Listening for Learning

“Spending over two decades listening to and learning from scholars who approach the world of human communication in distinct ways is one of the many blessings of my academic life. Among the most instructive have been performance scholars who merge the interpretive turn and a critical reflexivity with uncommon flair and grace. With Listening for Learning, I am reminded of the ways of teaching, of learning, and of listening that I struggled to understand as a newly minted Assistant Professor. My performance colleagues engaged in scholarly and pedagogical practices that took seriously the embodied nature of experience, something that I knew at an intellectual level but had never fully grasped phenomenologically. McRae eloquently weaves together research and his own classroom practices with sustained attention to the role of sound and soundscapes, the situatedness of listening, and the possibilities enabled when we attune to others. The book is an excellent deep dive into how we might approach learning (either as teachers or students) in a manner that takes listening seriously. It puts the generative nature of listening, communication, and performance front-and-center, providing a truly novel contribution to the field.”—Graham Bodie, Professor of Integrated Marketing Communication, The University of Mississippi