Jay E. Baldwin
Jay E. Baldwin
Associate Professor of Communication
School of Arts and Sciences
"The past and the present are within the field of my inquiry, but what a man may do in the future is a hard question to answer."
- Sherlock Holmes
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:
Born and raised in southern California, Professor Baldwin has called ABAC home since 2015. Prior to his arrival, he completed a doctorate in cultural studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he taught communication courses in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences. Earlier, while earning a master's degree in communication at Gonzaga University in eastern Washington, he served as Director of the Northern Idaho Consortium for Higher Education, a collaborative project of public universities and colleges in the state. He completed his undergraduate studies in mass communication at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, putting himself through school by working as the station manager and 'morning guy' of a local FM rock radio station. All of the above followed a successful 12-year career in real estate development, appraisal, and sales marketing management. Interestingly, Professor Baldwin began his working life in 1986 as a police officer.
He now lives in Tifton with his wife, Kim, and their dog, Adler, whose name is taken from "A Scandal in Bohemia," a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wherein Irene Adler (a woman!) outwits Sherlock Holmes.
EDUCATION:
University of Arkansas:
Ph.D. Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (2015)
Gonzaga University:
M.A. Communication & Leadership Studies (2007)
Fort Lewis College:
B.A. Mass Communication (2004)
- Sherlock Holmes
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:
Born and raised in southern California, Professor Baldwin has called ABAC home since 2015. Prior to his arrival, he completed a doctorate in cultural studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he taught communication courses in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences. Earlier, while earning a master's degree in communication at Gonzaga University in eastern Washington, he served as Director of the Northern Idaho Consortium for Higher Education, a collaborative project of public universities and colleges in the state. He completed his undergraduate studies in mass communication at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, putting himself through school by working as the station manager and 'morning guy' of a local FM rock radio station. All of the above followed a successful 12-year career in real estate development, appraisal, and sales marketing management. Interestingly, Professor Baldwin began his working life in 1986 as a police officer.
He now lives in Tifton with his wife, Kim, and their dog, Adler, whose name is taken from "A Scandal in Bohemia," a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wherein Irene Adler (a woman!) outwits Sherlock Holmes.
EDUCATION:
University of Arkansas:
Ph.D. Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (2015)
Gonzaga University:
M.A. Communication & Leadership Studies (2007)
Fort Lewis College:
B.A. Mass Communication (2004)
"There's nothing more practical than a good theory," - Kurt Lewin
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY:
The late Neil Postman once observed that the most important job of any teacher is to develop in students a finely-tuned “crap-detector.” He said that in 1969 while speaking at a national conference of English teachers. Believing that this is as true today as it was in 1969, it serves as the touchstone of Professor Baldwin's approach to the classroom.
"We live in a mediated environment, a media ecology," says Dr. Baldwin. "Consequently, we are routinely bombarded by 'information,' persuasive messages, uninformed opinion, and unsupported 'facts,' designed to serve the speaker’s agenda, which usually involves influencing the audience's behavior. Cutting through all that clutter -- what Postman called, 'bullshit' -- is among the more important skills any student could develop. It is both necessary self-defense against damaging ignorance and crucial to making the world a better place."
Professor Baldwin's students learn not only how to craft ethical and effective messages, but learn to become competent critics of messages. As a teacher, he is less concerned (although not unconcerned) with transmitting static knowledge, and more concerned with developing the thinking skills of evaluation and interpretation, analysis and synthesis, and empathy and rationality necessary to productive discourse.
COURSES:
COMM 1100/1100H: Human Communication (Honors)
COMM 1110: Public Speaking
COMM 2300: Communication Theory & Research
COMM 3100: Professional Communication Methods
COMM 3850: Introduction to Public Relations
COMM 4000: Issues of Mass Media & Society
COMM 4890: Special Topics: Cops on TV
ENGL 3325: Literature and Film
JRNL 1101: Introduction to Mass Media
WRCM 4980: Senior Capstone Project
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY:
The late Neil Postman once observed that the most important job of any teacher is to develop in students a finely-tuned “crap-detector.” He said that in 1969 while speaking at a national conference of English teachers. Believing that this is as true today as it was in 1969, it serves as the touchstone of Professor Baldwin's approach to the classroom.
"We live in a mediated environment, a media ecology," says Dr. Baldwin. "Consequently, we are routinely bombarded by 'information,' persuasive messages, uninformed opinion, and unsupported 'facts,' designed to serve the speaker’s agenda, which usually involves influencing the audience's behavior. Cutting through all that clutter -- what Postman called, 'bullshit' -- is among the more important skills any student could develop. It is both necessary self-defense against damaging ignorance and crucial to making the world a better place."
