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COMMUNICATION STUDIES DEPARTMENT
Division of Humanities Associate Professor Robert Bednar, PhD,
Chair
Assistant Professor Davi Alynne Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Julia R. Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor David Olson, MA
Visiting
Assistant Professor Jean-Olivier Tchouaffe, PhD
Assistant Professor Paige
Schilt, PhD (part-time)
Instructor Jennifer Dickinson, MA (part-time) The
Communication Studies Department focuses on critical inquiry into the
performative, relational, rhetorical, social, cultural and ideological functions
of language, performance and media. The department offers a range of courses
bound together by an interest in investigating the complex relationships among
and between communication, culture and identity. Students learn a variety of
methodologies for the qualitative analysis of communication: ethnographic and
historical approaches, as well as approaches located in contemporary feminist
theory, critical race theory, queer theory, critical media and cultural studies,
and performance studies. The Communication Studies Department thus provides
students with a strong critical and theoretical understanding of the ways in
which social reality is constructed and challenged in and through communication
patterns and practices. The Communication Studies major requires a total of 11
courses (33 hours), comprised of 7 required courses (21 hours) and 4 elective
courses (12 hours) in the major. The departmental curriculum is organized around
three cognate areas that represent the distinct, yet interrelated areas of focus
in the major: Rhetorical Traditions, Performing Culture, and Media &
Culture. Each of these three areas is represented by one of the three COM Core
Courses (75-203, 403, and 603) as well as a group of courses that represent
further interventions into the cognate areas. Rhetorical Traditions Courses are
located in the 75-200s and 75-300s (with the exception of 75-303, the general
COM Special Topics course number). Performing Culture courses are located in the
75-400s and 75-500s. Media & Culture Courses are located in the 75-600s and
75-700s. Many students take an Academic Internship as one of their upper-level
Communication Studies elective courses. Special Topics courses (75-303) and
Independent Studies (75-95x) are also available. All of the courses in the
Communication Studies major involve a significant amount of writing, research,
and creative work, but several courses even more explicitly engage in the
teaching of writing, research, and creative methods and are designated as COM
Writing Intensive Courses. In addition to two COM Foundation courses, three COM
Core Courses, and four COM major electives, students also must complete at least
one COM Writing Intensive Course and the COM Capstone Research
Seminar. Major in Communication Studies: 33
semester hours, including Communication Studies 75-133, 153, 203, 403, 603; one
from 75-213, 413, 613, 783; 75-963 (Capstone); 12 additional hours of
Communication Studies, five hours of which must be above the introductory
level. Minor in Communication Studies: 18
semester hours of Communication Studies, 12 hours of which must be above the
introductory level. See the Education Department for information regarding
teacher certification in communication studies.
Communication Studies (COM)
| 75-133 | INTRODUCTION
TO COMMUNICATION STUDIES. This course introduces theoretical and critical
perspectives relevant to the study of communication. A special focus on
narrative theory, social constructionism, symbolic interactionism, semiotics,
performance studies, cultural studies and other qualitative/interpretive
research methods enhances students’ understanding of the role that
communication plays in the construction and maintenance of culture and identity.
COM Foundation course.
(H) | | 75-153 | PUBLIC
SPEAKING. Through a wide variety of speaking formats, students will become more
comfortable with the inherently uncomfortable situation of speaking to persuade
before a critical audience. This introductory course approaches the speech of
advocacy as a means of social analysis. COM Foundation
course. | | 75-173 | INTRODUCTION
TO PERFORMANCE STUDIES. See Theatre 73-173.
(FAP) | | 75-183 | MEDIA
AND ETHICS. See Philosophy 18-143.
(H) | | 75-203 | RHETORICAL
TRADITIONS. Rhetoric is often thought of as the purview of scheming marketers
and manipulative politicians, but it is in fact a rich and contested field that
constitutes one of the oldest and most-studied arts in the Western tradition.
This course moves from Plato to “culture jamming” and far beyond in
its survey of classic, modern and contemporary rhetorical theories. COM Core
Course. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153.
(H) | | 75-213 | RHETORICAL
CRITICISM. This course critically engages diverse texts from a variety of
theoretical orientations, analyzing speeches, pictures and various mass mediated
representations in order to produce critiques that employ a range of
perspectives including feminist, critical race, psychoanalytic, and
poststructuralist theories. COM Writing Intensive Course. Prerequisites:
Communication Studies 75-133 and 153.
