Papers and Audio of Boise State University Graduate Students Featured by the Philosophy of Communication Division, International Communication Association

Panel Title: "Intellectual Borderlands: Philosophical Intersections of Communication Theory and Democratic Theory"

San Diego, California, May 25

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Panel Description: The relationship between communication theory and democratic theory occasionally emerges as a tenuous intersection in the history of the theory and philosophy of communication. Explicit efforts to articulate the connection between communication theory and democracy have been met by the eclipse of this connection, creating frequent occasions to divide the field through a critique of the history of the field. Sometimes, this has led to alternative movements within the academy to reinvigorate democratic principles, sometimes for theorizing per se, sometimes for the selection of research projects in light of democratic interests. 

Three papers explore these intersections. Reflecting the concerns in the philosophy of communication to articulate theory as a democratically driven practice, Maria Gutierrez explores the role of the past, present, and future in our theorizing through an analysis of hermeneutics, critical theory, and philosophical pragmatism. Reflecting the practice of philosophical skepticism, Joni Carlo asserts the importance of the obdurate subject against the questionable impulses of communication studies to stress connection rather than difference through a Nietzschean perspective on language and communication. Reflecting the modernist-postmodernist debate as a contest over what should count as "the political" in politically oriented communication theory, Ines Hoess invites discussion of the shared solidarity between modernists and postmodernists in the project to reveal and appropriate power, as democratic practice. Each paper works at the borders of contention in the interest of consolidating the critique and practice of communication as democratic theory and practice.

1. Introduction, Ed McLuskie, Boise State University

2. "Time at the Intersections of Democracy and Communication: Hermeneutics, Critical Theory, and Pragmatism," by Maria Hegbloom, MA Candidate, Boise State University

3. "Against the Pursuit of Common Meanings at the Borders of Intersubjectivity: Toward a Nietzschean Perspective on Communication and Democracy," by Joni Carlo, M.A., Adjunct Professor, Boise State University

4. "Artificial Intellectual Divisions at the Borderlands of Modernity: Critical Frameworks for Political Action from German Critical Theory and French Postmodernism," by Ines Hoess, M.A. (Boise State), Ph.D. Candidate, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC

5. Respondent Remarks, Robert T. Craig, President, International Communication Association 2003-2004 & Professor, Department of Communication, University of Colorado

6. Audience Discussion & Conclusion of Panel Session