Rationalist Bias in Communication Theory

Leonard J. Shedletsky, PhD., Professor of Communication, has been teaching in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Southern Maine since 1979. He teaches a range of courses in communication with cognition, discourse, and meaning as underlying themes. He regularly teaches Introduction to Communication, Research Methods, Intrapersonal Communication, Meaning and Communication, and Theories of Communication. He has taught numerous other courses, Discussion, Internet for Seniors (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), and offered an undergraduate course in tandem on Intergenerational Communication and the Internet, and many more. He recently taught a course titled, On Bullshit, and another titled, Dissecting Bullshit. He co-authored and edited a number of books, Meaning and Mind, Human Communication on the Internet, Cases on Online Discussion and Interaction: Experiences and Outcomes, and Cases on Teaching Critical Thinking through Visual Representation Strategies. He has published numerous journal articles. He wrote the entry, "Cognition," for the International Encyclopedia of Communication, 2008. He was awarded recognition by his colleagues and the administration at USM for Stellar scholarship and teaching, 2003, 2007 & 2011 and was awarded the Russell Chair in philosophy and education for 2009-2011. He was recognized for teaching excellence in 2018. He has been working with social intuition theory to explore intuition in human communication. Based on this work, he published “Seeing bullshit rhetorically: Human encounters and cultural values” in Res Rhetorica (2018). For the past eight years he has worked with colleagues on two major projects: (1) to support underprivileged kids at Camp Susan Curtis; and (2) to build and teach a course to help college students transition into life after college, Launching into Life After College.