Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor and Chair
Communication Studies
University of Minnesota
Affliate Faculty, Health Law & Bioethics Concentration
Univ. of Minnesota Law School
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Bioethics
Core Faculty, Asian American Studies
Univ. of Minnesota
Email: Elaine Hsieh
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1993-4976
About
Elaine Hsieh is a health communication scholar whose work examines how language, culture, and institutional practices shape healthcare interactions and outcomes. Her research focuses on interpreter-mediated communication, language-discordant care, and the communicative dynamics of health disparities. She is among the first scholars to systematically introduce communication scholarhsip into translation and interpreting studies.
Her earlier work on Bilingual Health Communication (Routledge, 2016) established a theoretical foundation for understanding how interpreters mediate identity, relationships, and access to facilitate quality and equality of care in clinical interactions. Building on her book, Rethinking Culture in Health Communication (Wiley, 2021), she developed Cultural Lenses and Shared Horizons (CLASH; Cambridge University Press, 2026), a communication theory that explains how different epistemological orientations give rise to distinct lived realities in interaction, with applications to clinical communication, health equity, and emerging technologies.
As department chair at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, she works at the intersection of academic organization and intellectual development, focusing on how units define priorities, adapt to changing conditions, and sustain research and training missions over time. Her leadership has involved strategic planning, program restructuring, and aligning pedagogical and financial decisions in ways that maintain intellectual coherence while navigating institutional constraints.
Key Contributions
Research Areas: Intercultural Health Communication | Language Access | Health Disparities | Interpreting Studies
Theoretical Work: Bilingual Health Communication | Cultural Consciousness Frameworks | Cultural Lenses and Shared Horizons (CLASH)
Applications: Healthcare Delivery | Cross-Cultural Care | Health Equity
NEWS
CLASH (2026)
Open Access available
Excited to share that our research monograph has been officially published by Cambridge University Press for publication in the Cambridge Elements series. PDF and Kindle downloads available.
In this Element, we present Cultural Lenses and Shared Horizons (CLASH), a communication theory of intercultural health communication. CLASH conceptualizes intercultural encounters not as conflicts, but as generative sites where different cultural logics interact, revealing both tensions and possibilities for shared understanding.
Harm Reduction
Patient Education and Counseling
Can we thinking about the variety of interpreters and interpreting modalities, including family interpreters and AI-assisted interpreting, in a way that is pragmatic, compassionate, and ethically-oriented? For more information, see Needle-Suarez, J., & Hsieh, E. (2026). A harm reduction approach to the practice of language access in language-discordant care. Patient Education and Counseling, 143, Article 109419.
Masonic Cross-Department Grant
February 13, 2024
Dr. Elaine Hsieh recently received the Masonic Cross-Departmental Grant. The 2024-2026 project is titled "Reimagining Language Equity: Defining Best Practices in Partnering with Informal Interpreters of Somali Families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit." Dr. Jennifer Needle (PI; Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine; Associate Professor, Bioethics) and Dr. Elaine Hsieh (PI; Professor, Communication Studies) will work with community partners to examine naturalistic interpreter-mediated interactions in the neonatal intensive care unit and explore the critical roles and impacts of informal interpreters in healthcare delivery.
Book Review
Health Communication, published online
"Elaine Hsieh and Eric M. Kramer draw from their own groundbreaking research [...] to conceptualize the field of health communication writ large through the lens of intercultural encounters. They accomplish this task in a way that both serves as a welcoming introduction to the field for students and emergent scholars and, at the same time, as a nuanced, theoretically rich resource for senior scholars already well familiar with the field, its history, and its core theoretical trajectories.." Jensen & Almuaili
Recent Activities
Mentor
NIH K23 Award (2026-2031)
Dr. Hsieh serves as a mentor (secondary) to Dr. Ebiere D. Okah's NIH K23 Career Development Award (2026-2031), project titled "Developing and Piloting P3: A Patient-Centered Communication Curriculum for Hypertension Care." Through this NIH funding, Dr. Okah aims to develop develop expertise in intercultural health communication and enhance physician training to improve minority patients’ experiences in clinical settings.
2025 Hong Kong Baptist University
Invited Talk: May 27, 2025
Dr. Hsieh's talk, "The Role of Technology in Healthcare Interpreting and Culturally-Tailored Communication Strategies," examines the challenges and opportunities of technologies in cross-cultural care in the Conference of Health Communication in the Digital Era: Information, Trust, and Strategies, hosted by Hong Kong Baptist University.
2025 UMass Amherst
Webinar: Feb. 14
Hsieh, E. (2025). A Systems Approach to Healthcare Interpreting: Why Ai-Based adn Remote Interpreting Can Short-change the Quality and Equity of Care. Faculty and Community Seminar on Interpreting Studies and Practice. University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA. [recorded lecture]
2024 Rutgers
Invited Talk: Nov. 8, 2024
Dr. Elaine Hsieh shared her research experiences and provided advice to faculty members and students who are intterested in langauge-discordant community-based work and interpreter-mediated resaerch. See recorded talk here.