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Huckabay Teaching Fellowship Proposal
Applicant: Giorgia Aiello
Mentor: Lisa Coutu

Project Description
Student Statement

Project Description

Description of instructional problem

Visuals are a crucial component of both traditional and innovative forms of mediated communication, from mass media such as television and film to digital and web-based communications such as human-computer interfaces, digital imaging, animations and installations.

The Department of Communication offers a number of undergraduate courses at all levels that include aspects of visual communication. COM 201 Introduction to Communication offers general insights on how visuality in media images shapes and is shaped by communication patterns between and within different social and cultural groups. New media courses such as COM 300 Basic Concepts of New Media, COM 301 Navigating the Information Networks and COM 466 Digital Journalism include significant aspects of visual communication as they relate to web design as well as the evaluation and production of digital images (e.g. photo essays, video narratives, graphics). In addition, 400 level courses such as Asian Media Systems, Asian American Cinema and International Media Images offer insights on how to analyze or use visuals in specific areas of communication research.

However, none of these courses are designed to deal solely or extensively with the theoretical and methodological implications of visuals in communication research. Conversely, the study of aesthetics and visual culture is emphasized in cinema studies departments, art schools and digital media arts and production programs. In addition, U.S. anthropology and sociology departments have long included in their curricula courses dealing with the use of visual methods in research that aims to gain a better understanding of the socio-cultural values that characterize and define given groups of people. With this in mind, we believe that it would be highly desirable, if not necessary, to offer a communication course dealing with visuality. Communication scholarship can draw useful theoretical and methodological resources from other disciplines – i.e. social sciences, humanities, art criticism, applied arts and design – to enrich its curriculum and provide a well-rounded approach to issues of visuality. In addition, communication scholarship adds a unique perspective to the study of visual images. This is because the study of visuals from a communication perspective can offer an in-depth criticism of visual images, as selectively produced ‘ways of seeing’ and active shapers of cultural values and beliefs.

The recent merger between the former School of Communications and Department of Speech Communication constitutes a fertile ground for visual communication scholarship and instruction. The new Department of Communication benefits from the research and teaching work of faculty in areas such as rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, media studies, and documentary and digital media production. In addition, new faculty with expertise in visual communication research was recently hired. The department has also been showing increasing interest in hosting guest lectures on current visual communication research. For example, last February the department hosted a lecture by Adam Jaworski, a scholar from the University of Cardiff whose research focuses on the multimodal analysis of television shows about visual art.

Project description

We propose to develop and teach a 300 level course titled “Theoretical and methodological approaches to visual communication”. This will be an overview of traditional and current approaches to the analysis of visuals and uses of visual methods in communication research.

The proposed course will teach a variety of theoretical frameworks and data collection methods. The first half of the course will focus on traditional and current theoretical and analytical approaches to the study of visual communication. Relevant aspects of narrative and content analysis, iconography, semiotics and rhetoric, and film theory will be covered in the first three weeks. Students will also be introduced to more recently developed frameworks, such as multimodal analysis, critical cultural theory, and digital and design aesthetics. The second part of the course will be devoted to ways of using visual images as data collection tools in communication research. Methods such as documentaries and visual essays, photo interviewing, photo and video elicitation, and artistic elicitation will be covered. Historical information about the use and development of visual methods in the social sciences and more specifically in communication research will be provided. In addition, students will be introduced to general issues relating to research design, data collection techniques and interpretation of collected data when employing visual methods. Ethical aspects, advantages and disadvantages of collecting research data with visual methods will be discussed.

Central topics of the course as a whole will be the relationship between verbal or sound texts and visual images (e.g., audio and moving images in film; words, music and visuals in advertising), the development of protocols for the interpretation of visual images, uses and misuses of visual methods in research, ideological and symbolic meanings of visuals, and cultural specificity in visual image production and interpretation. In addition to gaining an in-depth knowledge of the course topics, we hope that students will refine both their critical and research skills. Ultimately, we would like students to learn how to think critically and creatively about the innumerable visual messages to which they are exposed in their everyday lives. In addition, our goal is to create a course that will serve as a foundation for more specific and specialized courses dealing with visual communication, be it as an object of analysis or as a data collection method. For this reason, we believe that this course can be useful not only for communication students, but also for students from the arts, humanities and social sciences who wish to engage in research projects with a visual component.

Project Implementation and Assessment

The course will be offered in Winter or Spring 2005. The fellow and her mentors will develop the course during the quarters preceding the instruction of the course. The main mentor, Dr. Lisa Coutu, will provide substantial input and supervision in areas such as curriculum design, teaching techniques and use of technology in the classroom. An additional mentor, Prof. Crispin Thurlow, will provide insights on traditional and current visual communication theories. Additional input for the conceptual and pedagogical development of the course will come from CIDR consultants and various UW faculty representing different areas of expertise, such as cinema studies, digital media arts, visual anthropology and communication research methods. Input from faculty working at other institutions (e.g. the Evergreen State College, the Cornish College of the Arts) is also being actively sought. Catalyst web-based feedback tools, such as WebQ, will be used for ongoing instructional assessment. In addition, the fellow’s teaching will be observed by the main mentor on a regular basis.

