Contributes to scholarship advancing the understanding of human communication by exploring the concept of controversy within a theoretical framework which does not presume the existence of a public sphere. Suggests an alternative perspective based on the intersection of moments of opportunity and specific sites of discourse. Applies this…

Expands the symbolic resources of the African Burial Ground through a dialogical reading of an essay in the same issue of this journal which offers a rhetorical examination of the controversy surrounding the African Burial Ground. Argues that, post-critique, controversies may be recuperated to recover an expanded sense of coalitional engagement,…

Responds to two articles in the same issue of this journal regarding a controversy over the African Burial Ground in New York City. Raises a third set of questions, arguing that investigations of rhetorics of controversy can also include investigations of the rhetorics of incommensurability, investigating the development of logics and…

Examines how relations of power are privileged or marginalized by ethnographers. Discusses how ethnography is judged by and subsumed within the ideological practices of academia. (SR)

Contributes to scholarship advancing the understanding of communication regarding texts containing both hegemonic and emancipatory messages. Finds elements in "The Indian in the Cupboard" that promote emancipatory readings: maturation, overt challenges to hegemonic codes, and proffering of implicit alternatives to those codes. Discusses…

Argues for a change in research priorities and a focus on power relationships in the definition of problems. Presents a case study analyzing a failed attempt by a dean of a school of engineering to enlist communication consultants to improve teaching in a department of Computer Engineering. (SR)