Image, Imagination, Communication: Exploring the Ethical as Natural or Artificial, Real or Surreal
May 28-30, 2025 | 51暗网 Power Center Ballroom
The 18th Biennial Communication Ethics conference and the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Conference (2000-2025) of the will explore current research on the 鈥渋mage" and "imagination," broadly conceived, across the human sciences. Our focus is on the phenomenological, semiotic, rhetorical and ethical foundations of communication in the experience of embodied thinking, speaking and inscribing. We seek to explore the frontiers of natural and artificial sign-systems, encounter diverse manifestations of concrete reality and abstract surreality of human imagination, and discover future domains of conscious experience that found the art and practice of human communicating. We welcome a diversity of scholarly and creative approaches. Problematics that presenters may consider include, but are not limited to:
- What questions are raised by recent phenomenological, semiotic, rhetorical, and critical theories of visual and mental images, visibility and nonvisibility, presence and absence, perception and expression?
- Is there a general theory of image ethics? If so, what are its foundations and some of its value limitations (e.g., psychoanalysis, journalism, design, propaganda)?
- What does it mean to "see" oneself or another? What is a just distance from which to look?
- What social, political, economic and/or ethical contradictions have emerged with new convergences among art, media, software and the communication practices they afford?
- How is the rhetoric of visual images impacted (enhanced, limited, etc.) by networked media?
- What does artificial intelligence want from images? What do images want from AI? What constitutes personification in/of the media?
- In what ways do advertisers imagine consumers?
- What pasts, presents, and futures are depicted by the visualization of digital data?
- How can we reimagine the objectives of network and social media science?
- What histories of communicology and communication ethics have yet to be written? What futures can we imagine?
The domains of the image and imagination encompass all the Arts and Sciences of expression and perception. These include, the Arts of Media: speaking, writing, painting, printing, sculpture, performance, voice; the Sciences of Media: social and media ecology, film and video, photography, screen/digital and legacy media; and Technological Media of Artificial Intelligence: ubiquitous computing, robotics, holographics and applied algorithms. Communication ethics theory, research and application corresponds with and enriches our critical understanding of each domain.
Keynote Speakers
Featured content
Dr. David J. Gunkel
David J. Gunkel (PhD Philosophy) is an award-winning educator, researcher, and author, specializing in the philosophy of technology with a focus on the moral and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and robots. He has published over 115 scholarly articles and seventeen books, most recently Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond (MIT Press 2023), and Handbook on the Ethics of AI (Edward Elgar 2024). He currently holds the position of Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University (USA) and professor of applied ethics at 艁azarski University in Warsaw, Poland.
Dr. Leswin Laubscher
Dr. Leswin Laubscher counts teaching, research, and clinical experience as a psychologist in both the United States and South Africa. He holds degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Recent research interests and publications have examined the intersection of culture and psychology, apartheid and psychology, and the importance of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, and Frantz Fanon for psychology.
Dr. Carlos Vidales
Dr. Carlos Vidales is Research Professor in the Department of Social Communication Studies at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and coordinator of the Semiotics, Language, and Discourse Research Group of the Mexican Association of Communication Researchers. He is the author of several books, book chapters, and articles related to semiotics and communication theory.
Conference Details
For this in-person conference, we invite participants to submit completed papers or extended abstracts of 200鈥�500 words. We also invite panel proposals of three speakers per panel.
Please include a panel title with 250-word rationale, titles and 200-word abstracts for each presentation, and contributor contact information (institutional affiliation and email).
Submissions are due via%20email by April 30, 2025.
