Two Summer LLC Graduates publish their first papers as PhDs

Er, I. (2020). "The Voiceless in The Voice: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis." Text & Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies (De Gruyter Mouton). Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2020-2071

This article highlights the importance of multimodality in the study of discourse with a discussion of a segment from the Turkish adaptation of the global television format, The Voice. In the segment under discussion, a contestant is disqualified from the show by the host for her allegedly disrespectful style of speech towards the coaches. Departing from traditional (sociolinguistic) critical discourse analysis, the article seeks to unveil the deep power discourse hidden in the multimodal landscape of the show by extending the scope of discourse analysis to include both linguistic and non-linguistic modes of communication and representation such as the camerawork, and mise-en-scene. The findings shed light on the inherently asymmetrical nature of the show and how the contestant’s highly non-standard language and manners are demonized (multimodally) while the coaches and the host find a relatively less judgmental environment as the “authority” in the show.

Dashiell, S. (2020). "'I'm All I Wanna Be' — Video Self Presentation in the Age of COVID-19." Geek Anthropologist 15 July, retrieved from https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2020/07/15/im-all-i-wanna-be-video-self-presentation-in-the-age-of-covid/

This article examines how people curate their backgrounds for videoconferencing, and how COVID-19 has made visible a sense of a digital presentation of self. The piece uses Erving Goffman's framework of dramaturgy to engage the degree to which people control their front stage, or presented self, at home, space commonly regarded as a refuge for the back stage, or more personal self. The piece speculates "the degree to which one chooses to manage or control the image, though, speaks to the efficacy of the authentic window created for the world to see. And when front stage and back stage collide, the interaction may be more telling than what an individual might present in person."