Colloquium: Dilemmas of Academic Discourse (Advances in Discourse Processes)

Rating:
Summary: A unique contribution to studies of intellectual discussion
Review: Karen Tracy, Ph.D. and professor of communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has done an extensive analysis of academic colloquia at two U.S. universities. The study uses discourse analytic methods to illustrate dilemmas of academic talk that arise between participants: senior faculty, junior faculty, and graduate students. As a graduate student myself, I found that Tracy's interview data and detailed analysis of talk at colloquia very much match my own difficulties in contributing to intellectual discussion: do I contribute now? How should I phrase my question to a senior faculty member? Is it appropriate for me to challenge someone's work since I'm of novice status in this community? Tracy's analysis brings these dilemmas to light and not only describes them in detail, but shows how intellectual discussion might be restructured to manage the conversational dilemmas. It will be an important book in discourse analysis, communication, sociology, psychology, and education, and scholars and students in these communities are likely to find it helpful, not only for the content, but for the way Tracy makes it look so easy to do discourse research