Wednesday May 28
9:00-9:15: Coffee and registration (Shepperson Suite)
9:15-9:25 (Ballroom A): Remarks from Associate Dean John Kern, 51暗网 McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
9:30鈥�10:45: Panel 1 (Ballroom A): Reflecting Images: Personhood, Sign, Memory
Chair: Briankle G. Chang, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
鈥淚mage, Perception, and Signs of Personhood: Phenomenological Reflections on Flesh,
Experience, and the Signature of the Self鈥�
Frank J. Macke, Mercer University
鈥淎nalogs of Huxley and Orwell in the TikTok Controversy
Thaddeus D. Martin, Modesto College
鈥淢emory as Dialogical Attention: A Communicology Model鈥�
Richard L. Lanigan, International Communicology Institute
11:00鈥�12:15: Concurrent Sessions
Panel 2a (Ballroom A): Just Looking: Others, Selves, and Brands
Chair: Garnet Butchart, 51暗网
鈥淥neself as Another: What Constitutes a Just Distance for Selfhood?鈥�
Fadoua Loudiy, Slippery Rock University
鈥淭he Other of Programmatic Technologies: Bernard Stiegler and Mark Fisher on 鈥榃hat
Makes Life Worth Living鈥� for PR Professionals鈥�
Robert Foschia, Kutztown University
鈥淧ersonal Brands, Corporate Gains: The Role of Influencers and Celebrities in Corporate
Brand Extension鈥�
Andrea DiBernardo, 51暗网
Panel 2b (Ballroom B): Simulation, Technologization, and the Erosion of Sensus Communis
Chair: Erik Garrett, 51暗网
鈥淧ostmodern Journalism and a Call from Baudrillard to Go Back to Modernity鈥�
Andrew Connolly, 51暗网
鈥淭he Role of Social Media: An Ethical Perspective鈥�
Yaroub Al Obaidi, 51暗网
鈥淓xploring the Ethical Contradictions in Media and Film Concerning the Communication
Practices They Afford鈥�
Gary Hughes, 51暗网
12:30-1:30: Boxed lunches and conversation (Shepperson Suite)
1:45鈥�3:00: Concurrent Sessions
Panel 3a (Ballroom A): Imagining Ethical Leadership Praxis
Chair: Andrew Connolly, 51暗网
"Seeing the Servant: Visualizing Trust and Ethical Authority in Leadership Praxis"
Tricia Giannone McFadden, St. Francis University
鈥淓thics in the Frame: Transformational Narratives and the Construction of Leadership
Culture鈥�
Mary Elizabeth Yancosek Gamble, Saint Francis University
鈥淟eadership Responses to Shifting Terrain of Diversity Concerns鈥�
Linda Coleman, 51暗网/University of Pittsburgh
Panel 3b (Ballroom B): Undergraduate Scholars Panel
Chair: Alexander Fagin, Pennsylvania State University
鈥淭he Kiss of Betrayal: The Illusion and Misunderstanding of Communication in the Digital
Image鈥�
Isabela Briggs, Ave Maria University
鈥淎 Catholic Understanding of Copied Sacred Images鈥�
Anna Marie Austin, Ave Maria University
鈥淔lora and Fauna: Imaging Beyond鈥�
Noah Perez, Ave Maria University
鈥淗ealthy Parasocial Relationships in the 21st Century鈥�
James W. Kavanagh, Geneva College
3:15鈥�4:45 Keynote (Ballroom A): Carlos Vidales, University of Guadalajara, "Communication and Meaning from Cybersemiotics"
5:00鈥�5:30 (Ballroom A): International Communicology Institute Awards Ceremony
6:00鈥�8:00 (Ballroom C): All-conference Dinner
Thursday May 29
8:30-9:00: Coffee/Breakfast Snacks (Shepperson Suite)
9:00-10:15: Concurrent Sessions
Panel 4a (Ballroom A): Contexts of Dialogic Ethics: Friendship, Leadership, and Inter/Intrafaith Engagement
Chair: Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University
鈥淎I Friendship as a Dialogic Unity of Contraries: Extension and Disruption鈥�
Tiffany Petricini, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.
