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RESEARCH
M Louise Ripley
    York University
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Areas of Research Interests
Advertising Ethics

At a conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation, I was fascinated to discover that there are Philosophers who do not believe that advertisements can be arguments. I then attended a conference in Amsterdam of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, where I presented a paper titled "The Ad as Argument" using Michael Gilbert's Multi-Modal Argumentation Model, and a number of other models and theories from the fields of Argumentation and Philosophy to make the argument that an advertisement is indeed an argument, knowing these same Philosophers would be there. It was well received and eventually I published it in one of Philosophy's top journals, Argumentation. I continue to use Gilbert's model to examine ads which I consider to be on the edge of unethical.

One of my favourite papers came out of another conference, where a colleague challenged me to include humour in my analysis of logical, emotional, visceral, and kisceral argumentation. This paper was my final conference paper as a full-time professor at York University. You can read it here: Humour in the Analysis of Humour in Dog Ads

Other Recent Works

I recently have had a chapter published in a book, Psychology of Persuasion, using Michael Gilbert's work. I also had a chapter called "Online Teaching: The Joys of Joining the Discussion", published in The Dynamic Classroom: Engaging Students in Higher Education.

My most recent article in refereed conference publications is "Argument, Advertising, Ethics, and Dogs: Multimodal Argumentation Once More With Humour".

Click on Link to My C.V. to read more.

Union Bargaining

In 2006/07, I experienced some of my most exciting writing, working for my Union, YUFA - the York University Faculty Association. We spent 7 1/2 months in bargaining with the Employer and managed to bring in a good settlement. As YUFA's Communications Officer, and a member of the Bargaining Team, I was responsible for producing Bargaining Updates, written in what is still for me the most exciting way to write - last minute to a deadline, and with what was new for me - with help from a team, where I produce a first draft, the Team helps work it further into what we want to say, it then goes to YUFA President Arthur Hilliker, The Voice of YUFA, with bargaining and negotiating all along the way for what each of us wants to get into print. Exciting times!

Book on The YUFA Strike of 1997

I have completed a book about the YUFA Strike of 1997. My agent asked me to cut it by 20%, which I did but she has not found a publisher for it. In retirement, it will be one of my projects to get it published onlinet.

Teaching on the Internet, Technoism, Advertising Ethics

For many years, each year I attended an annual conference on Emerging Issues in Business and Technology, held at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Sadly, the conference is no longer being held due to low attendance. One recent paper there dealt with the necessity, in my opinion, for the business professor to be an active member of Discussion Groups in online courses: TALK TO ME!: THE CASE FOR BEING THERE IN ONLINE BUSINESS COURSES.

I now present at other conferences, often on Internet teaching, but also on the effects of technology on our lives, and ethics in advertising.

Silent Partners: Finding Materials For Teaching Internet Courses
The Waving Hand: Facilitating Online Discussion
Trickster Fiddles with Informatics: The Social Impact of Technological Marketing Schemes

I have found a great conference to replace Emerging Issues. It is the annual conference in Orlando Florida of Social and Organizational Informatics and Cybernetics: SOIC.

Here are some of my previous papers:

Technology Has No Conscience of its Own: Trickster, Technoism, and Technology Acquisition Life Cycles
Consumer Behaviour, Social Class, and Marketing: Technoism and Digital Divisions
Ethics in the Business Classroom
Advertising and Youth Culture
Measurement in Multi-Modal Argumentation Models
Ethical Decision Making in Advertising
Business and The Environment
My ongoing work in this area concerns making the environment of the work world a friendlier place for women and for those concerned with survival of the planet
Women in Business
Images of Women in Environmental Ads (at the 13th Conference of The Association for Research on Mothering, ARM)  

Maternal Well-Being and Work Outside the Home: The Causes and Costs of Stress or ‘How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All?’” (at the 11th Conference of The Association for Research on Mothering, ARM)
 
PUMPKINS
One year, a few short days before Halloween, I presented a paper at The Motherlode Conference put on by York University's Association for Research in Mothering, founded by Professor Andrea O'Reilley. In a piece titled, "Halloween, Pumpkins, and Motherhood: Gender Differences in How We Nurture Students," I addressed an issue that had plagued me for more than twenty years, why
I could not seem to let go of the role of nurturing when I left home and went to work. Eventually, after twenty years of teaching, I decided that I never had and did not need to.

