Problem: UVM has a strong body of faculty involved in studying the many facets of media, culture, and society, but they are currently scattered across multiple departments and colleges. UVM’s strengths in this area are thus invisible both internally and externally, and sharing of resources, developing shared research agendas, fund raising, and teaching in the area are hampered. The study of media and culture, in sum, falls through the cracks of the departmental structure.

Objectives: Our goal is to create an interdisciplinary Center that will raise awareness of UVM’s strengths in this crucial area internally and externally and foster sophisticated cross-disciplinary discussion and exploration of media, culture, and society at UVM, in the State of Vermont, and beyond.

Approach: UVM is not in a position to create a new department or stand-alone research institute from the ground up. Yet it is uniquely well-suited for a research Center that would allow for highly interdisciplinary approaches tied together by humanistic concerns. Typical departments and institutes in these areas are tightly focused on narrow questions and tied to very specific disciplinary and professional agendas. Because UVM is in part a state research university and in part a small liberal arts college, it is an ideal place to foster research and discussion that on the one hand, deals with contemporary issues of political and economic urgency, but on the other, puts these issues in larger context. The Center will be a place that illuminates the forest, not just the trees.

Benefits to UVM: The Center will enliven UVM’s intellectual environment, enhancing undergraduate, graduate, and faculty experience. It will uniquely blend cutting-edge, high quality critical scholarship with contemporary issues of great concern to the worlds of government and business; it will help put UVM on the map in this area, and thus enhance the University’s prestige and its ability to draw high quality students.

Benefits to those outside UVM: The Center will sponsor research, speakers, and panel discussions on matters ranging from literacy to internet policy -- matters of great contemporary concern to the worlds of business and government -- in a neutral, reflective context free of pressures typical of the "outside world." In addition, UVM graduates will be more aware of media and culture, especially in terms of the "big picture," i.e., in terms of broad ethical, social, and political implications.

Resource requirements: Most of the resources will come from simply channeling and coordinating things that are already going on within existing departments: providing encouragement to ongoing faculty research in the area through informal interaction and formal colloquia and panel discussions, pooling departmental funds for invited speakers, and sharing information with students and each other about the content and character of our existing courses in the area.

Ideally, effective development of a Center would involve a two-course reduction for a director, a .5 FTE (half-time) secretary, an office with a modest operating budget, and a speaker’s budget: roughly $25,000/yr. Our expectation is that a Center will make it easier to get outside grants, so the most urgent financial need is support for a start-up period of two to five years.

Culture, media, and interpretation have become increasingly central to the intellectual life of the twentieth century, and seem likely to continue to be so as we enter the 21st; this is evident in everything from semiotics to information theory, from the "linguistic turns" in sociology and anthropology to the rising interest in cinema, television, and other popular media in literary studies. At the same time, media and culture are becoming ever more central to processes of globalization and social change.

UVM has a strong body of faculty involved in studying the many facets of media, culture, and society, but they are currently scatterred across multiple departments and colleges. The UVM Center for the Study of Media, Culture, and Society (CSMCS) will draw on these existing talents to foster sophisticated cross-disciplinary discussion and exploration in this area at UVM, in the State of Vermont, and beyond. This will be a research organization not a teaching one -- in the language of UVM’s Officer’s Handbook, a "Center" not a "Program." It will help to bring together scholars with existing projects, encourage the development of new ones, and increase UVM’s visibility in this area. Participation will be voluntary; it will have no power to dictate research or teaching agendas, but will facilitate discussion and inquiry among interested members of the UVM community.

The Center will provide a place for the study of the mass media (e.g., cinema, photography, print journalism, television, the internet) and non-technological forms of culture (e.g., ritual, language, music) in relation to societies around the globe and to such other cultural products as literature, art, and philosophy. It will attempt to unite aspects of culture that are normally separated by university departmental structures (such as fine art, literature, history, and sociology). The Center will also encourage the serious study of cultural forms (e.g., video, journalism) that are infrequently treated within the liberal arts curriculum.

