Home Research Curriculum Vitae For Students Misc Elizabeth Dickinson PhD Student and Instructor, Communication & Journalism Dept, University of New Mexico
“Just as the body is formed initially in the mother’s womb, a person’s consciousness awakens wrapped in another’s consciousness.” (Bakhtin, 1986) We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. In our world the "original" is the proliferation of the standardized. Copies are copies of copies. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive. www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php	RESEARCH INTERESTS In Communication Studies, my research interests generally combine communication and culture and environmental communication. From interpretive and critical perspectives, I study cultures, nature, discourses, consumption, power, and social change. I am specifically interested in human conceptualizations, perceptions, consumption, and discourses of nature and the environment, including problematic discourse and conflict. Some questions that drive my research are: - How do humans construct knowledge and meaning about nature? - How are perceptions of nature framed and influenced by cultural identities and positionalities? - How and why do humans “consume” nature? - How do power, systems, histories, and institutionalism influence environmental issues? Most importantly, how can these power structures be challenged? - In situations of conflict, how and why do power and cultural positionality enable marginalization? - How does media influence and mediate how we feel and talk about nature? - How do humans (re)form concepts of space and place as they relate to cultures and nature? PUBLICATIONS Dickinson, E. (2008). [Review of Trying Leviathan: The Nineteenth-Century New York Case That Put the Whale on Trial and Challenged the Order of Nature]. Green Theory and Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy, 4(1), 118-121. § Paper: PDF (published version) In Trying Leviathan Graham Burnett uses a fascinating case study to historically and critically examine the order of nature. In 1818 a New York merchant, Samuel Judd, refused to pay a “fish oils” fee that was issued by an inspector, James Maurice, on several casks of whale oil. Judd argued that because whales are not fish their oil should not be subjected to the fee and the highly publicized trial of Maurice v. Judd ensued. Although the case initially questioned if a whale was a fish, more pressing issues of natural science and politics surfaced. Are whales fish (as popular consensus held) or something else entirely? What is the ordering of nature? What is the place of humans in this order? And, what are the cultural, political, and economic implications of such taxonomies? REVISE AND RESUBMIT & UNDER REVIEW Dickinson, E. A. (revise and resubmit). Nature and the Simulacrum: (Re)construction, Commodification, and Contestation of Sacred Space in “The Petroglyphs.” First revision submitted September 2008. § Paper: (September 9, 2008 version PDF; April 2008 version: PDF, original version: 2007) § Revised manuscript under revision in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies § Paper accepted to the Environmental Communication Division of the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, San Diego, CA, November 2008. Awarded the Top Four Papers in Environmental Communication Division The “Petroglyph National Monument” was established in 1990 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and developers are using the monument’s name in nearby housing tracts. This essay analyzes texts surrounding “The Petroglyphs” to examine how various groups depict the area. Governments and developers are (re)creating the areas into “sacred spaces” through rhetorics of stewardship and by reaching back to colonial histories. Guided by Baudrillard’s simulacrum, this essay argues that groups are using the land and rocks to mold sacred colonial and consumer spaces. A conclusion section ends with possible consequences of this process, namely that these communication practices hinder alternative realities and relationships. Dickinson, E. A. (revise and resubmit). The Montana Meth Project: Using a Persuasive Anti-Drug Media Campaign to Understand Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad. § Paper: (September 15, 2008 version: PDF; April 2008 version: PDF) § Manuscript being revised for Communication Teacher. First revision submitted September 2008. Burke’s dramatistic pentad is a key tool used in persuasion classes. Through the primary form of narrative a person’s motives can be analyzed by examining the language they use in each of the five elements. This activity provides the unique example of “shock ads” used in the Montana Meth Campaign to enable a more critical understanding of the pentad. WORKING PAPERS Dickinson, E. A. (in process). A Light Bulb Moment? Constructing Environmentalism Through Catastrophe, Ego, Entertainment, and Consumption in Oprah Winfrey’s “Global Warming 101.” § Paper delivered to the Environmental Communication Division of the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL. § Manuscript to be submitted August 2008 to Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture. Using