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Douglas Porpora, PhD

Douglas V. Porpora, PhD

Professor of Sociology
Department of Communication
Office: 3201 Arch Street, 380
porporad@drexel.edu

Education:

  • PhD, Sociology, Temple University
  • BS, Mathematics, Bucknell University

Curriculum Vitae:

Download (PDF)

Research Interests:

  • Meaning
  • Morality
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Social Justice

Bio:

Although a sociologist by training, Dr. Douglas Porpora is a very interdisciplinary scholar who, in addition to sociology, has also published in philosophy and, as part of the graduate program in Communication Culture and Media in communication as well. The latter he mostly does in collaboration with graduate students.

Dr. Porpora’s research interests range widely, but in communication, he is generally interested in how people converse and argue, especially politically and morally. He is thus interested in discourse in chatrooms, over Twitter, and other media. His research style is mixed methods – combining for example, quantitative content analysis with qualitative discourse analysis. Concerning the latter, he mostly employs close reading of rhetoric used.

Dr. Porpora’s ultimate concerns are with people’s larger meanings and values and how these intersect with politics and matters of social justice.

Selected Publications:

  • Alexander Nikolaev, Douglas Porpora, Nicholas Coffman, and Kataryzna Elliot-Macsymowicz (2023) “Hate Speech as a Form of Entertainment: An Unexpected Support for the Gratification Hypothesis on Twitter” Atlanta Journal of Communication. August 1-18.
  • Douglas Porpora (2024) “The Post-Truth Challenge to Expertise”. In Mirko Farina and Andrea Lavazza (eds.) Overcoming the Myth of Neutrality: Expertise for a New World. Routledge.
  • David Kutzik and Douglas Porpora (2022) “Critical Realism and the Return of Marxian Materialism.” Cosmonaut Online Magazine.
  • Mark Carrigan and Douglas Porpora (2021) Post-Human Futures and Artificial Intelligence. Routledge.
  • Katarzyna Elliot-Macsymovicz, Alexander Nikolaev, and Douglas Porpora (2021) “How Much Can You Say in a Tweet? Political Argumentation on Twitter” Humanities and Social Sciences Communication. Online.
  • Douglas Porpora, and Seif Sekalala (2019) "Truth, communication, and democracy." International Journal of Communication 13: 18.
  • Richmond, Julia C., and Douglas V. Porpora (2019) "Entertainment politics as a modernist project in a Baudrillard world." Communication Theory 29, no. 4: 421-440.