2012 Summer Doctoral Seminar at Wayne State University
May 30 - June 2, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan 
with distinguished guest scholar Dr. John Gastil

BRINGING DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY INTO ELECTORAL POLITICS

Participant Link to Seminar Course Site: http://snipurl.com/docsem2012

Talking about elections increasingly means exchanging anecdotes, recalling potent slogans, comparing outsized personalities, and dissecting carefully crafted campaign strategies. In contrast, weighing arguments, scrutinizing facts, and judging value conflicts occurs less frequently in the public sphere. This seminar focuses on revitalizing deliberative discourse in the American electoral process to generate more substantive adversarial clash and, on occasion, encourage a sense of common purpose. We will examine how candidates campaign and voters vote in local, state, and federal elections, and we will evaluate reforms - real and theoretical - that could make for a more constructive and democratic electoral process in the United States.

John Gastil (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor and Head in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. He published Democracy in Small Groups (New Society Publishers) in 1993 and has since continued to explore democracy and deliberation at different levels of analysis in By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections (University of California, 2000), The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement in the Twenty-First Century (co-edited with Peter Levine, Jossey-Bass, 2005), and Political Communication and Deliberation (Sage, 2008). He also returned to the study of group behavior in The Group in Society (Sage, 2009) and co-authored The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation (Oxford, 2010). The National Science Foundation has supported numerous large-scale research programs in which Gastil has served as a principal investigator. He has also managed campaigns for public office in California and New Mexico.

Seminar Information

All Ph.D. students interested in being exposed to leading communication research and theory are encouraged to apply. Most expenses for accepted candidates will be paid by the Department of Communication at Wayne State University. Covered expenses for domestic students include airfare, lodging and meals, and course materials. An opening reception and other social events will give participants an opportunity to get to know each other and exchange ideas. A small group of doctoral students will be selected to join this unique program.  

Application Procedure

To apply, you will need to complete an online application form, and submit an essay and vitae by email. The essay should be approximately 500 words that provides information about your area of Ph.D. study as well as a brief description of your research interests, describing how the seminar is relevant to your program of study and/or how the seminar will advance your dissertation project. The vitae should be current. When the essay and vitae are ready, you can proceed to thewsudocsem@gmail.com with your essay and vitae attached.

Application Deadline: March 15, 2012

For more information you may contact the Summer Seminar Committee chair:

Dr. Pradeep Sopory
psopory@wayne.edu

Associate Professor
Department of Communication
585 Manoogian Hall
Detroit, MI 48201

Phone: 313.577.2943
Fax: 313.577.6300

A flyer promoting the summer seminar is available as a pdf.

Some highlights from previous doctoral seminars can be reviewed here.