theoretical foci from environmental communication and popular culture, this rhetorical critique analyzes how environmental issues are actively constructed in Global Warming 101, a recent episode on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television talk show. The segment demonstrates how an influential and powerful mass media rhetor and artifact act to negatively frame and influence conceptions and representations of environmental issues. Specifically, this analysis will entertain the following question: What rhetorical strategies does Winfrey employ to construct and frame global warming and environmental issues to fit her overarching worldview of ego and entertainment? Through specific discursive and non-discursive messages, Winfrey aids in the construction of global warming and environmentalism as embraceable only through four constructs: as a catastrophe, in relation to Winfrey’s ego, as entertainment, and through consumption. After providing an overview of the nexus of environmental communication and popular culture, this paper will detail how catastrophe, ego, entertainment, and consumption are constructed in the episode. From these four elements, two central paradoxes emerge: (a) consumption is advocated as the solution to consumption; and (b) Winfrey presents a “light bulb’ moment that attempts to offer clarity to the global warming issue, but only further convolutes the matter. This analysis ends with critical ethical and social implications of Winfrey’s strategies. Dickinson, E. A. (in process). Critical Race Theory and Whiteness through Space and Territoriality: A Narrative of “The Petroglyphs Master Global Village.” § Paper submitted to the Critical and Cultural Studies Division of the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, San Diego, CA, November 2008. § Manuscript to be submitted to an academic journal. This paper uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine how space and race continue to be co-opted and commodified by a colonizing and white supremacist culture through governmental and commercial co-option and racialization. I incorporate CRT scholarly dialogue with a fictional narrative to produce critical questions and critique that point to the “The Albuquerque Petroglyphs” as a likely case of whiteness as territoriality. This paper explores the intersections of whiteness and space to show how white supremacy is legally and discursively constructed in the “The Albuquerque Petroglyphs.” As a theoretical and methodological approach, CRT exposes how hegemonic political and commercial forces operate to exploit and commodify natural space to meet the needs of stakeholders, who advocate whiteness through the guise of progress. After situating this paper in CRT and white territoriality, I use “The Petroglyphs” as a case study of an environmentally situated injustice that has disproportionately affected and silenced marginalized groups through white supremacy. A discussion of the use of narratives in CRT and a fictional story of “The Petroglyphs Master Global Village” illustrate the implications of whiteness and territoriality. Moreover, I analyze my problematized place in white territoriality and point to the implications of this research. I posit that we can better address nature and race-based disparities by understanding how inequalities materialize through color blind ideology and discourse. Ultimately, I call for the evaluation of new methods for empowering groups to manage their own space and for communication scholars to ecologically further critical race theory to attend to these issues. Dickinson, E. A. (in process). “Birkenstock-Wearing, Tofu-Eating Sierra Club Member:” Effects of the Environmentalist Label and Ethnicity on Credibility, Trust, and Appropriateness. § Manuscript to be submitted November 2008. Relatively little empirical research in the Communication discipline and in other areas examines how U.S. Americans perceive and consider environmental labels. Specifically not known are how markers such as “environmentalist” and “radical environmentalist” are recognized among U.S. Americans and how ethnic identity influences perceptions of this label. The central purpose of this study is to examine how the “environmentalist” label affects communicative-based constructs of trust, credibility, and communicative appropriateness and how ethnic identity influences this process. Dickinson, E. A. (in process). New Directions in Action Based Environmental Theorizing: Emerging Perspectives on the Natural World, Communication, and Social Change. § Accepted to the Communication Theory Interest Group of the Western States Communication Association (WSCA) annual meeting, February 1998, Denver/Boulder, CO. § Received the best student paper award in the Communication Theory Interest Group. This paper focuses on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of nature as they relate to communication and discourse. It is argued here that environmental communication (EC) is especially suited to embrace the communication discipline’s unique ability to inspire both the philosophical and the practical and to use the researcher as an agent for social change. Among the many core interdisciplinary