‘Were they nice people? Were they asking good questions?’: Searching for an ethics of love in the history of communication research

Abstract

The history of the field of communication has often forgotten and erased marginalized voices, contributions, and experiences of certain knowers, consolidating a predominantly exclusionary historiography. Women researchers in particular have been erased from the history of the field. We argue that these exclusions have helped construct a monolithic and masculinized understanding of our field, not only in terms of our canon and referents, but also regarding hegemonic epistemic practices and perspectives. Through eight in-depth interviews with prominent second-generation (1960–1990s) women researchers in the field of communication from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom, this article tries to recover some of the alternative approaches and epistemic practices that have remained disregarded in the field. The article proposes the widespread existence, in the history of communication and media research, of a counter-hegemonic approach to epistemic practices and relationships, one that is shaped by cooperation, affection, dialogic relationships, and, ultimately, by an ethics of love.