Rutgers University Conversation Analysis Lab (RUCAL) brings together scholars with an interest in understanding the workings of social interaction across a wide variety of social settings and contexts. RUCAL faculty and students examine everyday communicative activities as they are captured in field recordings of naturally occurring interactions. We study talk-in-interaction (in English, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, and other languages) among friends and family members as well as in institutional settings, such as

• interactions between medical providers and their patients and family members;
• telephone calls to emergency service lines, emotional support helplines, and customer service lines;
• interactions between social service providers and their clients; and
• talk at a variety of businesses and organizations.

We bring together a range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of talk-in-interaction, with a primary focus in Conversation Analysis (CA). Established in the 1960s, CA is a cross-disciplinary research field committed to investigating the dynamics of interaction and communication using recordings of naturally occurring social events. (More information about CA can be found at the ISCA site.)

RUCAL activities include:

• Training of doctoral and other students
• Weekly data sessions dedicated to developing innovative studies of naturally occurring interaction
• Collaborative research activities towards conference presentations and publications
• Active interdisciplinary collaborations with scholars at Rutgers and around the world
• Guest lectures and working sessions

For more information about RUCAL, please contact Galina Bolden, Alexa Hepburn, Jenny Mandelbaum, or Lisa Mikesell.