COMMRC 2037 - INTERDISCIPLINARY THEORIZING IN COMMUNICATION

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
By its very nature, the discipline of communication makes extensive use of theories from outside the communication field and intersects with other scholarly traditions. Our research draws on work in philosophy, sociology, ethnic and gender studies, and many other fields. The purpose of this course is for us to become familiar with a few theorists who have had widespread influence in the field of communication. We will read extensively in primary source texts such as Michel Foucault's power/knowledge, his history of sexuality, and a later work, such as the hermeneutics of the human subject. We will also read in Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant's invitation to reflexive sociology and in Bourdieu's language and symbolic power. Bourdieu is interested in applied research on social practices, and he emphasizes the importance of the formation of intellectual habits and the processes of socialization. His work has been an important resource for communication researchers who study the socialization and normalization processes that shape perception and experience. The third theorist we will read is Edward said. Said is a literary analyst whose groundbreaking book, orientalism, considered representations of the oriental 'other' as they appeared in news coverage, novels, and other mediated forms during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This work was a significant instigating force in post colonialism which in turn had strong influences in the field of communication. We will find that all three of these theorists were reacting to earlier literary and philosophical European influences such as structuralism and phenomenology, and we will discuss those as well. For the course project, each student will be encouraged to trace the influences of these theorists on his or her own research are and/or topic, and to develop a final paper tracing the use of one or more of these theorists in the relevant research literatures.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Seminar
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis

Click here for class schedule information.

Add to Portfolio.

Close Window