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Department of

Communication Studies

Esteban Del Rio, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Esteban del Río, Ph.D., an assistant professor in Communication Studies, centers his work on media and cultural studies, from a critical, qualitative perspective.  He teaches introduction to media studies, media and conflict, international media, interpretive methods, film &and cultural politics, and acoustic culture and communication.  His research examines the social construction of unity and difference in U.S. national and transnational contexts, focusing on the politics and processes of Latinidad in informational and entertainment discourses.  His current work examines the possibility of Latina/o coherence, with specific interest in the politics of positive representation for historically marginalized and subjugated groups in contemporary general market media.

Interests
Participatory culture, modernism, DYI, Chicanismo, cinema, music

Education

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Communication
B.A., University of San Diego, History

Scholarly and Creative Work

del Río’s research focuses on Latino media studies.  He employs critical, qualitative methods to study the signification and stratification involved in the construction of human unity and difference.  His piece, “The Latina/o Problematic: Categories and Questions in Media Communication Research” appears in Communication Yearbook 30.  Two completed empirical qualitative audience research pieces are currently in the review process, including the first audience study in the cultural studies tradition of satirical media content.  His current project examines the articulation of Latinidad within the tensions and contradictions of positive, celebratory representation.  He serves on the editorial board for Communication Yearbook, and is active as a presenter and participant in the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association.

Teaching Interests

del Río teaches a variety of courses, ranging from journalism criticism to the study of popular culture.  All of his courses encourage students to engage in a criticism of hope and possibility and to see their roles in the culture as participatory.  His teaching points students’ questions toward the discourses and ideologies that do not just represent the world, but constitute it.  Communication, in these discussions, becomes the terrain where language, images, and sounds radically shape, alter, and maintain the economic, political, and cultural world.  Among his awards, he has been voted Professor of the Year in the College by graduating classes on three occasions.