Students will be encouraged to use class material critically and creatively. Their final grade will be a combination of their participation in class activities and completion of two graded projects. The first project will be an analysis of a visual artifact using at least one of the theoretical and analytical frameworks covered in class. Examples of artifacts that can be used for students’ projects are selected movie sequences, tv shows, advertisements and commercials, graffiti, websites, photo weblogs, news photographs, postcards and tourist images, signs and billboards, etc. The second project will be a mini-research employing one of the visual methods covered in class. Students will develop a research question and employ a visual method to collect data. They will then use at least one of the previously learned theoretical frameworks to interpret their data.

Each project will be 6-10 pages long and will be preceded by three ungraded weekly assignments (1-2 pages long) leading up to its successful completion. These weekly assignments will be used as material for class discussions seminar-style and will be posted on Catalyst’s peer review for further feedback from other students in the class. In addition, all ungraded assignments will count toward students’ participation in class activities. Criteria and guidelines for the completion of both the weekly assignments and the actual projects will be provided in advance. During the first part of the course (from week 2 to week 4), students will be asked to bring in a visual artifact on each week’s second meeting day. In addition, they will have prepared a brief outline describing how their chosen artifact can or should be analyzed according to one of the theoretical approaches covered earlier during the course. The first completed project will be due on the first class meeting of week 6. During the second part of the course (from week 7 to week 9), students will produce a weekly outline of each step of their research design (e.g. description of research question and motivation of chosen visual method, development of data collection instrument, description and motivation of chosen theoretical/analytical framework for the interpretation of collected data). The second project will be due on the second or third day of finals’ week.

Applicant statement

Giorgia Aiello
Doctoral student/Teaching Assistant, Communication

As a teaching assistant for the Department of Communication, I have had the opportunity to teach a variety of topics, including general theories of communication and new media, web design production and evaluation, digital journalism and oral history. I have experience in teaching both introductory level communication courses (COM 201 Introduction to Communication) and new media classes at the 300 and 400 level. On each of these occasions, I was able to incorporate my interest and expertise in visual communication into discussion sections, assignments, students’ projects and lecturing. I was a guest speaker in several courses on different aspects of visual communication, such as web design, digital photography as storytelling, photo elicitation methods and theoretical approaches to the study of visuals.

In addition, in the winter I was a TA for a 400 level course on issues of Asian diaspora. During this course, students developed oral history projects employing case study methods. I taught students and designed assignments about research methods, including visual data collection techniques. Several students successfully used visual methods in their final projects, such as photo elicitation. This quarter, I am teaching a stand-alone course as an instructor of record in the evening degree program. This course, COM 300 Basic Concepts of New Media, will include relevant insights on visual communication. For example, an entire week of the course will be devoted to issues of visuality and aesthetics in new media.

As a doctoral student, my main research interest lies in issues of visual representation and identity formation. I am currently working on a research project dealing with the construction of a collective and unitary identity within the European Union through (audio)visual heritage. I have a strong background in film criticism, semiotics and theories of visual communication. I received my Master’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of Bologna (Italy), where I was taught by known scholars in semiotics and visual theories, such as Umberto Eco. My thesis was a critical comparative study of the work of two Japanese film directors (Kurosawa and Ozu) using theories of visual perception in combination with narrative film analysis.

In the last few years, I have also been actively involved in research projects that emphasized visual technologies and methods. For example, I was one of the founding team members of the DscMediaLab, the first Italian university online channel entirely run by students and devoted to the creative integration of digital and streaming media. In addition, I am currently working on a photo-documentary project on old-fashioned barber shops in Italy and the United States. Thanks to these hands-on experiences, I have been able to gain a practical knowledge of visual communication.

I am particularly interested in developing a course about visual communication for two main reasons. Firstly, this is the field of inquiry in which I intend to conduct both my academic research and teaching activity. I am passionate about this topic, because I believe that visual images have a tremendous impact on how people shape and reinforce their cultural beliefs. For this reason, this would be a great opportunity to improve my skills in relaying knowledge, creating an effective course curriculum, and helping students to develop and refine their critical thinking skills about visual communication. Secondly, I am strongly considering looking for jobs at institutions with an emphasis on teaching. Being a Huckabay fellow would make me a strong candidate for positions requiring solid teaching experience and skills.

I look forward to working with scholars and consultants across disciplines that are specialized both in teaching and conducting research on issues related to visual communication. As a fellow, I will perform a variety of tasks. I will be responsible for teaching the proposed course as the only instructor. My main mentor, Lisa Coutu, will assist me in designing the course syllabus, developing teaching and assessment strategies, and using technology in the classroom. Another mentor, Crispin Thurlow, will give me conceptual and theoretical insights for the development of my curriculum. However, I will be responsible for preparing and teaching lectures, leading class discussions, writing and grading assignments, managing teaching and technological resources, and mentoring the undergraduate students taking the course. In addition, I will meet with my mentors regularly to receive input and feedback about the course.

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