Communication Studies (COMM)
Description: Introduction to the discipline of communication studies through a problem centered learning approach. How communication theory can be applied to solve everyday problems in public, professional, and private lives through learning how to advocate, negotiate, and relate.
Description: Introduction to the discipline of communication studies through a problem centered learning approach. How communication theory can be applied to solve everyday problems in public, professional, and private lives through learning how to advocate, negotiate, and relate.
Description: Engage in semi-structured face-to-face discussion groups about important and polarizing social issues.
Prerequisites: Admission to the University Honors Program or by invitation.
University Honors Seminar 189H is required of all students in the University Honors Program.
Description: Topic varies.
Description: Topics vary.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Description: Independent reading or research under direction of a faculty member.
Letter grade only.
Description: Introduction to social-scientific research methods in communication studies. Location, interpretation, and application of extant communication research.
This course is a prerequisite for: COMM 489
Description: Introduction to rhetorical research methods in communication studies. Location, interpretation, and application of extant communication research. Letter grade only.
This course is a prerequisite for: COMM 489
Description: Detailed practice in composition and delivery of speeches leading to effective extemporaneous speaking. Critical analysis of contemporary speeches on vital public issues.
Prerequisites: Good standing in the University Honors Program or by invitation.
Description: Detailed practice in composition and delivery of speeches leading to effective extemporaneous speaking. Critical analysis of contemporary speeches on vital public issues will culminate in a major research paper.
Description: Practice and theory of communication to participate in and lead small group discussion and problem solving.
Description: Principles of argumentation and debate. Practice in analysis, briefing, use of evidence, reasoning, detection of fallacies, refutation, and delivery of argument.
Description: Surveys theories of visual communication to improve critical thinking about images.
Description: Introduction to fundamentals of public deliberation, advocacy, and civic engagement in a democratic society. Develop civic engagement campaigns using the resources of the rhetorical tradition.
Description: Explores the centrality of communication in contemporary, digitally-networked civic life.
Description: Examine communication processes that support organizing social change. Explore theories and case examples of how social change agents develop their voices, relationships and the organizational capacity to act on behalf of shared goals.
Description: Introduction to communication and popular culture, e.g. television, music, film, popular literature, "self help" literature, etc., using rhetorical and critical methods of analysis to understand the communicative dimension of these cultural forms to explore the complex relationship of language, visual images, mediated communication, and cultural values.
Description: Understanding the processes and challenges of interpersonal communication across a variety of relationship types. Issues of interpersonal communication in personal and professional relationships.
Letter grade only.
Description: An introduction to a variety of communication skills to help achieve maximum effectiveness on the job: verbal and listening skills, oral presentation techniques, small group problem solving/leadership, interviewing, and organizational communication.
This course is a prerequisite for: CSCE 488
Prerequisites: Permission.
Limited to members of the intercollegiate forensics squad. Tournaments from September through April.
Description: Intensive research, practice, and application of principles of argumentation and persuasion in intercollegiate debate, public address, and oral interpretation.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Pass/No Pass only.
Description: Structured professional experience for training instructor assistants to tutor, evaluate communication activities, and do other instructional assistance for communication studies courses.
Prerequisites: Communication Studies major or minor and permission
Description: Examination of theory and research around effective peer mentor communication, relationship building, and instructional practices and putting those into practice in real life situations working as mentors and trainers.
Prerequisites: Good standing in the University Honors Program, Communication Studies major or minor and permission.
Description: Examination of theory and research around effective peer mentor communication, relationship building, and instructional practices and putting those into practice in real life situations working as mentors and trainers.
Description: Introduction to the theories and concepts of intercultural and intergroup communication. Communicative processes associated with social comparison, prejudice and discrimination, and social conflict in various relational and professional contexts.
Description: Special forms of debate and public discussion. Adaptation of argument to various types of audiences. Analysis of principles of argumentation in great historical debates.
Description: Primary focus: studying and applying the principles and strategies of interviewing to practical situations; defining and discussing the applications of interviewing theory as it applies to interviewers and interviewees; and participation in interviews utilizing the strategies and techniques discussed in class including employment, counseling, informational, appraisal, complaint, reprimand, and/or persuasive.
Description: Surveys philosophical debates, legal precedents, historical case studies, and contemporary controversies in freedom of speech in the United States.
Description: Examination of the speeches and messages of the American presidents throughout history. Focus on presidents at war, presidents dispensing the duties of the office, and presidents in political crisis.
