Acknowledgments

Editing this Handbook was an exhila­rating and breathtaking experience. We are indebted to many remarkable individuals who encouraged and motivated us to bring this book to fruition.

Second, we express our warm appreciation and thanks to our editorial assistant, Willow Anderson. She did amazingly meticulous work in proofing and double-checking the citations and references in each chapter and always did it with such joy and bliss. Thank you, Willow, for spending such dedicated energy and time in helping us get to the finish line. Third, we want to thank Todd Armstrong, the former senior acquisitions editor in communication and media studies at Sage, and also Matt Byrnie, current senior acquisitions editor of communication and media studies at Sage. Todd encouraged us to develop the first and second editions of this conflict Handbook from the very beginning, and Matt has seen the second edition to its close. We also want to extend our special applause to Stephanie Palermini, editorial assistant to Matt, for helping us navigate the multitude of editorial steps in rounding off this Handbook. A special thanks also goes to the copy editors at QuADS Prepress for their careful editing and keen eye in polishing up the collective chapters.

Finally, we express our profound gratitude and a big “thank you” to our colleagues at the University of New Mexico, the University of Waikato, and the California State University at Fullerton (CSUF). Our colleagues have pro­vided us with an affirming and marvelously supportive environment to conduct our schol­arly work. We could not have asked for a more intellectually stimulating and collegial group to work with. Last, we thank all our special graduate and undergraduate students for their inquiring minds and opening hearts—in the seminar and classroom settings—in pushing us forward as scholars and teachers in our thirst to understand the interdependent connec­tion between conflict communication theory

Acknowledgments

and practice in the terrains of interpersonal, organizational, community, and intercultural settings. Stella also wants to thank the CSUF- MAG (Milton A. Gordon) Award Committee for awarding her a one-class research release time in the Spring to wrap up the completion of this mega-editing book project with calm effort and dedication.

Individually, there are several people in our personal and professional lives to whom we would like to express our special acknowledgments.

John: I want to thank my wife and life partner, Keri, for providing me with such understanding love, sustained personal sup­port, intellectual stimulation, and enriching insights during this arduous editing process. I also want to thank my very special boys, Spencer and Ethan, who give me wonderful distractions from work and help to keep me balanced.

Stella: I want to extend my warm thanks to my husband, Charles, and son, Adrian, for coming along with me on this spectacular academic ride. I thank you for your lifelong sacrifices for supporting me, encouraging me, and humoring me with your gentle affection and safety net. Last but not the least, I want to xiii do a special “shout out” to John. It has been almost 20 years since John was enrolled in my intercultural communication theory graduate seminar. My first impression of John to my present impression of John remains steadfast: a first-rate scholar and also a stellar human being. On all writing projects big and small, John displayed intellectual astuteness, disci­plined focus, and the tenacity to see the project through to the end with quality resolution. John, I value our intellectual dialogue, idea synergy, and most important, I take pride in you as a caring, responsive human being and also your great mentoring of younger scholars in the discipline.

To the readers, we thank you for taking the time to read each chapter in this Handbook with thoughtfulness and intellectual question­ing. We encourage you to pursue your own conflict communication interest with passion and gusto. We hope the ideas in the Handbook would inspire you to bring your own visions out to the open and that you would be able to write down your own unique conflict insights with courage and imagination. We challenge you to extend the conflict communication field forward in the four conflict communica­tion contexts, and you would also be able to leap forward fearlessly in different directions to explore the unknown and the unfamiliar, and to add your fresh perspectives to the con­flict communication discipline. We hope you enjoy perusing this Handbook as much as we have found the rewards and gratifications in editing this volume.