I was invited to speak at the Association for Mothering Research Conference, on “Work and Family: Pressures and Answers” York University (an area in which I have expertise rather more by researching the topic than by personal experience; I'm still working out how to balance my life better). I also worked on replicating a 30-year old study of mine on how managers treat people differently based on gender. My first novel, most likely never to be published, was based on the issues facing women who enter traditionally male-dominated professions, like Finance, or teaching business at large universities. Every writer should have a never-published first (or only) novel in the bottom drawer of the desk.

Sexism in the Media
I was interviewed by a television station filming a programme on issues of violence and advertising to children. I receive calls from journalists on this topic fairly frequently.
Consumer Behaviour
You can see me being interviewed by CBC Marketplace talking about why consumers tend not to think about or buy (enough) fire insurance.
Mentoring
I have been involved with various groups in work with mentoring programmes, including the now defunct Toronto MBA Women's Association (we figured no one had time to get to the meetings).
Channels of Distribution (My Doctoral Area)
An on-going study of the trucking industry comes out of my annoyance with reading headline-grabbing newspaper stories that too often suggest that truck drivers go off for a day's work knowing but not caring that their brakes don't work and their tires are about to fall off. I've met these truck drivers; they have lives like everyone else; they have spouses and children at home waiting for them to come back. Do you really think they deliberately put their lives at risk? I want to write something that tells the truck driver's side of the story. I have my A-Z Learner's Permit, and have actually driven a 22-wheeler

See me on my truck

The American Civil War
Born the child of an American father, I have the near-birthright fascination with this terrible period of America's history.  After the York University Faculty Association strike in 1997, I wrote a novel about the passions and emotions and lessons of the strike, but since I could not write about anything so deeply personally close to me, I set the story in the time of the American Civil War. 
Cover for A Love of War, Louise Ripley It took me twenty years, but I finally found a publisher! You can read about this book at www.mlripley.com

My hero, by the way, owned no slaves and was deeply opposed to slavery. I myself grew up as a Yankee,  despite many years living in Virginia in the U.S.

I read from the novel at the speech I gave when honoured with the Atkinson Alum Association's Award for Excellence in Teaching. You can read the brief piece from the speech here

Link to My C.V.

My Research Profile as of 2017
Professor M Louise Ripley, MBA, PhD

Research Vision:
Enhance the teaching and understanding of Business from a multidisciplinary perspective

 Research Agenda
  
Teaching on the Internet
  
Issues relevant to Marketing
     
-          In particular, relevant to Advertising Ethics
     
-          In particular, using MultiModal Argumentation model from Philosophy
Issues regarding women in Management
Issues in the intersection of Marketing and Cybernetics
Issues in the intersection of Marketing and Environmental Studies

 Completed Research Projects

  • Ripley, M Louise and Sandra Warren (2014) Sandi’s Book: Teaching Indigenous Concepts of “Clean Work” to Western Business Thought.
  • Ripley, M Louise Ripley, Strike One: The YUFA Grand Strike of 1997- A Listserv Memoir of the Business Professor Daughter of a Labour Union Organizer.

 Recent Illustrative Publications and Reviewing

  • Ripley, M Louise (2012) “Keeping Up With The Reality Show: A Ten-Years-Later Review of Surviving Teaching on the Internet”. Sixth International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics, Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, July. (Refereed Journal).
  • Ripley, M Louise (2011) “Plato, Socrates, Hunt, and Rotfeld: Eigenforms of Academic Collaboration”. The Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics 9(5):18-23 [on-line version: http://www.iiisci.org/Journal/SCI/] (Refereed Journal).
  • Member of Programme Committee, Manuscript Reviewing, Conference Session Chair, for The International Conference on Social and Organizational Informatics and Cybernetics: SOIC in the context of The International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics: IMSCI, Orlando, Florida (2007-2015).

 


York University, Toronto
© M Louise Ripley, M.B.A., Ph.D.