Description: Attitudes and behavior of citizens with respect to politics, how these attitudes and behaviors are shaped, how they are measured, and what influence they have on government.
Description: Overview of communication research and practice in various care contexts: client/provider interactions, provider/provider communication, communication in health care organizations, mediated messages in the marketing and promotion of health information, consumer advocacy, politics of health care.
Description: Theories and research on communication and technology (e.g., social media). Understanding how the "digital age" is shaping our personal, relational, and social experiences. Grade only.
Description: Examines the social and political implications of new forms of digital communication, including memes, algorithms, bots, artificial intelligence, image boards, and social networking
Description: Overview of process for developing, facilitating, and evaluating dialogue across difference. Includes semester-long engagement in intergroup dialogue.
Description: Examines the differences across groups in health, illness, health care access, health equity and the role of communication in defining health problems and creating intervention solutions.
Description: Introduces theories, concepts, and practices of Indigenous Communication from interdisciplinary perspectives. Emphasis on using Indigenous-centered frameworks to interrogate various phenomena relevant to the lives and realities of Indigenous peoples in North America.
Description: Introduction to theories and concepts of intergenerational communication, perceptions of aging, and attitudes about age groups. Focus on cultural variations, media and technology, personal relationships, health and health care.
Description: Theories and research in family communication and relationships. The complexity and consequences of defining and interacting in the family. The diversity of family forms and experiences.
Description: Introductory account of the role of conflict in relationships, organizations, and communities.
Description: Explores the communication behaviors that constitute leadership, preparing you to deal with problems encountered by leaders and engage the behaviors, understand the attributes, and develop the communication skills needed to lead effectively. Includes a critical analysis of the social, cultural, psychological, and emotional dynamics that shape leadership.
Description: Focus on understanding the intersections between narratives, health, and communication. Exploration of theory, research, and skills associated with narrative approaches to well-being and healthcare.
Description: Examination of how and why mental health is talked about on multiple levels (e.g. self-talk, interpersonal and family relationships, organizations, communities, policies) and how this communication relates to attitudes and behaviors about mental health.
Description: An upper-division course in the theories and perspectives of persuasion, including an examination of the dimensions, scope, and role of persuasion in our society. Critical analysis of persuasive messages, becoming familiar with persuasive research, and applying to practical situations.
Description: Introduction to theory and research in gender and communication. Emphasis on examining the relationships among gender, language, social reality, and cultural values.
Graded only
Description: Exploration of the theories, research, implications, and applications of communicative research on the nonprofit and voluntary sector. Focus on communication processes and structures that are tied to the work, people, and organizations of the nonprofit sector.
Description: Introduction to the guiding theories in organizational communication field and key communication issues in contemporary organizations. Application of theories and issues through case studies.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Description: Special topics through faculty-led education abroad program.
Description: Topic varies.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Description: Independent reading or research under direction of a faculty member.
Prerequisites: Permission
P/NP only.
Description: Structured professional experience in the field of communication studies outside of the traditional academic setting. Communication problems are confronted not as abstractions, but as specific occurrences with which the student must cope.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Pass/No Pass only.
Description: Structured research assistant experience with faculty-led research projects to provide undergraduate students interested in research processes with hands-on experience.
Description: Role of communication in the political process, with emphasis on communication strategies in political campaigns. Includes communication variables important in the political process, an application of communication theory and principles to political rhetoric, and analysis and criticism of selected political communication events.
Description: Engages the global development of race from a rhetorical and communicative perspective in order to critically understand the role of race in public life today.
Description: Explores how messages conveyed by television, film, stand-up comedy, and social media shape viewers' ideas and attitudes about feminism and contribute to both normative and emerging cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality.
Description: Examination of consent from multiple perspectives: interpersonal relationships, healthcare, social media posting, informed consent, etc. to gain a deeper understanding of how consent uniquely works within these contexts, and how to practice clear verbal requests and allocations of consent.
Description: Explores the advocacy efforts of groups seeking social and political change outside of mainstream political institutions. Analysis of social protest rhetoric--including letters, manifestos, speeches, performance, and artwork--to understand how activists have used communication to advocate for social change. Also focuses on the African American civil rights movement to understand how movement leaders and members used discursive means to alter democratic notions of citizenship, opportunity, and community. Additional movements of study may include the suffrage movement, GLBTQ and AIDS awareness movements, anti-globalization, and environmental movements.
Prerequisites: COMM 101
Description: Topic varies.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Description: Independent research leading to a thesis.
Prerequisites: Permission.
Description: Independent research leading to a thesis.