Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will:

1. Understand the intellectual history and trajectory of the field of communication studies;

2. Understand the central ideas orienting contemporary scholarship on race, nation, gender, and sexuality in communication studies;

3. Develop new understandings of communication outside of normative white, cisgender, male, heterosexual, and Euroamerican assumptions; and

4. Develop and produce written work advancing original theoretical arguments.

Required Readings

All texts will be provided for you on Canvas. It is expected that you will come to each course meeting having thoroughly read the assigned reading and that you are ready with comments and questions to contribute to our group discussions.

Description and Assessment of Assignments

Weekly Reading Reflections (10 x 25 pts. / 25%)

Each week you should write a short post (usually between 500 and 1,500 words) reflecting on the week’s readings (engaging at least two), putting the ideas presented in them in conversation with one another, exploring themes shared across them, critiquing the authors’ arguments, and/or connecting them to broader course themes. You should also end the reflection with questins you had from the readings that you want to discuss in seminar. You will post these reflections to Canvas by 6 p.m. on the evening before each class. It is expected that you read your colleagues’ posts, as well, and comment on them where you have productive disagreements or differences in interpretation.

In-Class Discussion (10 x 25 pts. / 25%)

This is a discussion-based course, and our structure for weekly discussions will follow what I call the Dinner Party Method. Each class session will have a discussion facilitator (the Dinner Host). The Dinner Host must prepare a series of broad questions that cut across the various readings of the week, identifying both through lines and points of conflict that will make for insightful conversation. Each other student will then play the role of a Dinner Guest, who is the author or subject of one of the week's readings. The Dinner Guests must ensure that their authors are represented in the group discussion. They should drawn on the relevant text(s) to contribute their author’s perspective to answering the host’s various questions, as well as to engaging with the other Dinner Guests' contributions to the discussion.

Final Paper (500 pts. / 50%)

By the end of the quarter, you will be expected to write a 5,000–7,500 word theoretical paper on a course topic of your choosing, which could eventually be submitted to a conference or journal. Along the way, you will be expected to provide written updates to me, as well as oral updates to the class, so that we can discuss your blossoming ideas and help them grow.

Course Schedule

Week 1: CommunicationSoWhite and Other Disciplinary Failings

Chakravartty, Paula, Rachel Kuo, Victoria Grubbs, and Charlton McIlwain. 2018. “#CommunicationSoWhite.” Journal of Communication 68 (2): 254–66. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy003.

Chakravartty, Paula, and Sarah J. Jackson. 2020. “The Disavowal of Race in Communication Theory.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 17 (2): 210–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2020.1771743.

Asante, Godfried A., and Jenna N. Hanchey. 2021. “African Communication Studies: A Provocation and Invitation.” The Review of Communication 21 (4): 271–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2021.2001844.

Mayer, Vicki, Andrea Press, Deb Verhoeven, and Jonathan Sterne. 2018. “How Do We Intervene in the Stubborn Persistence of Patriarchy in Communication Scholarship?” In Interventions: Communication Research and Practice, edited by Adrienne Shaw and D. Travers Scott. New York: Peter Lang.

Week 2: Publics, Publicness, and the Public Sphere(s)

Fraser, Nancy. 1990. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Text 25/26: 56–80. https://doi.org/10.2307/466240.

Berlant, Lauren, and Michael Warner. 1998. “Sex in Public.” Critical Inquiry 24 (2): 547–66. https://doi.org/10.1086/448884.

Everett, Anna. 2002. “The Revolution Will Be Digitized: Afrocentricity and the Digital Public Sphere.” Social Text 20 (2): 125–46. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-20-2_71-125.

Squires, Catherine R. 2002. “Rethinking the Black Public Sphere: An Alternative Vocabulary for Multiple Public Spheres.” Communication Theory 12 (4): 446–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00278.x.

Maragh-Lloyd, Raven. 2020. “Black Twitter as Semi-Enclave.” In Race and Media: Critical Approaches, edited by Lori Kido Lopez. New York: New York University Press.

Fraser, Nancy. 2007. “Transnationalizing the Public Sphere: On the Legitimacy and Efficacy of Public Opinion in a Post-Westphalian World.” Theory, Culture & Society 24 (4): 7–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407080090.