Professor Baldwin's students learn not only how to craft ethical and effective messages, but learn to become competent critics of messages. As a teacher, he is less concerned (although not unconcerned) with transmitting static knowledge, and more concerned with developing the thinking skills of evaluation and interpretation, analysis and synthesis, and empathy and rationality necessary to productive discourse.
COURSES:
COMM 1100/1100H: Human Communication (Honors)
COMM 1110: Public Speaking
COMM 2300: Communication Theory & Research
COMM 3100: Professional Communication Methods
COMM 3850: Introduction to Public Relations
COMM 4000: Issues of Mass Media & Society
COMM 4890: Special Topics: Cops on TV
ENGL 3325: Literature and Film
JRNL 1101: Introduction to Mass Media
WRCM 4980: Senior Capstone Project
"We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination, but we always have some material basis on which to start our speculation." - Sherlock Holmes
"The natural sciences are easy. It's the social sciences and Humanities that are hard. That's why the natural sciences get so much right and the social sciences get so much wrong." - Jay Baldwin
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Evolutionary (Darwinian) approaches to human communication and cultures; mass media and constructed realities; cultural evolution, social ontology, and media ecology.
Professor Baldwin agrees with others who argue that traditional communication studies would benefit from acknowledging the role of evolution by natural selection in social and cultural life (i.e., the role played by our biocultural human nature in our representations and interpretations of material and socially constructed realities). Given such a perspective, communication is conceived as a driving force of both our biological and cultural evolution, reciprocally.
CURRENT PROJECTS:
The Evolutionary Dimensions of the Police Procedural: This work focuses on the police procedural sub-genre of crime fiction, seeking to understand its role in producing, maintaining, and transforming the broader social order, and other questions related to human behavior. I.e., Do cop shows matter to society? If so, how so?
Re-thinking with James Carey; Toward a Consilient Cultural Studies: James Carey was an American scholar of media. He is largely credited with founding an "American cultural studies" distinct from the British (Marxist) school more often associated with the field. In this project Dr. Baldwin seeks to establish what he calls, "Consilient Cultural Studies," based on a re-interpretation of Carey's earlier work in light of evolutionary theory.
PUBLICATIONS:
Re-Motivating Monroe, Click-Whirr: Social Suasion and the Motivated Sequence. The Handbook of Communication Training. D. Becker & J. D. Wallace (Eds.), Routledge. (2018).
Human Nature and Cop Art: A Biocultural History of the Police Procedural. Proquest. (2015)
King Feature Syndicate, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014.
United Feature Syndicate, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014
Gasoline Alley, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014.
The Hobbes of the Baskervilles: Sherlock Holmes on States of Nature. Baker Street Journal, v 64, no. 2, Summer 2014.
CONFERENCE PAPERS & PANELS
"Cop Art: The Evolutionary Origins of the Police Procedural Narrative Form." Cultural Evolution Society. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. 2018.
“Impact on Research by Academia’s Reluctance to Consider Taboo Topics.” Southern States Communication Association. Vanderbilt University Law School, Nashville, TN. 2018.
Carey, Culture, and Consilience: Can Cultural Studies Be Useful to Cultural Evolution Research? Cultural Evolution Society. Max Plank Institute, Jena, Germany 2017.
“Re-motivating Monroe,” Great Ideas for Teaching Speech (GIFTS) Georgia Communication Association, Georgia University and College, Milledgeville, GA, 2016.
“Managing Speech Apprehension with more than Positive Thinking: An Instructional Unit Plan for Teaching the Power-Pose.” Western States Communication Association, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, 2015.
"The literature of possibility: Engaging the philosophy and literature of Camus, Dostoevsky, Barnes, and Sloterdijk in an age of absurdity." Albert Camus & Philosophy of Communication: Making Sense in an Age of Absurdity, Gannon University, Erie, PA., 2013.
"The natural sciences are easy. It's the social sciences and Humanities that are hard. That's why the natural sciences get so much right and the social sciences get so much wrong." - Jay Baldwin
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Evolutionary (Darwinian) approaches to human communication and cultures; mass media and constructed realities; cultural evolution, social ontology, and media ecology.
Professor Baldwin agrees with others who argue that traditional communication studies would benefit from acknowledging the role of evolution by natural selection in social and cultural life (i.e., the role played by our biocultural human nature in our representations and interpretations of material and socially constructed realities). Given such a perspective, communication is conceived as a driving force of both our biological and cultural evolution, reciprocally.