Topics will be varied, including everything from discussions of the social history of cinema to fora on interpretive theories to explorations of gender difference and media content to policy debates about regulation of the internet. Approaches will range from the humanistic to the sociological to the artistic. In contrast with many media and communication programs, departments, and institutes around the country, the Center will not be associated with any particular discipline, research method, or professional agenda. It will be frankly interdisciplinary and integrative, exploring the connections between different modes of inquiry, and seeking to look at issues from broad ethical, political, and social perspectives.

"Culture" and "media" are broad terms. We do not want to limit possibilities by prematurely and narrowly defining terms, but we can explain what most of us in the working group have in mind as we start out. What we mean by "culture" is the entire body of meaningful objects, institutions, and texts in which a given society's values are expressed. In our view, culture is what mediates between individuals and their society. This mediation takes a multitude of forms: everyday verbal and non-verbal interaction, books, paintings, buildings, films, social and educational institutions, and other cultural products, are all in this sense "media." Our focus, then, could be described as the forms, institutions, and social and cultural significance of modes and processes of signification.

We tend to believe, furthermore, that media and culture are best understood in historical and global context. Media and culture are historically and institutionally constituted; their historical context is central to making them what they are. Human societies construct themselves in part through culture; differences in culture account for much of human difference. Understanding the structures of media and culture in their historical and institutional context, then, is central to understanding the complexities of globalization.

Matters of media, culture, and society are of great pragmatic interest in contemporary society, in areas ranging from the regulation of new technologies to debates over language policy to the frequent calls for improved communication skills. The Working Group members are not inclined to see the intellectual world as divided between souless technocrats and disdainful aesthetes. Following the principle that one achieves the best and avoids the worst of both the practical and the reflective by integrating them, by treating them as a whole, the Center will be reflective, critical, scholarly, and engaged.

The Center thus will not undertake narrow, technical work; it will not, for example, consult for corporations on topics that have no larger scholarly relevance. It will, however, foster research, debate, and discussion that will improve understanding of practical problems both inside and outside UVM by, for example, sponsoring colloquia and research on media regulation or by studying the cultural and social impact of computer communication.

Yes. Quality communication requires an understanding of the forms, institutions, history and social and cultural significance of communication media. By facilitating research, scholarly discussion, public fora, and general awareness, a Center will improve interdisciplinary understanding among both students and faculty on campus and in the state of traditional (e.g., writing) and newer (e.g., video, computers) forms of media. It will also better coordinate existing courses and opportunities at the University (e.g., internships in media fields).

No. Quality communication happens only when you have something to communicate about. John Dewey, for example, thought communication was central to human existence, but he also insisted that one learns by doing, not by studying narrow aspects of life in isolation. UVM’s approach to the teaching of communication (especially writing, but also including video and computer communication) has been to make it integral to UVM’s curriculum overall, as evidenced by the many small classes, the TAP program, and the support for Writing Across the Curriculum. The Center’s research focus is thus consistent with and will support and encourage the development of this context- and content-centered approach to learning communication skills.

In sum, a UVM Center for the Study of Media, Society, & Culture will enhance the teaching of communication skills by supporting UVM’s traditional context- and content-centered teaching approach, not by creating courses or programs centered on skills alone.

The majority of the resources will come from simply channeling and coordinating things that are already going on within existing departments: providing encouragement to ongoing faculty research in the area through informal interaction and formal colloquia and panel discussions, pooling departmental funds for invited speakers, and sharing information with students and each other about the content and character of our existing courses in the area. Furthermore, our hope is that a Center will make it easier to get outside grants.

Activity levels would vary depending on levels of funding, obviously. Zero funding would not result in zero activity; we are doing some things now, without any formal structure at all. But the more resources the more we can do. While the specifics would have to be worked out by the eventual governance structure of the Center (most likely a Director, Committee, and the Provost), the priorities probably would be, in descending order of importance: 1) a speaker’s budget; 2) a course release for the Director; 3) administrative expenses; and 4) funds for supporting research, e.g., research-dedicated video equipment.