(H) | | 75-233 | RHETORICS
OF RESISTANCE. This course examines the ways in which rhetoric is used for
social protest. It emphasizes historical and cultural contexts as it looks at
how social movements use diverse rhetorical strategies to promote social
justice. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of
instructor.
(H) | | 75-253 | RHETORIC
& DIVERSITY. This course explores diversity as a topic and engaged practice
in the U.S., including the ways diversity is politicized and engaged in
relationships, the public sphere and/or the media. Core areas of exploration
will include how bodies are read as texts of difference or sameness, how
diversity is constructed within public spheres and how persons, institutions and
other structures interrelate to shape understandings of social identities.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-273 | RHETORICS
OF HEALTH. This class examines the intersections of communication and health by
exploring topics such as mass media representations of health issues,
communication patterns in health contexts, and the construction of identity
through discourses of health and illness. Prerequisites: Communication Studies
75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-403 | COMMUNICATION,
CULTURE, & SOCIAL JUSTICE. This course introduces the foundational,
historical and theoretical issues for the critical study of communication as
social justice, examining critical race theories, feminist theories, queer
theories, and postcolonial theories in order to establish a foundation for
understanding the ways difference is communicated to achieve social justice.
This course integrates questions of identity with those of justice, and thus
requires a strong commitment to understanding self and other. COM Core Course.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153.
(H) | | 75-413 | PERFORMING
CULTURE. This interactive, performance-based research seminar is designed to
explore the dialogical relationship between culture and performance from a
communication perspective. In general, the role of human action in (re) creating
reality and identity and the functions and dynamics of performance in the
communicative life of the individual and community will be examined.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153.
(H) | | 75-453 | RACE,
ETHNICITY, AND COMMUNICATION. This course introduces critical race theory as it
applies to the study of communication. In particular, it explores the
intersection of race/ethnicity, communication and media as it relates to issues
of social justice and identity in America. These explorations shed light on the
historical formation of racial and ethnic identities and their current social
and personal relevance. The course integrates questions of identity with those
of justice, economics and law, and will require a strong commitment to tolerance
and self-reflection. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or
consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-473 | NATIONS
AND COMMUNICATION. This course offers a critical understanding of the roles
communication and media have played in the constitution and dissolution of
national identities. Special emphasis is placed on examining how the dynamic
relationships among nations, resulting from increasing economic and
technological ties, have engendered systems of national identities. With power
at their core and mediated by information and culture, these systems of national
identities are structured within local and global ways of knowing, feeling and
acting that constitute the bases for connection (alliances) and separation
(military and cultural wars). Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and
153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-513 | ADVANCED
PERFORMANCE STUDIES. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-153 and 173. See
Theatre 73-713 and Feminist Studies 04-713.
(FAP) | | 75-523 | FEMINISM
AND PERFORMANCE. Prerequisite: Feminist Studies 04-103. See Theatre 73-723 and
Feminist Studies 04-723.
(FAP) | | 75-543 | DOCUMENTING
THE OTHER. This course examines communication and media practices used in the
United States to document the lives, experiences and world-visions of others.
Holding these practices together are differing views of “other”
people who are identified as others by their sexual, gender, racial,
geographical and/or class characteristics. The documenting practices explored
are varied: anthropological writing, ethnographic documentary, hate speech,
documentary photography, some instances of popular culture (comic-strips,
reality television), news media and educational curricula. Besides its critical
and theoretical components, the course is also hands-on, demanding that students
creatively participate in the ethical documenting of another to help them
develop a critical and ethical eye as well as learn the principles of social
responsibility and technical challenges that are involved in documenting others.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-553 | DOCUMENTING
THE SELF AND COMMUNITY. This course examines some of the ways in which
individuals and communities in the United States document their experiences,
lives and world-visions. The documenting techniques studied include literary
autobiography, comic strips, graffiti, film documentary and photography. As
varied as these documenting practices are, they play a similar social function
and are thus embedded in community-specific and historically-defined ideas about
the self and about specific representational techniques. Prerequisites:
Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-563 | GENDER
AND IDENTITY. This course explores the role communication plays in the
construction of identity and gender. Issues of identity and gender are analyzed
and discussed as they are played out in interpersonal, public and mass media
contexts. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of
instructor. Also Feminist Studies 04-563.
(H) | | 75-583 | COMMUNICATION
AND BODY POLITICS. “Body Politics” refers to the ways in which the
human body has a political history. The human body has been conceptualized,
represented and interpreted differently at various times and in various places
over the course of human history. There are signs and signals indicating the way
in which the body is produced, inscribed, replicated and often disciplined.
