Emilie Lucchesi

Emilie L. Lucchesi, PhD studies framing, stigma communication, and medical history with specific regard to stigma communication and mental health. 

Dr. Lucchesi is the author of This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW (Chicago Review, 2019), which won second place in the American Journal of Nursing’s 2019 Books of the Year awards. The book was also featured in The New York Times, NPR, and Fox-Chicago. The book debuted as an Amazon #1 new release in multiple categories including Nursing & Critical Care. The book was also recorded as an audiobook and released by Tantor Media. 

Dr. Lucchesi is also the author of Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago (Chicago Review, 2017), which was recommended by The New York Times in June 2017 along with Crain’s Chicago Business and Ms. Magazine. 

Dr. Lucchesi has appeared on PBS, NPR, FOX-32, and European television to discuss her books.  In May 2019, WGN-TV ran a six-minute cover story on This is Really War  -- the first book to focus exclusively on the “Twelve Anchors,” who were navy nurse POWs in WWII. 

Dr. Lucchesi engages with the most timely and important issues surrounding health and/or stigma communication in elite publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic. 

Dr. Lucchesi is the faculty mentor for the women’s soccer team. And as a person with lifelong hearing loss, she is available as a personal mentor to any student with physical or learning differences. 

Selected Scholarship

Books: 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW in the Occupied Philippines (Chicago Review Press, May 2019).

** Audio version read by Susan Ericksen. Produced and distributed by Tantor Media. 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau.  Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago (Chicago Review Press, 2017).  

Select mass media articles related to health care, stigma, or mental health treatment: 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “The role of nurses when patients decide to end their lives.” New York Times, September 6, 2019.

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “For nurses, trauma can come with the job.” New York Times, May 7, 2019. 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “The role of postpartum psychosis in infanticide.” The Atlantic, September 6, 2018 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “Is fat stigma making us miserable?” New York Times, November 11, 2015. 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “The unbearable heaviness of clutter.” New York Times, January 7, 2019, pg. D4. 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “La insoportable pesadez de acumulación de cosas.” New York Times en Español, January 6, 2019, (online).

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “When animals sense, and influence, our feelings,” New York Times International Edition, June 9, 2017, pg. 1. 

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “The empathetic dog,” New York Times, June 10, 2017, F5.

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. “The horse is the therapist,” New York Times, July 9, 2016, D4. 

Articles in academic or peer-reviewed journals. 

Lucchesi, E.L. (2013). “Shame, Stigma, and Sponsorship: Links between Personal Bloggers and Weight Loss Products.” Journal of Consumer Health Online, (17) 168: 183.

Lucchesi, E.L. (2010). “Review: ‘Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press,’ by Michael Schudson. Political Communication Report,(20), 1-2. 

Currently under review with medical history journals:

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. "Suffering in Silence: Denying mental health treatment to the Twelve US Navy Nurse POWs After The Second World War."

Lucchesi Emilie Le Beau. "Silence as Survival: Denial of Mental Health Ailments in Civilian POW Camps in the Occupied Philippines in WWII."

Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau. "Lt. Cmdr. Laura M. Cobb (1892-1981): Chief Navy Nurse who oversaw medical care in WWII civilian concentration camps."

Courses Taught

CARD 102: Public Speaking (FYE)

MEDI 200: Digital Media Writing

COM 214: Group Processes

COM 230: Business and Professional Communication

COM 200: Interpersonal Communication

COM 370: Health Communication