Courses
All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified.
611 Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Human Communication
Process of theory construction, theory testing, and paradigmatic change in communication. Theory relationships among normative and scientific studies. Theory types and their causal mechanisms, units of analysis, and appropriate research methodologies. Major theories compared in terms of their theoretical and metatheoretical bases. Required of all Communication graduate students; taught in fall.
613 Introduction to Theories of Social Interaction
Scholarly literature of interpersonal communication, including historical development and conceptualization, survey of current research and theoretical literature, and critique of methodologies and lines of development. Emphasis on reciprocal causal relationships between communication patterns and nature of the social order, and implications of this relationship for individual action and cultural change. Required of students specializing in this area.
620 Qualitative Methods in Research
Approaches to research, conceptualizations of problems, questions, and methodologies for the field of communication, broadly defined with an emphasis on qualitative, interpretive, feminist, critical, and cultural approaches. Introduction to methodological specialties of departmental faculty. Required of all Communication graduate students.
621 Quantitative Methods in Research
Introduction to the structure, process, and logic of quanitative empirical research in communication. Topics include research design, measurement, descriptive and inferential statistics, and basic multivariate analysis. Students expected to acquire an understanding of the ability to critique various methodological approaches and techniques. Fundamental concepts of data analysis; preparation for more advanced courses. Required of all Communication graduate students.
665 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
Review of major contemporary approaches to rhetorical theory. Includes formalism, structuralism, phenomenology, marxism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.
691B Seminar in Media Theory
Foundation course in the history and philosophy of various approaches to mass media and technology. Covers mainstream research in direct, indirect, and limited effects models. Required of students specializing in this area.
693D Introduction to Film Theory
Overvew of the major theoretical and critical approaches to the study of cinema, as well as their historical development and applications.
695S Survey of Performance Studies
This course provides an overview of performance studies, performance and performativity as theory and methodology. The various approaches to performance studies in communication are considered, as are interdisciplinary approaches, with emphasis on critical, postcolonial, feminist and pedagogical applications of theory.
712 Political Communication
Diffusion of persuasive political communications through standard and created media. Examination of campaign techniques (i.e., research on issues and themes, electorate polling, thematic media approaches, campaign strategies) in management and administration.
781 Ethnography of Communication
Exploration of ethnographic inquiry and some of its possibilities for creating insights into human communication. Basic philosophy, theory, and methodological issues.
791B Political Economy of Communication
What is political economy and how can it be applied to the study of media and (new) communication industries? This course is designed to introduce students to the intellectual history of the political economy of communication, and concludes with contemporary scholarship that reconsiders the structure-culture discussing frameworks such as transcultural political economy.
794B Critical Pedagogy
This class explores radical theories of education, their challenges and possibilities for transforming teaching and learning.
795M Performance Ethnography
This performance-based seminar focuses on the implications of decolonizing emancipatory epistemologies for critical, interpretive inquiry. The readings and assignments forefront localized critical pedagogy, critical personal narratives, decolonizing and interpretive inquiry as moral, poltitcal discourse.
796 Independent Study
Independent study in special subjects. Credit, 1-3 each semester; maximum credit, 6.
797P Media Archaeology
This course examines the development of media archaeology from its German origins. What makes the study of media technologies "archaeological" as opposed to simply being "historical"?
891 Pro-Seminar-Graduate Introduction to Communication
This one credit proseminar is designed for new graduate students (although all are welcome) and has three broad foci: (1) teaching/instructional development; (2) professional development for graduate students; and (3) topics of scholarly expertise in the Department. Credit 1.
896 Directed Research
Directed study in special subjects. Credit 1-3 each semester; maximum credit, 6
899 Doctoral Dissertation
Credit, 12.