Das, Veena, and Renu Addlakha. 2001. “Disability and Domestic Citizenship: Voice, Gender, and the Making of the Subject.” Public Culture 13 (3): 511–32. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-13-3-511.

Dinner Guests:

Nancy Fraser, played by ______________________________

Lauren Berlant & Michael Warner (as one), played by ______________________________

Anna Everett, played by ______________________________

Catherine Squires, played by ______________________________

Raven Maragh-Lloyd, played by ______________________________

Veena Das & Renu Addlakha (as one), played by ______________________________

Week 3: Social Media

Steele, Catherine Knight. 2016. “The Digital Barbershop: Blogs and Online Oral Culture Within the African American Community.” Social Media + Society 2 (4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116683205.

Brock, Andre. 2012. “From the Blackhand Side: Twitter as a Cultural Conversation.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56 (4): 529–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2012.732147.

boyd, danah. 2012. “White Flight in Networked Publics?: How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.” In Race After the Internet, edited by Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White, 203–22. New York: Routledge.

Nakamura, Lisa. 2015. “The Unwanted Labour of Social Media: Women of Colour Call out Culture As Venture Community Management.” new formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics 86: 106–12.

Cho, Alexander. 2018. “Default Publicness: Queer Youth of Color, Social Media, and Being Outed by the Machine.” New Media & Society 20 (9): 3183–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817744784.

Trevisan, Filippo. 2020. “‘Do You Want to Be a Well-Informed Citizen, or Do You Want to Be Sane?’ Social Media, Disability, Mental Health, and Political Marginality.” Social Media + Society 6 (1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913909.

Bulut, Ergin. 2016. “Social Media and the Nation State: Of Revolution and Collaboration.” Media, Culture & Society 38 (4): 606–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716643013.

Dinner Guests:

Catherine Knight Steele, played by ______________________________

Andre Brock, played by ______________________________

danah boyd, played by ______________________________

Lisa Nakamura, played by ______________________________

Alexander Cho, played by ______________________________

Filippo Trevisan, played by ______________________________

Ergin Bulut, played by ______________________________

Week 4: Identity and/as Technology

de Lauretis, Teresa. 1987. “The Technology of Gender.” In Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film, and Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. 2009. “Race and/as Technology; or, How to Do Things to Race.” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies 24 (1): 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-2008-013.

Coleman, Beth. 2009. “Race as Technology.” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies 24 (1): 177–207. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-2008-018.

Benjamin, Ruha. 2019. Introduction to Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Medford, MA: Polity.

Aouragh, Miriyam, and Paula Chakravartty. 2016. “Infrastructures of Empire: Towards a Critical Geopolitics of Media and Information Studies.” Media, Culture & Society 38 (4): 559–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716643007.

Keeling, Kara. 2014. “Queer OS.” Cinema Journal 53 (2): 152–57. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2014.0004.

Haimson, Oliver L., Avery Dame-Griff, Elias Capello, and Zahari Richter. 2019. “Tumblr Was a Trans Technology: The Meaning, Importance, History, and Future of Trans Technologies.” Feminist Media Studies 21 (3): 345–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1678505.

Alper, Meryl. 2017. Introduction to Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Dinner Guests:

Teresa de Lauretis, played by ______________________________

Wendy Chun, played by ______________________________

Beth Coleman, played by ______________________________

Ruha Benjamin, played by ______________________________

Miriyam Aouragh & Paula Chakravartty (as one), played by ______________________________

Oliver Haimson, played by ______________________________

Meryl Alper, played by ______________________________

Week 5: Health Communication

Dutta, Mohan J. 2007. “Communicating About Culture and Health: Theorizing Culture-Centered and Cultural Sensitivity Approaches.” Communication Theory 17 (3): 304–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2007.00297.x.

Benjamin, Ruha. 2017. “Cultura Obscura: Race, Power, and ‘Culture Talk’ in the Health Sciences.” American Journal of Law & Medicine 43 (2–3): 225–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098858817723661.

Bailey, Moya. 2016. “Misogynoir in Medical Media: On Caster Semenya and R. Kelly.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 2 (2): 1–31. https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v2i2.28800.

Zoller, Heather M. 2005. “Health Activism: Communication Theory and Action for Social Change.” Communication Theory 15 (4): 341–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2005.tb00339.x.

