Disciplining Communication Study at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 1973–2007

Abstract

This article combines a theoretical exploration of the concept of disciplinization with a practical report on the departmental history of the Communication program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The discussion of disciplinization is supported by theories of disciplinarity taken from Michel Foucault and Max Weber among others and the departmental history is formed from archival research and in-depth interviews with faculty. The result is a model for writing departmental history that contextualizes the concept of disciplinization within an historical account of the decisions made during the course of a program's development.

Keywords:

• Disciplinization
• Disciplinarity
• Departmental History
• Communication Education
• History of Communication Research

Notes

[1] The data collection begins with the 1973 academic year because I found no records of faculty makeup before that time. It is worth mentioning here that the program officially started in 1967.

[2] Though I will refer to events that took place prior to 1991, I will use the generic descriptor “Communication” to refer to the department, regardless of the proper iteration at the particular point in time.

[3] Originally, the Theater track was the only one of the three that required its students to complete 60 credit hours—the Communication/s and Mass Media tracks required only 58 hours. Beginning with the 1982–1983 academic year, however, the Communication track added credits, bringing its total to 60 as well. This credit total change accompanied a thorough retooling of the credit cluster requirements for the Communication track.

[4] The methods course, “Operationalizing Communication Research,” no longer advertises itself as providing parts of the thesis. Personal experience of the author reveals, however, that the spirit of this idea is still very much in practice in the department to this day.