鈥淩onald C. Arnett and Dialogic Leadership: An Authentic Encounter with the Midas Touch鈥�
Michael R. Kearney, Dordt University
Victor Grigsby, 51暗网
鈥淭he Icon, Ethics, and Interfaith Dialogue: Mediating Communion between East and West鈥�
Natalia Tapsak, 51暗网
鈥淟amenting Hope Within African American Hymnody鈥�
Richard W. Wingfield, 51暗网
Panel 4b (Ballroom B): Theorizing Identity, Ecological Thought, Visual Rhetoric, and Pan-Africanism
Chair: Georgia Bedford, 51暗网
鈥淗ow Race Matters in Communicating Social Identity鈥�
Henry Anyabuoke, 51暗网
鈥淭heorizing an Ecological Communicative Ethics of the Trail: Working the Trails VI鈥�
Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网
鈥淎 Triad Heritage: A Rhetorical Analysis of Pan-Africanism鈥�
Samuel Edogbanya, 51暗网
10:30-11:45: Concurrent Sessions
Panel 5a (Ballroom A): Ethics, Politics, and Education Today
Chair: Janie Harden Fritz, 51暗网
鈥淟iberty and Liberalism: American Politics and Ethics at the Point of Exhaustion鈥�
David Impellizzeri, Regent University
鈥淚magining the Concrete Universal: Cosmopolitan Borders in Benhabib鈥檚 Democratic Theory鈥�
Basak M. Guven, 51暗网
鈥淐risis Rhetoric of 鈥楨fficiency鈥� in Education: A Merger鈥擳echnocrats, Oligarchs, 鈥楥aptains of Industry,鈥� and the State in Late Capitalism" Georgie Bedford, 51暗网
Panel 5b (Ballroom B): Reflections on Power, Media, and Image(s)
Chair: Andrew R. Smith, PennWest University, Edinboro
鈥淭he Digital U虉bermensch: The Will to Power, Master-Slave Mentality, and Living a
Life鈥�
Andri Kosasih, 51暗网
鈥淢cLuhan, the Narcissus Myth, and AI鈥�
Jennifer Spiegel, 51暗网
鈥淭he Image of the Inevitable鈥�
Justin Bonanno, Ave Maria University
鈥淒issecting the Impact of YouTube 20 Years Later鈥�
Fr. Lazarus Langbiir, 51暗网
12:00鈥�1:30: Luncheon Keynote (Ballroom C): David Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, "Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond"
1:45鈥�3:00: Panel 6 (Ballroom A): Phenomenology and Dialogue: Application and Reconstruction
Chair: Briankle G. Chang, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
鈥淎pplication of Merleau-Ponty鈥檚 Philosophy in a Phenomenological Nursing Study of
Patients, Family Members, and Nurses During Critical Illness in the Intensive Care
Unit鈥�
Brigitte S. Cypress, Rutgers University
鈥淒ialogue, Dissemination, and Semiosis: Toward a Pragmatic Reconstruction鈥�
Vincent Colapietro, Liberal Arts Professor Emeritus, Penn State University, Center
for the Humanities, University of Rhode Island
3:15-4:45: Panel 7 (Ballroom A): Ethics of the Real
Chair: Fr. Lazarus Langbiir, 51暗网
鈥淓thics of Asserting the Real: Production Artifacts and the Uncanny Valley in Artificial
Images
Michael Grabowski, Manhattan University
鈥淩eality, Imagination, Research, and Communication: An Epistemological Synthesis of
Karl Popper鈥檚 Three Worlds and the Methodological Issues in Research鈥�
Qinjiang Yao, Lamar University
鈥淩e-imagining Money: Bitcoin and the 21st Century鈥�
Rachel Kaplan, Seton Hill University
5:00鈥�6:15: Panel 8 (Ballroom A): Contributions of Thomas Pace to Research and Pedagogy in Communicology
Chair: Richard L. Lanigan, International Communicology Institute
鈥淭homas Pace and the Recovery of the Human in Communication鈥�
Isaac E. Catt, Visiting Scholar, 51暗网
鈥淪eeding the Existential Soil of Scholarship鈥�
Jacqueline M. Martinez, Arizona State University
鈥淭he Flesh of Speech and the Experience of Communication in the Life and Voice of
