Contact Information

Biography

Dr. Butchart is an Associate Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University. He specializes in communication theory and philosophy, media and cultural studies. He is the author of Embodiment, Relation, Community: A Continental Philosophy of Communication (Pennsylvania State University Press) and co-editor of Philosophy of Communication (MIT Press). His research appears in journals such as Communication Theory, Journal of Communication, Social Semiotics, Visual Communication, Journal of Media Ethics, and elsewhere. His research is recognized nationally with awards for Distinguished Book, Distinguished Journal Article (three times), and Distinguished Edited Book from the Philosophy of Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He is a Fellow of the International Communicology Institute and has lectured at the Jerusalem Center for Ethics.  

Education

  • Ph.D., Communication, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • M.A., Communication, University of Calgary
  • B.A., School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

 

School

Books
  • Butchart, G. C. (2019). Embodiment, Relation, Community: A Continental Philosophy of Communication. College Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Winner of the 2020 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Distinguished Book Award
  • Chang, B. G. & G. C. Butchart (Eds.). (2012). Philosophy of Communication. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Winner of the 2016 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Distinguished Edited Book Award

Journal Articles
  • Butchart G. C. “The Worldhood of the World of the Brandless Brand,” China Media Research, Vol 20, No. 1 (January 2024): pp-pp 35-42.
  • Butchart, G. C. & Har-Gil, A. Hebrew translation of “Reflection as Ethical Process in Documentary Film: Eight Decision-Making Issues,” Media Frames: Israeli Journal of Communication, Issue 20 (Spring 2021): 108-128.
  • Butchart, G. C. & Har-Gil, A. (2019). Reflection as Ethical Process in Documentary Film: Eight Decision-Making Issues. Journal of Media Ethics, 34:2.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2018). Echo: Or, on the Origin of Words. Moment Journal: Journal of Cultural Studies, 5:1, 1-14 (lead article)
  • Butchart, G. C. (2018). Answers to Questions that No One is Asking: A Report on Knowledge in Communicology (review essay). Journal of Communication, 68:6, E1-E7
  • Butchart, G. C. (2017). Communication and the Thesis of Intentionality in Husserl, Sartre, and Levinas. The Review of Communication, 17:1, 56-73.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2016). The Communicology of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida: Reflections on the Sign-Body Experience of Communication. Visual Communication, 15:2, 199-219. Winner of the 2017 Distinguished Journal Article Award, National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2015). Touch, Communication, Community: Jean-Luc Nancy's Semiotic Phenomenology. Metodo: International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy, 3:1, 221-244.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2014). Haunting Past Images: On the 2006 Documentary Film Description of a Memory in the Context of Communicology. The American Journal of Semiotics, 30:1-2, 27-52.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2014). What Can a Philosophy and Ethics of Communication Look Like in the Context of Documentary Filmmaking? Semiotica, 199, 83-96.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2013). The Uncertainty of Communication as Revealed by Psychoanalysis. Review of Communication, 13:1, 66-84. Winner of the 2015 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Journal Article of the Year Award.
  • Butchart, G. C. (2013). Camera as Sign: On the Ethics of Unconcealment in Documentary Film and Video. Social Semiotics, 23:5, 675-690. Winner of the 2013 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Journal Article of the Year Award.
Recent Honors and Awards

2020 Distinguished Book Award, National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division.

2017 Distinguished Journal Article, National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division.

2016 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Edited Book of the Year.

2016 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Top Faculty Paper.

2015 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Journal Article of the Year.

2014 National Communication Association Visual Communication Division Top Faculty Paper.

2013 National Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division Journal Article of the Year.

Scholar, International Communicology Institute. Selected in 2013.
University

Faculty Senate


Editorial Boards

The American Journal of Semiotics, 2019-pres.
Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 2014-pres.
Semiotics Society of America Yearbook, 2014-pres.


Film and Cinema

Juror, 15th Solidarity and Human Rights Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel
Juror, 28th Jerusalem International Film Festival, Van Lear Foundation Awards for Israeli Documentary Cinema, Jerusalem, Israel