People

Dr. Sue Fallis is an Associate Professor in the Communication Department and the Director of January Term at Saint Mary’s College. Her research deals with the influence of television on social relationships. Past research includes work with the elderly and marital relationships. Her current work addresses media and the justice system. At Saint Mary’s College, she trains undergraduate students in quantitative research methodology.

Dr. Ed Tywoniak is Associate Professor of Communication and past-chair of the department.  He has been a member of the Saint Mary’s College faculty since 1978 and has served the college in a variety of capacities during the ensuing 30 years, including his current role as a member of the Academic Senate, Chair of the Academic Advising Task Force, academic advisor of the Men’s Basketball team and member of the NCAA reaccredidation committee.  He holds degrees from Saint Mary’s College, The Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College and the University of San Francisco and is currently the President of the Division for Communication and the Future of the National Communication Association (NCA) and is a member of the NCA Legislative Assembly.  His current research interests lie in the communication sub-discipline of Media Ecology with an emphasis on the philosophy of science and technology.

Research Projects

Capital Punishment: The Role of Televised Prisoner Depictions in Jury Decision Making (Sue Fallis)

As juries consider whether a prisoner convicted of murder should receive the death penalty, the law requires that they weigh both aggravating and mitigating circumstances; the social history of the prisoner must be considered along with the heinousness of the crime. Depictions of prisoners on television tend to dehumanize violent offenders, thus overshadowing mitigating background factors such as abuse and psychological problems. This research will address prisoner portrayals in documentary programming to determine whether viewers are more likely to support the death penalty and render death penalty verdicts. In addition to learning about jury decision making, student researchers will conduct content analyses of television programming, assist with survey construction, and learn about experimental design in social science research. 

Out of This World: Landscapes of Our Solar System (Ed Tywoniak and Carrie Brewster)

A collection of images of our solar system will be exhibited at the Hearst Art Gallery October 10 - December 12, 2009. This exhibit includes photographs from NASA, and original paintings of planetary landscapes by world renowned artists. Student researchers will be immersed in the communication of science as they undertake background research, contribute to the preparation of the exhibit, and collaborate with other researchers and museums. 

The Classical Quadrivium and the Shaping of the Contemporary Mind (Ed Tywoniak)

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Thomas Kuhn challenged the objective nature of science and the scientific method by introducing the notion of a “paradigm” as a set of tacit assumptions or beliefs that frame scientific methodology within the contemporary cultural context of the time. This summer research project is a continuation of a line of research that explores the relationship between culture and science by examining the historical contexts of the quadrivial arts (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music) as they have influenced thinking since the time of Pythagoras. This project is grounded in social scientific research methodologies including interviews with scientific practitioners whose investigations are shaped by contemporary paradigmatic social contexts. As such, the summer research assistant will be assisting in the design, set-up and implementation of the interviews including arranging for IRB releases. Additional duties will include background research of relevant citational references from a variety of historical texts that have contributed to our understanding of the Quadrivium, and collating this data into a central thematic matrix.