Teresa (Tess) Pierce, PhD
Associate Professor
Communication and Digital Media Studies
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Communication and Digital Media Studies
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Dr. Pierce’s most recent research focuses on the cultural and gender implications of digital technology, specifically in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Full biography
Dr. Teresa 'Tess' Pierce is a founding faculty member and Associate Professor in the Communication and Digital Media Studies at Ontario Tech University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Colorado State University and her Master of Arts in Human Communication from the University of Denver. Her Ph.D. from Clark University is in Women and Gender Studies. She received a prestigious Faculty Achievement Award from IBM, and Ontario Tech University honoured her with a Teaching Innovation Award. The overarching theme for her research is how digital communication influences, and is influenced by, the rhetoric of everyday life. In 2016, the School of Communication at the University of Washington in Seattle awarded Pierce a Visiting Scholar appointment to inaugurate projects focused on the rhetoric of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In these projects, Dr. Pierce questions gender disparity and claims this is a critical turning point for women and people of colour who are programmers, designers, academics, hackers and engineers to use their diversity and take their rightful places as valued colleagues and leaders in the STEM fields.
Areas of expertise
Courses
- COMM 2110UCommunication Theory: KeyworksHow do some of the world’s most important philosophers and big thinkers conceptualize communication technology and digital media? This course helps students to learn to stand on the shoulders of the giants of North American, European and non-Western communication and media theory. Keyworks in the field will be introduced and applied through case studies of 21st-century communications, cultural and digital media practices.
- COMM 3610UPersuasionThe concept of rhetoric-as-persuasion is associated with the power of language to liberate, emancipate, control, and deceive the public. In this advanced course, students explore topics in the areas of the production of public knowledge, public argument, public action, public response, and public critique. To better understand the relationship between rhetoric, policy and ethics, learners will examine the consequences of particular rhetorical strategies in complex situations of everyday life, the workplace, and as part of the global public sphere.
- COMM 3710UIntercultural CommunicationHow does “culture” shape the way people communicate? What are the best practices for communicating within and across cultures? In multicultural societies, citizens from many cultural and linguistic backgrounds communicate at work, play and in politics, but much is often lost in translation, even when they speak the same language. This course examines the theories and practices of intercultural communication. Students will selfâreflexively examine how culture shapes communication, hone their cultural sensitivity, and learn how to communicate effectively within many cultural contexts.
- COMM 3720UCommunicating IdentitiesWhat is an identity? How are our identities shaped by ethnicity, gender, religion, education, class and the media? This course examines identities through the lens of communication theory and as they relate to sensitive social issues, such as stereotyping and oppression. Students will investigate how people construct, differentiate and perform their identities in relation to others. They will also interrogate how and why the media may represent, underrepresent, and misrepresent identities in society. Students will subsequently understand how communications shape identities and reinforce and challenge power relations in society.
Education
- PhD, Women's StudiesClark University, USA