Communicating Multi-Modally: Research & Expressive Culture


An International Communication Association Pre-conference, American University of Paris, Thursday 26 May 2022, 8am–4pm.

What difference will it make if we think in images and sound, not just in words?”

Communication research has long been presented in books and journal articles despite the discipline’s interest in the multiple forms in which communication practice takes shape. While scholars examine visual imagery, sound, and performance, for example, our discipline has only begun to push the boundaries of knowledge production in new, more expressive directions that better capture communication’s multimodal condition. This pre-conference brings together established and emerging scholars around the world who embrace expressive culture as foundation in communication research. We see multimodal scholarship as having particular value for engaging with intellectual energies that are not formally organized within institutionalized academia. It holds promise for a more locally and globally inclusive communication field. Our goal is to explore the power and limitations of multimodal scholarship, and to sustain conversations about institutional support, policy, and guidance for multimodal research, teaching, and publishing.

PRESENTERS’ GALLERY

View our presenters’ multimodal projects >>>

PROGRAM

8:00am – 8:10am

Welcoming Remarks
Lisa Henderson (Dean, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University, Canada)

8:10am – 9:25am

Opening Plenary

Theater of the Everyday

Chair: John L. Jackson, Jr. (Dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA)

Sibusisiwe Gugu Manqele (multidisciplinary artist, South Africa)
“Questions” > GALLERY

E. Patrick Johnson (Dean, School of Communication, Northwestern University, USA) — “From Field to Stage to Screen: Multimodal Methodologies in the Making of Sweet Tea” > GALLERY

Mohan Dutta (Dean’s Chair in Communication, School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University, New Zealand) — “Decolonizing Method as Social Justice: Imagining Modalities as Resistance” > GALLERY

9:30am – 10:45am

Concurrent Session 1

Re-Learning: Making Pedagogy Public

Chair: Cherian George (Associate Dean, School of Communication and Film, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong)

Mary Elizabeth Luka (Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Canada), Annette Markham (Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia), Andrea Merkx (Professor, Pratt Institute, USA) & Laine Rettmer (Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design, USA) — “’On Method’: Building a Community of Practice for Multimodal Scholarly Performance” > GALLERY

Allison Trope (Clinical Professor, University of Southern California, USA) & DJ Johnson (Associate Professor of Practice, University of Southern California, USA) — “Your Turn! Exploring Multimodal Pedagogy Through Critical Media Project” > GALLERY

Azsaneé Truss (Ph.D. Student, University of Pennsylvania, USA) — “Race and Conspi(racism)” > GALLERY
Social Selfhood

Chair: John L. Jackson, Jr. (Dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA)

Brendan McCauley (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA) — “Scramble and Scrounge” > GALLERY

Rory Bledsoe (Ph.D. Student, University of Colorado Boulder, USA) — “Consensual Voyeurism and Dis-Embodied Data-Interrogating Surveillance Through Multimodal Research” > GALLERY

Max Gonen (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA) — “Pandemic Loser, Future Winner: A 2020 Report on Consumer (Un)Wellness” > GALLERY

10:45am – 11:00am

Coffee Break

11:00am – 12:15pm

Concurrent Session 2

World-Making and Common Cause

Chair: Lisa Henderson (Dean, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University, Canada) 

Meshell Sturgis
(Ph.D. Candidate, University of Washington, USA) & Darius Presley (visual artist, USA) — “B(l)ack Talk” > GALLERY

Gino Canella
(Assistant Professor, Emerson College, USA) — “Documenting Labor and Democratizing Research” > GALLERY

Chaz Antoine Barracks
(Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, USA) — “Everyday Black Matter: Refusal, Joy and Resistance Through Critical Media Practice” > GALLERY

Vappu Susi
(Ph.D. Student, Tampere University, Finland) — “Listening to the ‘Noise’ in Biking and Communicating in Traffic” > GALLERY
Art, Tech, Performance

Chair: Juan Escobar-Lamanna (Ph.D. Student, Western University, Canada)

Roopa Vasudevan
(Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, USA) — “Refusing Co-optation, Acting on Futurity: New Media Art, Social Practice and Creative Resistance” > GALLERY

Darija Medic
(Ph.D. Student, University of Colorado Boulder, USA) — “The Terms of Service Fantasy Reader” > GALLERY

Michelle Hurtubise
(Ph.D. Candidate, Temple University, USA), Jessica Ramirez (multidisciplinary artist, USA) & Julie Keck (filmmaker, USA) — “Indigenous Stories as Medicine, 4th World Filmmakers ‘Doing the Damn Thing’” > GALLERY

12:15pm – 1:15pm

Lunch

1:15pm – 2:30pm

Concurrent Session 3

Migration and Media 

Chair: Cherian George (Associate Dean, School of Communication and Film, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong)

Meghanne Barker
(Lecturer, Institute of Education, University College London, UK) — “Multimodal Narratives of COVID Among Migrant Communities in London” > GALLERY

Atul Anand
(Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia University, India) — “Visible People” > GALLERY

Charu Uppal
(Lecturer, Swansea University, UK) — “Connecting Communities, Maintaining Identities: Popular Media and Classical Culture” > GALLERY
The Practice and Politics of Memory

Chair: Sandra Ristovska (Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, USA) 

Antoine Heywood
(Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, USA) — “What’s Your Favorite Color?” > GALLERY

Roxanne Varzi (Professor, University of California Irvine, USA) — “Splinters of a Careless Alphabet” > GALLERY

Gordon Coonfield
(Associate Professor, Villanova University, USA) — “Kensington Remembers: Multimodal Fieldwork and the Study of Urban Vernacular Memory” > GALLERY

2:30pm – 2:45 pm

Coffee Break

2:45pm – 4:00pm

Closing Plenary

Another World is Here

Chair: Sandra Ristovska (Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, USA) 

Josh Kun
(Professor, University of Southern California, USA) — “Togethering” > GALLERY

Sharon Sliwinski (Professor, Western University, Canada), Erin MacIndoe Sproule (multimedia artist, Canada) & Andrew Braun (musician and producer, Canada) — “The Guardians of Sleep as Multimodal Research” > GALLERY

Aymar Jean Christian
(Associate Professor, Northwestern University, USA)    — “The Story Behind Hair Story:  Reparative Practice in Media Production” > GALLERY

IMAGE CREDITS: Eric Sucar/University of Pennsylvania; Sandra Ristovska & Nathalie Schulten; Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; Cherian George; Xinzhi Zhang.