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5. Amoshaun Toft

Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy (PIP) Teaching Fellow

B.A., Social Ecology, Goddard College, 2000
M.A., Communication, UW-Seattle, 2006
Ph.C., Communication, UW-Seattle, 2008 (Ph.D. expected June 2010)

Email: atoft@u.washington.edu

Teaching

Language is the medium through which we construct social, political and environmental problems, and evaluate possible solutions. My primary goal as a teacher is to help students understand key ideas in communication and media studies, see the connections between themselves and broader social issues, and to foster the practical and analytical skills necessary for contributing to society.

To this end, I strive to create learning environments where students can engage with the course materials, interact with each other through group discussions and collaborative work, and explore different ways of seeing and acting in the social world. I combine teaching strategies and methods that foster excellence in learning and the development of critical thinking skills that are grounded in a sense of social responsibility.

Learning is a process that we all participate in. As a teacher, I bring my own professional expertise and provide the class with materials that we can use to learn and explore the subject matter. But we all bring something to share, be it expertise in an area, life experience, or skill sets that enable others to learn. My courses provide a space for us to bring the 'outside in', and to experiment with bringing the 'inside out' by contributing to the public dialog on important social issues. Students in my courses have published blogs, written social commentaries, produced videos and done original research that they can share outside the class.

Courses 2009-2010

• Fall/Spring: BIS 445 - Meanings and Realities of Inequality: The Cultural Production of Wealth and Poverty
• Winter: BIS 343 - Media Production Workshop: Social Documentation and Community Voice

Research and Public Scholarship

As a scholar, my research explores the confluence of language and social interaction in myriad social settings where social movements engage with participants, organizations, journalists and governments. My approach combines discourse analysis, computational linguistics, content analysis and ethnographic field methods to collect and analyze situated language use. My dissertation, examines the role of communication in building coalitions, campaigns, social forums and other networked forms of social collaboration involved in processes of social change. I draw on three cases for my analysis: a failed social forum in the Pacific Northwest; a nationally syndicated radio, television and web-based news program called Democracy Now; and campaigns organized in response to the City of Seattle's homeless campsite clearance policy.

I have worked to develop partnerships with area organizations in the Pacific Northwest in my teaching and research, particularly around issues of media justice and homelessness. I have taught workshops on media strategy, radio production and independent media. I am a founding member of the Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School (SEEDS) and Reclaim the Media and have organized workshops and forums on social justice, ecology and communication.

Selected Publications and Presentations