Barcelos, Chris A. 2019. “‘Bye-Bye Boobies’: Normativity, Deservingness and Medicalisation in Transgender Medical Crowdfunding.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 21 (12): 1394–1408. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2019.1566971.

Goggin, Gerard, and Katie Ellis. 2021. “Disability and Communication in the COVID-19 Pandemic.” In Communicating COVID-19: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Monique Lewis, Eliza Govender, and Kate Holland. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dinner Guests:

Mohan Dutta, played by ______________________________

Ruha Benjamin, played by ______________________________

Moya Bailey, played by ______________________________

Heather Zoller, played by ______________________________

Chris Barcelos, played by ______________________________

Gerard Goggin & Katie Ellis (as one), played by ______________________________

Week 6: Globalization and Cultural Imperialism

Spivak, Gayatri. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Larry Grossberg, 271–313. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Parameswaran, Radhika. 1999. “Western Romance Fiction as English-Language Media in Postcolonial India.” Journal of Communication 49 (3): 84–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02806.x.

Morris, Nancy. 2002. “The Myth of Unadulterated Culture Meets the Threat of Imported Media.” Media, Culture & Society 24 (2): 278–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344370202400208.

Kraidy, Marwan M. 2002. “Hybridity in Cultural Globalization.” Communication Theory 12 (3): 316–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00272.x.

Neyazi, Taberez Ahmed. 2010. “Cultural Imperialism or Vernacular Modernity? Hindi Newspapers in a Globalizing India.” Media, Culture & Society 32 (6): 907–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443710379664.

Billard, Thomas J, and Sam Nesfield. 2021. “(Re)making ‘Transgender’ Identities in Global Media and Popular Culture.” In Trans Lives in a Globalizing World: Rights, Identities, and Politics, edited by J. Michael Ryan, 66–89. New York: Routledge.

McRuer, Robert. 2018. Introduction to Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance. New York: New York University Press.

Dinner Guests:

Gayatri Spivak, played by ______________________________

Radhika Parameswaran, played by ______________________________

Nancy Morris, played by ______________________________

Marwan Kraidy, played by ______________________________

Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, played by ______________________________

TJ Billard & Sam Nesfield (as one), played by ______________________________

Robert McRuer, played by ______________________________

Week 7: Media Representation

Campbell, Christopher P. 2017. “Representation: Stuart Hall and the ‘Politics of Signification.’” In The Routledge Companion to Media and Race. New York: Routledge.

Said, Edward W. 1981. Introduction to Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine how We See the Rest of the World. New York: Pantheon.

Brunsdon, Charlotte. 2005. “Feminism, Postfeminism, Martha, Martha, and Nigella.” Cinema Journal 44 (2): 110–16.

Christian, Aymar Jean. 2019. “Beyond Branding: The Value of Intersectionality on Streaming TV Channels.” Television & New Media 21 (5): 457–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419852241.

Christian, Aymar Jean, and Khadijah Costley White. 2020. “Organic Representation as Cultural Reparation.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 60 (1): 143–47. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2020.0068.

Billard, Thomas J, Traci B. Abbott, Oliver L. Haimson, Kelsey N. Whipple, Stephenson Brooks Whitestone, and Erique Zhang. 2020. “Rethinking (and Retheorizing) Transgender Media Representation: A Roundtable Discussion.” International Journal of Communication 14: 4494–507.

Billard, Thomas J, and Erique Zhang. “Toward a Transgender Critique of Media Representation.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 61 (2): 194–199. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2022.0005.

Ellcessor, Elizabeth, and Bill Kirkpatrick. 2019. “Studying Disability for a Better Cinema and Media Studies.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 58 (4): 139–44. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2019.0043.

Dinner Guests:

Stuart Hall, played by ______________________________

Edward Said, played by ______________________________

Charlotte Brunsdon, played by ______________________________

A.J. Christian, played by ______________________________

TJ Billard, played by ______________________________

Elizabeth Ellcessor & Bill Kirkpatrick (as one), played by ______________________________

Week 8: Activism

Brady, Miranda J. 2020. “Media Activism in the Red Power Movement.” In Race and Media: Critical Approaches, edited by Lori Kido Lopez. New York: New York University Press.