CURRENT PROJECTS:
The Evolutionary Dimensions of the Police Procedural: This work focuses on the police procedural sub-genre of crime fiction, seeking to understand its role in producing, maintaining, and transforming the broader social order, and other questions related to human behavior. I.e., Do cop shows matter to society? If so, how so?
Re-thinking with James Carey; Toward a Consilient Cultural Studies: James Carey was an American scholar of media. He is largely credited with founding an "American cultural studies" distinct from the British (Marxist) school more often associated with the field. In this project Dr. Baldwin seeks to establish what he calls, "Consilient Cultural Studies," based on a re-interpretation of Carey's earlier work in light of evolutionary theory.
PUBLICATIONS:
Re-Motivating Monroe, Click-Whirr: Social Suasion and the Motivated Sequence. The Handbook of Communication Training. D. Becker & J. D. Wallace (Eds.), Routledge. (2018).
Human Nature and Cop Art: A Biocultural History of the Police Procedural. Proquest. (2015)
King Feature Syndicate, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014.
United Feature Syndicate, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014
Gasoline Alley, 1960 - 1980. Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. K. Booker, ed. 2014.
The Hobbes of the Baskervilles: Sherlock Holmes on States of Nature. Baker Street Journal, v 64, no. 2, Summer 2014.
CONFERENCE PAPERS & PANELS
"Cop Art: The Evolutionary Origins of the Police Procedural Narrative Form." Cultural Evolution Society. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. 2018.
“Impact on Research by Academia’s Reluctance to Consider Taboo Topics.” Southern States Communication Association. Vanderbilt University Law School, Nashville, TN. 2018.
Carey, Culture, and Consilience: Can Cultural Studies Be Useful to Cultural Evolution Research? Cultural Evolution Society. Max Plank Institute, Jena, Germany 2017.
“Re-motivating Monroe,” Great Ideas for Teaching Speech (GIFTS) Georgia Communication Association, Georgia University and College, Milledgeville, GA, 2016.
“Managing Speech Apprehension with more than Positive Thinking: An Instructional Unit Plan for Teaching the Power-Pose.” Western States Communication Association, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, 2015.
"The literature of possibility: Engaging the philosophy and literature of Camus, Dostoevsky, Barnes, and Sloterdijk in an age of absurdity." Albert Camus & Philosophy of Communication: Making Sense in an Age of Absurdity, Gannon University, Erie, PA., 2013.
"There is simply no escaping the fact that our brains are a product of evolution, and that this has important consequences for how our minds work."
- Laith Al-Shawaf
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Professor Baldwin was honored with the 2021 W. Bruce and Rosalyn Ray Donaldson Award for Excellence in Student Engagement for his work outside of the classroom.
He serves as a faculty mentor to students pursuing the B.S. in Writing & Communication. Since 2016, under his tutelage, individual students have completed capstone projects researching topics as diverse as generational farming, public relations planning, representations of race in "The Wire" television series, and the construction of American police culture.
Dr. Baldwin has also organized a number of educational events on campus, engaging 100s of students in discussions of important topics, including free speech, academic freedom, and the teaching of evolution by natural selection. Each event has brought to campus scholars from across the state to interact with all members of the ABAC community.
Additionally, he is a frequent participant in educational events (e.g., panel discussions, lectures, and workshops) organized by ABAC's Center for Teaching and Learning, such as the "Big Questions Lecture Series" where he has presented his views on topics ranging from the existence of evil to the nature of truth.
- Laith Al-Shawaf
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Professor Baldwin was honored with the 2021 W. Bruce and Rosalyn Ray Donaldson Award for Excellence in Student Engagement for his work outside of the classroom.
He serves as a faculty mentor to students pursuing the B.S. in Writing & Communication. Since 2016, under his tutelage, individual students have completed capstone projects researching topics as diverse as generational farming, public relations planning, representations of race in "The Wire" television series, and the construction of American police culture.
Dr. Baldwin has also organized a number of educational events on campus, engaging 100s of students in discussions of important topics, including free speech, academic freedom, and the teaching of evolution by natural selection. Each event has brought to campus scholars from across the state to interact with all members of the ABAC community.
Additionally, he is a frequent participant in educational events (e.g., panel discussions, lectures, and workshops) organized by ABAC's Center for Teaching and Learning, such as the "Big Questions Lecture Series" where he has presented his views on topics ranging from the existence of evil to the nature of truth.
