Purdue University

Graduate Student, Communication

PhD Candidate

College of Liberal Arts

About

Most broadly, my research seeks to problematize overly linear and mechanistic conceptions of human communication. Theoretically and methodologically speaking, I utilize rhetoric and social theory, organizational communication, and media ecology. This triangulation of interpretive research fields allows me to deal more responsibly with an existing tension that resides in each domain, the symbolic-material dialectic. That is, my primary research goal is to better understand and articulate the relationship between the constitutive aspects of communication and technology, and the material sites and organizational practices that they mutually arise through and help maintain.

Relevant Publications & Projects:

Dowd, J. (2010). Escapism and Entertainment: Communicative Technology and the Therapeutic. Explorations in Media Ecology: The Journal of the Media Ecology Association,(9)2, pp. 119-133.

In this article I explored how technology is presented as therapy—as the personal corrective for problems more appropriately conceived of as social. I argued that the alleged therapeutic value of technology manifests itself in three variant, yet consistently prevalent forms of escapism. First, is the escape from clutter and complexity through increasing integration and ease of use. Second, I identified how various technologies are offered as an escape from the confining strictures of modern day work-life, including the family, the din of the community, and the strict confines of the office. Finally, I tracked how technological entertainment is often sold as an escape from everything. That is, how entertainment is offered via media as an individual means of escape, and how these can contribute to a degradation of communal ties and interaction.

Dowd, J. (2010). Toward an ethics of education. Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 17(2), 68-79.

Here, I tracked two predominant strands of discourse within higher education. The first is an instrumentalist discourse that conceives of education primarily as a means to increase one’s social and economic capital. The second conceives of education as a form of autopoiesis, and centers on education’s role in the cultivation of capacities for life-long growth. Ultimately, I argued that within discourses of higher education, the instrumentalist perspective drives much of the push for distance learning and other educational technologies within the classroom. While technology is a powerful aid for learning, unreflective adoption can erode many other aspects of education that are equally important to our political and social well-being.

Current Research:

My dissertation explores the organizational underpinnings and history of the modern university, and the relationship between institutionalization and concepts of teaching and learning. 

Toward this end, I draw from three main fields of study. First, to address more recent calls for studies on the university from an organizational communication lens, I draw upon literature regarding both the constitutive and material nature of communication and technology, and apply it to a study of the dynamic interactions between digital media and concepts of teaching and learning. Second, through the tracking of media as environments, media ecology offers an understanding of the complex relationships between communication, technology, the body, and organizational practices. Finally, rhetoric and social theory serves to examine the presuppositions and subsequent discourse often surrounding the incorporation of digital technology in the college classroom. Given the ever-increasing attention that technology in the classroom is receiving, I hope to contribute to an ongoing understanding of the organizing capacities and ethical implications of new media.