Using feminist theories and communication theories, this course examines body
politics in various contexts such as medicine and healing, the prison system,
gender roles and body modification (i.e. piercing and tattooing). Prerequisites:
Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor. Also Feminist
Studies 04-653.
(H) | | 75-603 | MEDIA
AND CULTURE. This course provides an introduction to the critical cultural study
of mass media, exploring media production, distribution, and consumption
contexts as well as media texts to systematically examine how and why oral,
manuscript, print, electric, electronic and digital media have been introduced,
articulated, contested, and maintained in specific historical and contemporary
cultural contexts. The course places special emphasis on theorizing the ways
that cultures shape their media and the ways that media shape their cultures.
COM Core Course. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153.
(H) | | 75-613 | JOURNALISM.
This writing-intensive course considers the character, purposes and subject
matter of documentary nonfiction narrative, with a special emphasis on the
processes of writing, critiquing and revising student-produced feature articles
for newspapers and magazines. COM Writing Intensive Course. Prerequisites:
Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-633 | RACE,
POLITICS, AND THE MEDIA. This class explores the complex political dynamics of
race relations as constructed in the media. Rhetorical methods are used to study
contemporary media coverage of race in historical and contemporary contexts.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-643 | MUSIC,
CULTURE, IDENTITY. This course explores the relationship between music, culture
and identity, including the role of musical forms in shaping reality and
identity formation. Assuming that music is inherently political in its
form, content, performance and consumption, the course examines how
identity is constructed through our musical activities, including a focus on
music as a) a form, b) a generator of style, c) a focal point for identifying
with (fan) communities and d) as a way of defining self and other.
Particular attention will be paid to the ways social identities are constructed
and navigated through musical forms and within musical communities, including a
focus on gender, sexuality, nationality, ‘race,’ and class.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133 and 153, or consent of instructor.
Also Feminist Studies 04-643.
(H) | | 75-653 | NEW
LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA. This course provides a historical and critical
perspective on the social conditions, philosophical-aesthetic positions,
narrative strategies and particular national histories of New Latin American
Cinema (NLAC), a form of filmmaking that originated in Latin America in the
1950s in reaction to Hollywood practices and emphasized the social and political
dimensions of cinema. Often called Third Cinema, NLAC became quite relevant to
the Latin American and Third World cultural environments from the 1960s on,
where it became equated to “revolutionary cinema” that used a
radical aesthetics to express the reality of oppression and the possibility of
freedom in nationally specific ways. Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133
and 153, or consent of instructor.
(H) | | 75-673 | FILM
STUDIES. This course introduces students to critical, analytical and theoretical
approaches to the study of film. To explore the complex role that cinema has
played in American mass society since the early 20th century, special emphasis
is placed on the study of institutional practices at all levels of the
production, distribution, and exhibition of films as well as the “ways of
seeing” and the “ways of doing” that guide both filmmakers and
audiences who use film as a communication medium.
(H) | | 75-783 | VISUAL
COMMUNICATION. This course explores approaches to the production and analysis of
visual media texts that have emerged in the fields of visual communication,
media studies, visual culture and cultural studies. Critical attention is
directed to the major products of mass media industries—especially
advertisements, film, fiction/nonfiction television programs and Web
sites—but also to popular forms of photography, desktop publishing,
multimedia, technical illustrations and educational materials. Writing and
production techniques are incorporated through individual and group projects and
culminate in the collaborative production of student website projects.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133, 153, 603.
(H) | | 75-963 | CAPSTONE
RESEARCH SEMINAR. This course requires students to integrate and extend work
done throughout the Communication Studies major by producing a significant
research project or creative work project within the context of a specific
course topic. Offered every Fall and Spring. Topics and instructors vary.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies 75-133, 153, 203, 403, and
603. | | 75-001, 002, 003,
004 | SELECTED TOPICS. May be repeated with change in
content. | | 75-301, 302, 303,
304 | SELECTED TOPICS. May be repeated with change in
content. | | 75-901, 902, 903,
904 | TUTORIAL. | | 75-941,
942, 943, 944 | ACADEMIC INTERNSHIP. Must be taken on a
Pass/D/F basis. May be repeated with change in content, but no more than six
hours of Internship credit will count towards the
major. | | 75-951, 952, 953,
954 | INDEPENDENT STUDY. May be repeated with change in
content, but no more than six hours of Independent Study credit will count
towards the
major. | | 75-983 | HONORS.
By invitation only. Satisfies the Capstone Experience for the
major. |
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