Traditions of communication sciences

The doctoral programme of the Faculty of Communication Sciences has recently been modified, and now includes four mandatory courses. The ‘Traditions of Communication Sciences’ course is part of this core structure.

The Faculty of Communication Sciences is a diverse one. This diversity is best exemplified in the various Institutes that constitute the Faculty:

• Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS)
• Institute of Communication and Health (ICH)
• Institute of Marketing and Communication Management (IMCA)
• Institute for Media and Journalism (IMeG)
• Institute for Public Communication (ICP)
• Institute for Communication Technologies (ITC)

All Institutes are approaching communications sciences from a different vantage point: ontologically, theoretically and methodologically. The main objective of this course is to ensure that in the course of your PhD you do get acquainted, even if briefly, to these other ways of defining and understanding communication sciences.

Course Format
This course is structured in two distinct streams: lectures and seminars.
The first stream (lectures) is a series of presentations from professors representing the different Institutes. In six 90 minute lectures (one per Institute), they will present the theoretical specificities of their Institutes. Institutes being themselves rooted in diversity, a selection of approaches will made for each of them.

The second stream (seminars) is a series of meetings in which you, the students, will be asked to present and discuss two of the approaches from two different institutes, presented in the first stream lectures. These will need to be selected from two different institutes and cannot be from the Institute you are working from or one you are working with. Note that each professor will provide a list of compulsory readings composed of 4 “classics” and a list of elective reading composed of 5 theoretical contributions at the forefront of research. The other students will act as discussants. A member of the professorial corps will act as moderator for these particular sessions.

Schedule
Lectures for the first stream will all be held on Tuesday afternoons, starting at 13h30. The class will be longer or shorter, depending on the number of Institutes presenting that day.
The exact dates for the second stream seminars will be announced based on the topics to be addressed by students.
Here is the schedule for the first stream:

February 24th 13h30: Dean’s introduction; IMCA (Prof. Mengis) 15h30: ICP I (Prof. Villeneuve) March 24th 13h30: ICP II (Prof. Suggs) 14h15: IMeG I (Prof. Balbi) 15h30: IMeG II (Prof. Russ-Mohl) April 28th: 13h30: ITC (Prof. Cantoni) 15h30: IALS (Prof. Rocci) May 12th 13h30: IHC (Prof. Schulz) 15h30: Seminar I