Ideally, effective development of a Center would involve a two-course reduction for a director, a .5 FTE (half-time) secretary, an office with a modest operating budget, and a speaker’s budget -- in the neighborhood of $25,000/yr. Our expectation is that a Center will make it easier to get outside grants, so the most urgent financial need is support for a start-up period of two to five years. During that time, the primary activities of the Center will be 1) to establish a tradition of high quality scholarly activities in the area and 2) work to make the Center self-sustaining, or nearly so, over the long term. Hence, efforts will be undertaken both to obtain grants for the Center itself and to fund specific scholarly activities (e.g. research and conferences) a percentage of which could go to sustaining the Center.

Past: In 1996 some Working Group members packed Dewey Lounge with a panel discussion titled "The End of the Book?" The panel featured a lively debate on technology and the fate of books involving several UVM scholars, librarians, and computer experts. Sponsored by the Humanities Center, the panel was one in several discussing technology and the University that year. In addition, several UVM scholars (e.g., Youngblood, Streeter, Welch) have been doing research in the history and social character of communication technology.

Future: Technology only grows as an issue of importance to the University and the rest of the world. The Center will continue to organize panel discussions and research in the area. Discussions are under way, for example, about organizing a series of events (invited speakers, panel discussions) with Women Studies on gender and technology for the Fall of 1999.

Past: In the past, Tom Streeter organized two workshops on new approaches to communication policy, one at Harvard Law School, the other at Washington College of Law. The purpose in both cases was to bring law and policy experts and activists together with scholars to discuss rethinking the broad foundations of communications policy. The workshops were a success, but had to be off campus because of the lack of a local "draw" or institutional framework at UVM to support these activities. (Many of the lawyers involved in the second workshop, for example, were eager to get the ear of Vermont’s Senator Patrick Leahy -- who has a long-standing interest in these matters -- but so far UVM lacks a context for organizing such events on an ongoing basis.)

Future: In the future the Center will be able to develop an ongoing series of similar policy workshops that could very well be of interest to local Vermont lawmakers (e.g., Leahy) as well as many others in the State and elsewhere. Cultural policy issues (e.g., language laws) and communication policy issues (e.g., internet regulation) are in the broad view deeply related. The Center will serve as an effective host for similar activities (workshops, panel discussions, research, visiting speakers) on local, national, and global issues that approach these matters from an interdisciplinary, broad perspective.

Past: Currently UVM has a broad variety of courses available in this area, but they are offered in a wide variety of departments with little or no coordination. The Working Group has already initiated informal discussions between faculty (e.g., Joe Won in English and Tom Streeter in Sociology) about better coordinating their respective courses, sharing information about internships, and the like. But departmental barriers make such efforts occasional and haphazard.

Future: The Center will encourage sharing of syllabi, and coordination of efforts so that course offerings complement, but do not duplicate, each other. In addition, relevant courses will be described and advertised through a pamphlet and/or web site, making students more aware of courses and their interrelations. Over time, the Center’s efforts may make needs apparent that will lead to new course offerings from existing departments.

Past: Though many UVM students conduct internships in the fields of media and communication, these are at present even more haphazard and uncoordinated than course offerings. While working group members and other faculty try to communicate about internship possibilities with each other and with students, no structure exists to facilitate the sharing of information.

Future: The Center will systematically coordinate existing contacts in the community and cultivate new ones, and publish a list of possible internships with guidelines for students and potential sponsors.

Past: Currently several different programs use different media technologies in an uncoordinated fashion. The video program in art operates with little or no connection to Continuing Education’s efforts in distance learning, for example, and efforts in using computers for the production and analysis of visual media are taking place all over campus with little or no mutual awareness.

Future: The Center, by publicizing efforts and programs and sponsoring public discussions about educational technology use, will foster effective use, coordination, maintenance, and development of technologies across programs. It will also foster discussion of both theoretical and practical issues concerning technology and pedagogy.

Questions of literacy, both technological and conventional, raise intertwined theoretical and practical issues concerning the character and social impact of various forms of literacy. The Center will encourage exploration of these intertwined issues; for example, this year we hope to sponsor a panel discussion on the topic: What is Academic Literacy?