MSTU5606-MSTU5607
From Studyplace
Readings in communication theory and social thought
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Robbie McClintock and Frank Moretti, Instructors
MSTU5606-MSTU5607 Fall 2006 and Spring 2007Readings in Communication theory and social thought is a year-long course, sampling the work of key 20th-century social thinkers. Each week during the academic year, participants in Communication theory and social thought will read and discuss work by and about an important historical contributor to theories of communication and social life. Throughout, participants will consider how the conditions and constraints of human interaction affect culture, public discourse, and the historical quality of life. The aim is to acquire a full perception of the scope and depth with which thinkers have addressed the study of communication and education over the past century and a half. Cumulatively, through weekly class discussions and our preparations for them, participants in the course should acquire a broad grounding in theoretical work relevant to the study of communication and its social effects. A basic question drives our inquiry. How does education, understood as an historical component of all human experience, salient in the lives of every person and in the fate of every group, shape human interaction and condition the quality of life? This is one of the great pedagogical problems, prior to all professional educative efforts. To come to grips with it, we need to look, not at the norms and actualities of formal education, but at efforts to explain and interpret the ways in which humans give themselves determinate character and capacities in the course of their historical interactions. We will find one of the great resources for such an inquiry in the ideas about communication and social action developed by leading thinkers since the late 19th century. This seminar should initiate thorough, sustained study of such work. A basic schedule for the year is in the MSTU5606-MSTU5607 Navigator to the right. In the column marked "Class," the links for dates lead to pages indicating the readings for discussion as well as some supplementary resources. In the column marked "Wiki Work," the links identified by the names of the thinkers lead to Wiki pages about each, which participants will develop during the semester. All participants should contribute content for these pages for each author, but each participant will be responsible for serving as lead editor for the pages relating to two of the persons on our list, one each semester, following the editorial and style guidelines for Wikipedia. These pages should present a concise, authoritative overview of work by and about the person in question, assessing the value of it for the full understanding of education and communication. |
