The Communication department at Denison utilizes the concept of “Communication as constitutive” to guide studies and thoughts, because we believe that through communication, we create the society in which we live.
In her book Listening, Thinking, Being, Dr. Lisbeth Lipari has taken this concept further by asking whether listening is also constitutive. Published July 2014, Lipari’s book focuses on the power of thinking in society, and introduces new ways to communicate, interact, and view others through listening and being. Dr. Lipari’s inspiration for this book and previous essays came from a rhetorical study of a debate between two famous philosophers. After concluding that these scholars never truly listened to each other, Dr. Lipari researched the idea of listening and how it has been used and communicated in society. Through an intense and creative process described by Dr. Lipari as “a twelve-hour international flight”, she wrote her book during a period of many productive years and a sabbatical, and it was published by The Pennsylvania State University Press this past summer. Dr. Lipari is using her book this semester in her class, “Listening, Thinking, Being”, and is teaching her students about what it means to truly listen to others. She encourages students to take time out of each day to meditate and listen to themselves, which provides an “intervention from a culture of noise and half-awake existence.” When asked whether she was proud of her work, Dr. Lipari replied that she “would just be happy to see it having an impact on other people”, and that she views herself during the writing process as a vessel, allowing the message to come through her, not from her. Dr. Lipari has many ideas for new books, and feels lucky to work at Denison, where faculty are able to work on their scholarship, cultivate new ideas, and be able to teach about their interests and passions. She will be serving as a respondent on a panel entitled “Listening, Thinking Being: Author Meets Critic” in November at the 2014 National Communication Association Meeting. Her work in the field of Communication and in the Communication department at Denison has inspired and challenged students in many different ways. In Dr. Lipari’s own words, “It’s not about how to be a good listener or the ten barriers to good listening. It’s about how listening brings humans into being.”
For more about Dr. Lipari: https://denison.edu/people/lisbeth-lipari