Biographical Notes on James W. Carey

The late James Carey was the dean in both the formal and honorific senses of the word for the study of communications and society. These notes are an attempt to trace the highlights of his career by his former research fellow. There is some attempt to correlate Carey’s transitions from graduate student to junior professor to dean at the University of Illinois U-C to an endowed chair professor at Columbia University with the evolutions in his interests. Carey’s writings concerned the philosophy of communication, economics, media and technology, cultural studies, democratic discourse, and the role of journalism.