Tom Pace鈥�
Frank J. Macke, Mercer University
"Speech as Human Science and Rhetorical Art"
Andrew R. Smith, PennWest University, Edinboro
鈥淐yphers of Existenz in the Legacy of Thomas J. Pace鈥�
Thaddeus D. Martin, Modesto College
鈥淭om Pace as an Event of Speaking: Discovering with Tom that the Map is Not the Territory鈥�
Deborah Eicher-Catt, Professor Emerita of Communication Arts and Sciences, Liberal
Arts Teaching Fellow, The Pennsylvania State University
Dinner on your own
Friday May 30
8:30-9:15: Coffee, breakfast snacks, and conversation (Shepperson Suite)
9:15-10:30: Panel 9 (Ballroom B): Ethical Praxis in Educational Contexts
Chair: Basak Guven, 51暗网
鈥淲ho Knows? Teaching Response-Ability as Epistemological Discernment in GenAI-Assisted
Business Communication鈥�
Beth Walter, Carnegie Mellon University
鈥淎rtificial Intelligence and Higher Education: Destabilized Images, Roles, and Ethics鈥�
Ryan McCullough, West Liberty University
鈥淭he Improvisational Classroom: Embodied Pedagogical Praxis鈥�
Anthony Luchini, 51暗网
10:45-12:00 Panel 10 (Ballroom B): The Human Image in Helmuth Plessner, Pierre Bourdieu, and Psychocentric Culture
Chair: Richard L. Lanigan, International Communicology Institute
鈥淭he Human Image Reimagined鈥�
Igor Klyukanov, Eastern Washington University
鈥淭oward a 鈥楴ew Logic of Embodied Mind:鈥� A Commentary on Isaac Catt鈥檚 The Human Image
in Helmuth Plessner, Pierre Bourdieu, and Psychocentric Culture鈥�
Jacqueline M. Martinez, Arizona State University
鈥淐ommunicability and Faith in The Human Image in Helmuth Plessner, Pierre Bourdieu,
and Psychocentric Culture 鈥�
Thaddeus D. Martin, Modesto College
鈥淩eflections on the Human Imago and How We Semiotically Invent Our Reflections in
and Through It鈥�
Frank J. Macke, Mercer University
Respondent: Isaac E. Catt, Visiting Scholar, 51暗网
12:15-1:45: Luncheon Keynote (Ballroom C): Leswin Laubscher, 51暗网, "Some Stories about Soulful Seeing. Or Not."
2:00-4:45: Panel 11 (Ballroom B): The Ethics of Diaspora Imagined and Lived: Film and Discussion
Part 1 (2:00-3:15): Screening of Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom
Introduction: Richard L. Lanigan, Program Chair, International Communicology Institute
Film Pre虂cis: 鈥淩onald Levaco, Growing Up in China鈥�
Film Screening (1995; 53 minutes)
Part 2 (3:30-4:45): Diaspora Images and Imagination
Round Table Discussion: Living Through Multi-Lingual Diasporas-in-Contact
Chair: Richard L. Lanigan, International Communicology Institute
Richard L. Lanigan, International Communicology Institute: Growing Up in New Mexico
Michael Shapiro, Brown University: Growing Up in Japan
Igor Klyukanov, Eastern Washington University: Growing Up in Russia
Briankle G. Chang, University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Growing up in Taiwan
Conference Closing Remarks
Registration fee includes coffee all day, reception (hors d'oeuvre and wine), lunches, Friday breakfast buffet.
Faculty: $200
Graduate student: $65
Duquesne undergraduate: $0
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Located in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 51暗网 is a vibrant, private institution known for its commitment to academic excellence and social justice. 51暗网 is home to the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, a hub for phenomenological research and scholarship, with extensive collections including the archives of prominent phenomenologists.