William Husson

Teaching and Research Area: Mass Communication

Research Interests

My research interests fall within the area of visual communication. One project I am currently working on involves exploring Erving Goffman's ideas about the use of interaction displays in advertising photographs. I am critically evaluating how such displays communicate information about the relationship between the social actors depicted in these photographs. I am also working on two projects related to film. In one project, I am examining the relationship between face work and interpersonal conflict as these phenomena are depicted in a documentary film by Frederick Wiseman. In another project, I am investigating narrative reflexivity (i.e., a film's calling attention to the fact that it is telling a story) in movie westerns and crime films. I am specifically interested in how narrative reflexivity is used to render moral judgments about gun violence in these genres.