A proposal by Visiting Professor of Rhetoric and Communication John Adams has been accepted for inclusion in Vassar's Summer Institute in Media Studies, which will take place from May 24 to July 16. Adams' project is titled "Video Cellphones, War Metaphors and Micro-Documentaries: Exploring the Rhetorical Constraints of Time and Place." He will participate in the Vassar Summer Institute with Hamilton student Joshua Huling '05 and Instructional Technology Specialist Janet Simons. The theme for the 2004 institute is Media and Conflict.
The entire team will attend two three-day sessions at Vassar, one at the beginning of the Institute and one at the end. Students ("media studies summer scholars") remain at Vassar for the entire institute to work on their projects, receive training from Summer Institute staff in multimedia production and design, and participate in a weekly Media Studies seminar on the culture and politics of new media.
Adams' group's project seeks to explore the technology-based constraints of time and place as they relate to the production, distribution, and reception of persuasive multimedia messages created and webcast with video-enabled cellphones. They propose to produce what they call "micro-documentaries" in accord with the Institute's interest in projects addressing concepts of conflict. Within the contraints afforded by cellphone video and communication technology, the micro-documentaries will attempt to effectively communicate arguments for and against war and query the consequences of metaphorically conceptualizing argument as war.
Faculty members from the Mid-Atlantic and New England (MANE) colleges were invited to submit proposals for projects for the 2004 Vassar Media Studies Summer Institute. Teams comprised of faculty members and/or technologist or librarian and a student from the team's home campus will take part in a variety of activities, including faculty-student research and production projects, weekly seminar sessions, and student training in digital media production and design.
The 2004 Summer Institute provides a unique opportunity to bring together distinct constituencies from various college campuses to explore collaboratively how a nuanced and complex understanding of New Media, broadly defined, is best integrated into a liberal arts curriculum.
