarly monograph on the rhetoric of racial reconciliation and an undergraduate-friendly anthology of speeches on reconciliation by diverse political and religious leaders.
John is currently working on understanding Christians’ troubled relationships with social justice and politics, and he continues to study how the rhetoric of music can shape listeners’ understandings of faith, race, and society. In addition to writing and editing for Integratio Press, he publishes a column for CCSN titled Crossed My Mind: Thoughts on Culture and Communication. He currently lives in the geological wonderland of western Colorado with his wife, Christie, and their lovable beagle, Beau.