Karyl Kicenski
Karyl Kicenski
Continuing Lecturer
Office: 2317 Rolfe Hall
Email: kkicenski@comm.ucla.edu
Phone: 310-825-5736
Biography
While my early degrees were in the field of Communication Studies, my doctorate degree is in Cultural Studies. Thus, I aim to uncover the links between the expression of ideas and the structures of social power and privilege. My central research questions tend to ask how meanings are created through cultural frameworks and how these meanings either advance or limit human emancipation and dignity. While research is important to this aim, I am also extremely committed to the classroom and the collaboration of teaching and learning.
My previous research, while focusing upon a number of different content areas, aligns with the broader aims of that above: to analyze public communication that undergirds social, political and cultural ideologies enabling power and privilege. A few of those projects have included the commercialization/commodification of the university system in the U.S., the perversity of mediated images surrounding sports star, Allen Iverson, and the media accounts of Los Angeles uprising.
My second area of research focuses upon critical pedagogy and teaching practices that enhance student learning. I am interested in how both the structure of teaching lessons and “best practices” encourage effective and insightful learning. I am also concerned to study the ways that teaching and learning foster projects of social justice and democracy. I have written about and presented my findings as well as facilitated teaching workshops with a cadre of professionals for the last ten years. This work aims to collaborate with others about how to provide spaces of learning that capitalize upon creativity, self-reflexivity and principled action.
Education
Ph.D., Philosophy, Cultural Studies, George Mason University
M.A., Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge
B.A., Communication Studies, California State University, Northridge
Research
Rhetorical Theory & Criticism; Ideological discourses within Public/Popular Culture; Cultural Studies & Critical Theory; the Intersections of Race & Class with Global Capitalism; Critical Pedagogy & Teaching & Learning Styles
Selected Publications
Scholarly Presentations, Publications, & Professional Development
Wise Ones: Collaboration & Support in University Education: Panel Chair, Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico February, 2025.
Writing Supportive Peer Evaluations: Panelist, Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico February, 2025.
Future Instructors in Training Intern program, [FIT] Faculty Supervisor. College of the Canyons: Valencia, California, Fall 2023.
Publication-“Chapter 2: Communication & Self,” in Interpersonal Communication: Context and Connection. Open Educational Resources Initiative, Academic Senate, California Community Colleges, 2022.
Dangerous Women: From Antiquity to Pop Culture: Invited Honorarium presentation; The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA. February, 2020.
Classroom “Hacks”: Sharing Tricks of the Trade; Panel Chair, Western States Communication Association, Santa Clara, CA February 2018.
Bringing Spiritual Practices Into the Communication Classroom: Panel Participant, Western States Communication Association, Salt Lake City, Utah, February, 2017.
Guest Editor: “Special Issue-Bringing College Education into Prisons, New Directions for Community Colleges. 70 (Summer 2015).
Publication–Cashing in on Crime: The Drive to Privatize State Prisons in California. Boulder: Colorado. First Forum Press, 2014.
Navigating our Diverse Environment: Teaching the Multicultural Communication Course in Community College. Panel Participant, Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2012.
Using Portfolios: Shifting from Teaching to Learning: Panel Participant, Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2012.
Cashing in on Criminality: Private Prisons, Corporate Power & the Color of Crime. Spirart Justice Journal (Spring 2009) Volume 1:2.
Emerging Racial Categories. Panel Participant: National Communication Association, San Diego, California, November 2008.
The Wise Ones Council/Counsel: Chair, Roundtable Discussion: Western States Communication Association, Denver, Colorado, February 2008.
Prison as Panacea, or the Discourses of Delinquency & Crime. Paper Presentation: Cultural Studies Association, New York, New York, May 2008.
A Study of Online Interaction & Its Effects on Student Retention. Panel Participant: Western States Communication Association, Seattle, Washington, February 2007.
An Active-Learning Approach to Teaching Ethics & Freedom of Speech. Panel Participant: G.I.F.T.S., Western States Communication Association, Seattle, Washington, February, 2007.
Using the Dialectic Method to Teach Public Speaking. Panel Participant: G.I.F.T.S., Western States Communication Association, Palm Springs, CA, February, 2006.
The Discourse of Crime & Terror. Paper Presentation: Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities, January, 2005.
Men, Women, and the Media: Lessons in Forming Gendered Identities. Invited Lecture: Tuesday Afternoons with the Professors Series, Santa Clarita, California, September, 2001.
“E-Racing” The Boundaries: Notes on Re–formulizing the Racialized Subject. Paper Presentation: National Communication Association (Summer Conference): “Communication & Cultural Politics,” Iowa City, Iowa, July, 2000.
Mapping Internal Third Worlds. Paper presentation: National Communication Association, Chicago, Ill., November, 1999.
Capital Crimes. Paper Presentation at the George Mason Cultural Studies Department Colloquium, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, April, 1999.
What’s in a Test?: Collaborative Exams and Interacting to Learn. Paper Presentation: Eastern Communication Association Conference, West Virginia, April, 1999.
Reebok, Late Capital Processes & Crime, or, How much Do You Want for that Subculture? Paper Presentation: National Communication Association, New York, November, 1998.
The Corporate Prison: The Production of Crime & the Sale of Discipline. Paper Presentation: The Postcolonialism and Cultural Resistance Seminar, University of Joensuu, Finland, May 1998.
Racism & The Law: Constructing the Bounds of Whiteness. Paper Presentation: National Communication Association Conference, Chicago Ill., November, 1997.
Corporate Curriculum: The Academy as Commodity. Paper Presentation: The Couch-Stone Symposium: “Postmodern Culture, Global Capitalism, and Democratic Action,” College Park, Maryland, April, 1997.
Interviewer: National Communication Association Focus Groups. Association research to evaluate membership satisfaction/organizational development. National Communication Association, San Diego, California, November, 1996.
Race and its (Re)Formation: Discursive Perversion and the Los Angeles Riots. Paper Presentation: Multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity, and Global Communication Conference, Rochester, New York, July, 1996.
Encouraging Critical Thinking Through the Use of Pop Culture: Paper Presentation: Western States Communication Association Conference, Pasadena, California, February, 1996.
Uprising in Los Angeles: An Analysis of Myth and Ritual in the Los Angeles Times. Paper Presentation: to the Western States Communication Association Conference, Portland, Oregon, February, 1995.
Revisioning Rhetoric and Communication: Examining the Contributions of Women in the Field. Paper presented Western States Communication Association Conference, San Jose, California, February, 1994.
Disruption in the Classroom: Co-conceiver and organizer of the first city-wide interdisciplinary conference focusing on disruption (both actual and metaphorical) as a creative teaching and classroom impetus. California State University, Northridge, November, 1994.
