grad schools
Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:38:54 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Colleagues-- What follows is our local grad program in Communication
which may be of interest to some of your students. I encourage others
around xmca to post similar notices.
mike
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Dear Colleagues;
It is that time of year when students are considering where to go
for a graduate education. This year, instead of answering questions
about our program on an ad hoc basis, we have prepared the following
information sheet. We think we are part of an exciting graduate
program, and welcome applications from promising students. We would
also be pleased to correspond with potential students.
Phil Agre (pagre who-is-at ucsd.edu)
Michael Cole (mcole who-is-at ucsd.edu)
Yrjo Engestrom (yengestr who-is-at ucsd.edu)
Carol Padden (cpadden who-is-at ucsd.edu)
Olga Vasquez (ovasquez who-is-at ucsd.edu)
-------------
Graduate Study of Communication and Mind
at the
Department of Communication,
University of California, San Diego
In recent decades Communication has become a field of vigorous
interdisciplinary study, weaving together perspectives from the social
sciences, humanities, and arts. Intellectual developments in a number
of areas have provided a new platform for the study of communication.
Communication at the University of California, San Diego has grown
out of an inter-disciplinary undergraduate program jointly sponsored by
the departments of drama, political science, psychology, sociology and
visual arts. It became an autonomous department in 1982 and instituted a
Ph.D. program in 1986.
At UCSD, the study of communication focuses on mediating human
experience -- how human beings, individually or institutionally, make
sense of the world or act in the face of meanings others seek to impose
on them.
The graduate program blends two traditions: critical communication
research and empirical scholarship. Graduate study is organized around
the following three analytic perspectives:
(1) Communication and Mind
How are individuals constituted in language and culture? How do minds
develop and how are persons formed in interaction through various media?
We are associated with this part of the curriculum. Our backgrounds
are in anthropology, cognitive science, education, linguistics, and
psychology.
This is our part of the curriculum. We draw particularly on the fields
of psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and education. Our
research includes the following:
* The study of work settings as sites of collective cognition
and problem solving
* The development of reading and writing in deaf children
* Critical studies of computer technology
* Design and implementation of new forms of educational activity
mediated by computers and telecommunication networks
* Bilingual and bi-cultural development.
(2) Communication as a Social Force
What is the history, politics, sociology, and economics of communication
institutions (telecommunications, the mass media, and information
systems)? What is the role of communication institutions in the
organization of society? This part of the curriculum draws from
the social sciences and is particularly strong in the study of
telecommunications, policy, and regulation.
(3) Communication and Culture
How can human cultural artifacts -- from news stories to TV dramas
to popular music to rumors -- be understood? What approaches to
interpreting symbols and text contribute to our understanding of humans
as symbol producers? This part of the curriculum draws particularly on
the humanities, history, folklore, and the sociology of culture.
In addition to the three analytic perspectives, the program
places emphasis on the practice of production. Specifically, students
are required to gain experience in a communication medium other than
academic writing -- for example: editing a newsletter, organizing a
conference by e-mail, or producing a video. The production component
is designed for students to explore and test theory in practical
implementation.
Members of our group are also associated with the Interdisciplinary
Program in Cognitive Science. Several of our students are pursuing
graduate programs that yield a joint Ph.D.
Students who come to work with one of us can expect to spend the
first year of graduate work getting a good overall grasp of the emerging
discipline of Communication. The second year is spent in a combination
of methodological and substantive seminars that begin to focus in the
student's areas of special interest and expertise. This is also a
time when the student can expect to become directly involved in ongoing
research projects.
The following brief summaries characterize our current research
interests.
* Philip E. Agre
My work concerns the interrelationships of language and
technology. Most recently I have been writing about the ways
in which language is used to suture computers into society,
with particular emphasis on privacy issues and the metaphors of
artificial intelligence. But I am also interested in the role of
communication in technological social movements, and particularly
in public relations.
Recent publications:
"Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy," The Information
Society, Vol. 10 (1994)
"Conceptions of the User in Computer System Design," The Social and
Interactional Dimensions of Human-Computer Interfaces, P. Thomas,
ed. (Cambridge, 1995).
* Michael Cole
My work at present focuses on the role of culture in the
development of mind. In recent years I have been growing local
cultural systems in order to study the dynamics of their growth
and the development of children within them. Theoretically I am
focused on mediational theories of mind.
Recent Publications:
"A Conception of Culture for a Communication Theory of Mind,"
Intrapersonal Communication: Different Voices, Different Minds,
D. Vocate, ed. (Erlbaum, 1994).
"A meso-genetic approach to the study of culture in mind.
In L. Martin, K. Nelson, & E. Tobach (Eds.). Sociocultural
Psychology: Theory and Knowing. Practice of Doing and
Knowing. (Cambridge, 1994).
* Yrjo Engestrom
My work is focused on analysis of learning, cognitive change
and innovation in organizations and workplaces going through
technological and other transformations. Currently I am
studying how expertise is redefined when organizations introduce
self-directed teams. My work is based on cultural-historical
activity theory.
Recent Publications:
"Learning, Working and Imagining: Twelve Studies in Activity Theory
(Orienta-Konsultit, 1990)
Training for Change: New Approach to Learning and Teaching in
Working Life (International Labour Office, 1994).
* Carol Padden
I am interested broadly in the development of children's ability
to manipulate systems, from natural language, signed and spoken
to print and drawn representations. I also study contexts of
development: in classrooms, communities and homes, and how
different language systems are configured across these contexts.
Recent Publications:
Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (Harvard, 1988);
"Lessons To Be Learned from Young Deaf Orthographers,"
Linguistics and Education, Vol. 5 (1993);
* Olga Vasquez
My work grows out of an interest in language, literacy, and culture
in community learning settings. I examine ways in which knowledge
and skills are distributed in culturally variable learning domains.
I study ways in which institutions facilitate access to resources
and support for under-represented groups.
Recent Publications:
Pushing Boundaries: Language and Culture in a Mexicano Community
(Cambridge, 1994)
"A Look at Language as a Resource: Lessons from La Clase Magica,"
Bilingual Education: Politics, Practice, and Research, Arias and
Casanova, eds. (National Society for the Study of Education, 1993).
If you know of students who might be interested in working with us, we
would be delighted to hear from them. We are easily reached by email,
but if a student does not have email access, they should write to any
one of us at:
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093-0503
USA
http://communication.ucsd.edu/
October 4, 1995