Jake Spurlock

Jake Spurlock is a graduate student in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on family and interpersonal communication, particularly how people navigate closeness, conflict, disclosure, and relational maintenance within families and other close relationships. He studies how communication helps individuals foster resiliency in families and other close interpersonal relationships. 

His recent work is a qualitative study examining how burdensomeness is communicated and managed within families. The project examines the communicative and relational implications of burdensomeness for family members and their relationships. More broadly, Jake is interested in communication surrounding trauma, identity, and stigma in intimate and familial contexts, including disclosure among male survivors of sexual violence and political disagreement between emerging adults and their parents.