Rogue Scholars Roundtable I:
Out of the Tower and Into the Streets
Purpose: "Rogue Scholars I" is the first in a
series of panels and other forums designed to bring scholarship out of the
insular academic community and into the larger community in which academic
research is embedded. In other words, our goal with this panel (and other
endeavors) is to make scholarship accessible to those whom we study. The
panel is bracketed by Glen Williams who sets the stage for the panel by
outlining what is meant by Rogue Scholarship and Stacy Holman Jones who
provides a defense of Rogue Scholarship in a postmodern form. The other
presenters/roundtable discussants will address research areas such as critical
theory, micro communication, organizational communication, popular culture,
and rhetoric.
Panel Participants
Glen Williams
Texas A&M University
"Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks:
Taking Scholarship to the Streets"
Richard J. Webb
U. of Texas, Austin
"Born to be Mild: The Changing Significance
of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle"
Ted M. Coopman*
San José State University
"Pirates to Micro Broadcasters:
The Rise of the Micro Radio Movement"
Stephanie Zimmermann
Ohio University
"Communicating with Others:
Students with Disabilities Voice Their Perspectives"
Shawn J. Spano
San José State University
"Creating 'Real" Spaces for Public Discourse:
The Cupertino Community Project"
Stacy Holman Jones
U. of Texas, Austin
"In Defense of Rogue Scholarship:
Performing the 'Scholar' in Qualitative Work"
Tarla J. Peterson
Texas A&M University
Moderator
Panel to be presented in the Communication Theory and Research Interest
Group for the Western States Communication Association Convention, Monterey,
February, 1997.Panel Proposal
Format: This panel is meant to be a public discussion of scholarly research.
Each presenter will write a 10-page paper on her/his research that study
participants and the general public can understand. These papers will be
available on a Web page one month before WSCA for all presenters and potential
audience members to read. Thus, the format for the panel will be BRIEF (no
more than 5 minutes) presentations by each panel member, followed by MUCH
discussion among panelists and audience members. The moderator will serve
to facilitate this discussion.
Abstracts
"Old Dogs Can Learn New
Tricks:
Taking Scholarship to the Streets"
The first presenter, Glen Williams, provides an overview and sets the context
for subsequent papers and discussion. Williams first addresses "why"
scholars in the communication discipline might want to pursue rogue means
and methods of "publication" as well as what cautions scholars
might observe. He next examines various rogue efforts to date and the outcomes
they've produced--both positive and negative. He then provides plain-spoken
reflection upon his own experiences as a rogue.
"Born to be Mild: The Changing
Significance of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle"
Written in a style reminiscent of the "biker lifestyle" press,
Richard Webb examines the arguments by which distinct subculture members
validate their own and invalidate competing interpretations of the Harley-Davidson
motorcycle as a symbolic resource. Webb collected qualitative data during
extended interviews and participant-observation which contribute to a grounded
theory of subcultural conflict. He explains the shift away from the profanity
formerly associated with the meaning of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle toward
its current significance as a romantic and broadly popular status symbol.
"Pirates to Micro Broadcasters:
The Rise of the Micro Radio Movement"
Recent developments in inexpensive communication technologies have led to
a new type of communication consumer/producer--nonprofessionals with social
and political agendas. In this paper, Ted Coopman examines micro radio as
an example of this trend. The use of micro radio by community activists
has given segments of the U.S. population typically ignored by mainstream
media an opportunity for creating their own narrative. Using the San Francisco
Bay Area as a case study, Coopman demonstrates the potential of new technology
such as micro radio to radically change the ways in which we define and
control public discourse.
"Communicating with Others:
Students with Disabilities Voice Their Perspectives"
Handicapped, physically challenged, slow learner, deaf, blind--individuals
with disabilities generally have their experiences defined for them by those
who are nondisabled. In this paper, Stephanie Zimmermann reports on a survey
in which students with disabilities assessed their experiences communicating
with others on campus. Students answered both open and closed-ended questions
which addressed issues such as communicating with faculty and students,
perceptions of discrimination, and their own communication skills. Other
questions were concerned with the Department of Disabled Student Services
and communication problems the students experienced on campus. Zimmermann
provides a summary of the findings in non-technical language which administrators
as well as students would find useful.
"Creating 'Real" Spaces
for Public Discourse:
The Cupertino Community Project"
The study of human communication and its associated practices have tremendous
potential for benefiting the communities in which we live. In this paper,
Shawn Spano describes one group's efforts to improve the quality of public
discourse among citizens and city officials in Cupertino, CA. The group,
known as the Public Dialogue Consortium (PDC), developed the Cupertino Community
Project in order to create public opportunities for discussing socially-significant
issues. Using communication techniques derived from social constructionist
theory, the PDC conducted a series of focus group interviews and teased
out "cultural diversity" as a sensitive and undiscussible issue.
In the second stage of the project, the group will be exploring ways of
working with community members to create positive solutions for dealing
with the diversity issue. This second stage will consist of face-to-face
interviews leading to a series of public deliberations in the fall.
"In Defense of Rogue Scholarship:
Performing the 'Scholar' in Qualitative Work"
This piece is a play in defense of rogue scholarship in qualitative organizational
research. Staged as a master's thesis defense, Stacy Holman Jones is called
upon as a scholar, author, and student--by her thesis committee and the
characters Reliability and Validity--to justify her choices in conducting
an ethnographic study of women's music performances at a nonprofit folk
music club. She is also asked to explain her feminist, postmodern perspective,
as well as the knowledge claims that can be made about the impressionist,
surrealist tale that grew out of her fieldwork. Jones' performance/play
is a dialogue among perspectives on qualitative research and theory and
explores the role of theory in the work, as well as crises of representation
and legitimation in feminist, postmodern organizational scholarship. As
rogue scholarship, this piece is the postmodern performance it describes.