Lindsay Ems

Information:
Department of Telecommunications

lems 'at' indiana 'dot' edu

Links:
Lindsay's Website

Biography:
Lindsay is in the first year of pursuing her PhD in Mass Communications in the Department of Telecommunications. In her studies she seek answers to questions about how innovation in the development and use of communication technologies occurs. In particular, she examines subversive social actions and philosophies that shape the development and use of specific technologies.

Her Master's thesis (2009) examines the migration patterns of technological artifacts that are conceived in subcultures (non-corporate environments) and later achieve mainstream adoption. In this project, she identifies models of this kind of artifact migration in the arenas of fashion and language and compares to them the historical trajectory of three specific communications technologies (the typewriter, radio and the personal computer). She approaches this examination from the perspective that technology, like fashion and language, is a cultural artifact and is best understood as a product of a specific historical, cultural and social environment. This is a preliminary study, which she plans to expand upon during the coming years.