Doyle, Vincent. 2016. Introduction to Making Out in the Mainstream: GLAAD and the Politics of Respectability. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Lopez, Lori Kido. 2016. Introduction to Asian American Media Activism: Fighting for Cultural Citizenship. New York: New York University Press.

Richardson, Allissa V. 2019. “Dismantling Respectability: The Rise of New Womanist Communication Models in the Era of Black Lives Matter.” Journal of Communication 69 (2): 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz005.

Jackson, Sarah J., Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles. 2020. Introduction to #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bitman, Nomy. “‘Which Part of My Group Do I Represent?’: Disability Activism and Social Media Users with Concealable Communicative Disabilities.” Information, Communication & Society, in press. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1963463.

Dinner Guests:

Miranda Brady, played by ______________________________

Vincent Doyla, played by ______________________________

Lori Kido Lopez, played by ______________________________

Allissa Richardson, played by ______________________________

Sarah Jackson, Moya Bailey & Brooke Foucault Welles (as one), played by ______________________________

Nomy Bitman, played by ______________________________

Week 9: Journalism & Political Communication

Robinson, Cedric J. 1986. “The American Press and the Repairing of the Philippines.” Race & Class 28 (2): 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/030639688602800202.

Bishop, Ronald. 2000. “To Protect and Serve: The ‘Guard Dog’ Function of Journalism in Coverage of the Japanese-American Internment.” Journalism & Communication Monographs 2 (2): 64–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/152263790000200201.

Snow, Nancy, and Philip M. Taylor. 2006. “The Revival of the Propaganda State: US Propaganda at Home and Abroad since 9/11.” International Communication Gazette 68 (5–6): 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048506068718.

Alamo-Pastrana, Carlos, and William Hoynes. 2018. “Racialization of News: Constructing and Challenging Professional Journalism as ‘White Media.’” Humanity & Society 44 (1): 67–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160597618820071.

Chakravartty, Paula, and Srirupa Roy. 2013. “Media Pluralism Redux: Towards New Frameworks of Comparative Media Studies ‘Beyond the West.’” Political Communication 30 (3): 349–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2012.737429.

Billard, Thomas J. 2019. “‘Passing’ and the Politics of Deception: Transgender Bodies, Cisgender Aesthetics, and the Policing of Inconspicuous Marginal Identities.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Deceptive Communication, edited by Tony Docan-Morgan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Luce, Ann, Daniel Jackson, and Einar Thorsen. 2017. “Citizen Journalism at the Margins.” Journalism Practice 11 (2–3): 266–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2016.1222883.

Dinner Guests:

Cedric Robinson, played by ______________________________

Ronald Bishom, played by ______________________________

Nancy Snow & Philip Taylor (as one), played by ______________________________

Carlos Alamo-Pastrana & William Hoynes (as one), played by ______________________________

Paula Chakravartty & Srirupa Roy (as one), played by ______________________________

TJ Billard, played by ______________________________

Ann Luce, Daniel Jackson & Einar Thorsen (as one), played by ______________________________

Week 10: Misinformation/Disinformation

Kuo, Rachel, and Alice Marwick. 2021. “Critical Disinformation Studies: History, Power, and Politics.” Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/critical-disinformation-studies-history-power-and-politics/.

Mejia, Robert, Kay Beckermann, and Curtis Sullivan. 2018. “White Lies: A Racial History of the (Post)Truth.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 15 (2): 109–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2018.1456668.

Freelon, Deen, Michael Bossetta, Chris Wells, Josephine Lukito, Yiping Xia, and Kirsten Adams. 2020. “Black Trolls Matter: Racial and Ideological Asymmetries in Social Media Disinformation.” Social Science Computer Review, advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439320914853.

Mare, Admire, Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara, and Dumisani Moyo. 2019. “‘Fake News’ and Cyber-Propaganda in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recentering the Research Agenda.” African Journalism Studies 40 (4): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2020.1788295.

Epstein, Steven. 1996. Introduction to Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Dinner Guests:

Rachel Kuo & Alice Marwick (as one), played by ______________________________

Robert Mejia, Kay Beckermann & Curtis Sullivan (as one), played by ______________________________

Deen Freelon et al. (as one), played by ______________________________

Admire Mare, Hayes Mabweazara & Dumisani Moyo (as one), played by ______________________________

Steven Epstein, played by ______________________________