origins of environmental theorizing is how communication scholars have found their way into EC through a rhetoric-inspired paradigm. After key components of the EC are overviewed and its strengths and limitations are critically assessed, this analysis calls for new directions in EC action based theorizing. Four current research trends are juxtaposed with suggested future directions. First, can EC become more “multiple” versus “mono” in its methodology so that it can better enter into the applied? Next, nature is currently studied in a “cultural containment” model, while a more realistic and rich “cultural contextuality” perspective is needed. Third, nature is often studied from a “singular” Euro-centric perspective while it needs more “sundry” non-Western and global standpoints. Last, nature discourse is frequently analyzed in terms of its “profitability and expediency” while it needs to be re-theorized in a “protection and ethical” framework. Re-theorizing can help EC scholars launch research that merges the philosophical with the practical and creates necessary change. Since the subfield is newly emerging, and due to the urgency of environmental issues, now is the time to call for new theorizing. Dickinson, E. A. (with Leonardi, M) (in process). Feminism for stupid girls: A feminist rhetorical critique of a popular song by the artist Pink. § Paper delivered to the Feminist and Women’s Studies Division of the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL. This analysis uses feminist rhetorical criticism as a tool to examine the popular song “Stupid Girls” by the artist “Pink.” The song’s lyrics and the music video’s images are analyzed to show two themes of gender construction: the negative and demeaning construction of females, and the positive and powerful construction of males. Femininity is shown as unintelligent, shallow, and weak while masculinity is infrequently discussed except when depicted as powerful and acting. This essay explores both themes to address: (a) cultural and media messages as both supporters and challengers of patriarchal oppression; (b) how the rhetor simultaneously criticizes and enables female oppression: (c) how females are depicted as having limited choice and agency; and (d) the focus on individual female responsibility for not being a stupid girl. Last, this essay addresses the implications for the possible emergence of a new wave of feminism – identified here as “feminism for stupid girls.” Dickinson, E. A. (with Sekimoto, S.) (in process). Performing gender through delinquency: A critical analysis of female juvenile delinquency in “On the Outs.” § Paper delivered to the Feminist and Women’s Studies Division of the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL. Through a critical reading of the docudrama On the Outs, this paper analyzes how a narrative film accurately depicts and negotiates juvenile delinquency and detention among young women. Situated in the theoretical framework and methodological orientation of critical cultural studies, this analysis views delinquency and detention from the site of conflict as a contested identity space. Three female characters in On the Outs try to perform their gender through deviant behaviors, a delinquency that is defined by dominant patriarchal structures. By examining their race, gender, and class positioning as sites of struggle and conflict, we explore how they construe, internalize, and negotiate their positionality in relation to dominant ideologies and hierarchies. We argue that while female gender is often a target of partial criminalization, victimization, and penalty in the juvenile justice system, female delinquency is also an enactment of gender and an embodiment of the dominant ideologies young females internalize. We first provide an overview of issues in female delinquency and the juvenile justice system, followed by conceptualizations of key terms used in this study. After examining our theoretical and methodological assumptions, as well as a brief description of the film and a justification for using it, we end with an analysis and discussion of how young females perform gender through delinquency. PROJECTS Communication, Narratives, and Change Project (in process) – Working on a project with Dr. Karen Foss and two graduate students to research narratives, communication, and change. Using alternative and catching texts, we are exploring how narratives operate and are used in non-violent change in problematic issues/areas of U.S. American culture, specifically race, gender, terrorism, and nature. Females in Workplace Bullying Project (in process) - Working on a joint project with Dr. Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik to investigate why targeted females are more likely than males to report women as the bully. In the beginning stages where we are analyzing data. Conservation Voters New Mexico Project (in process) – Working on a participatory action research project with Dr. Tema Milstein and other graduate students to research environmental attitudes and voting trends of rural New Mexicans. In the beginning stages where we are planning a pilot study.
Website developed by Elizabeth Dickinson Send e-mail to: edickins@unm.edu