CMNS 201 | BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will provide students with opportunities to understand the role communication (interpersonal, group, virtual, and public) has in business contexts. Students will learn the components of communication, typical business communication challenges (from small businesses to multinational corporations), productive conflict management techniques, how to identify and dismantle discriminatory systems, and how to develop an engaging, dynamic, and inclusive communication style, while writing to and speaking with others in professional settings. (Formerly ORGC 201)
CMNS 205 | COMMUNICATION, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examines the relationships among culture, communication, institutions, and public and private life. Students explore the possibilities and problems of contemporary forms of community through service in community organizations or through extensive individual or group research projects. The course also fulfills the junior year experiential learning requirement through community based service learning.
CMNS 211 | INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
An introduction to the factors that shape communication between two people. Topics include self-concept formation, perception, message formation, verbal and nonverbal communication, active listening, and defensiveness. (Formerly RELC 211)
CMNS 212 | EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN TEAMS AND SMALL GROUPS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Develop the communicative skills needed to build and sustain creative, inclusive teams. Students will learn about the varied types of teams and small groups encountered in and outside of the workplace with the opportunity to build their skills through self-assessment and team activities. Learn how to build a team that you would want to belong to - and how to increase that team's possibility of success. Class topics focus on learning and applying effective models for team problem-solving, building cohesion, conflict management, leadership, and creativity. (Formerly ORGC 212)
CMNS 221 | HOW LANGUAGE WORKS: INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The focus of this course is on linguistics as the study of how language works in the minds and brains of its speakers, taking an approach that focuses on the mental representation of language. We develop a theory of language knowledge that includes knowledge of sound systems, sentence structure, and meaning, and along the way we investigate data from diverse languages to illustrate how linguists think and reason. We also draw connections between linguistic knowledge and other types of cognition, as well as connections between linguistics and related fields, including philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience.
CMNS 230 | PERFORMANCE: COMMUNICATION, CREATIVITY AND THE BODY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Introduction to performance studies, examining the persuasive, cultural, and artistic dimensions of embodied communication. Through "on our feet" engagement, students will study the role of identity, aesthetics, space, genre, and literary form in their experience with cultural texts, including poetry, prose, and narratives. Involves critical and creative analyses of texts in preparation and reflection of live performance. The course explores the how the body, voice, and movement are central to artistry and meaning. (Formerly INTC 230)
CMNS 251 | ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course focuses on the central role that communication plays in contemporary organizations. Throughout the class, we draw on a variety of theoretical and analytical tools to review the different communication strategies managers use to coordinate and control the activities of their employees. We also discuss best practices for managing dysfunctional communication at work. Additional topics may include new employee orientation and socialization, individual and team communication strategies to achieve organizational goals, managing on-the-job communication stressors, power and resistance, and navigating new information technologies for on-site and remote work. (Formerly ORGC 251)
CMNS 280 | INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA SKILLS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to the necessary skills for digital media content creation. Students learn about conceptual and technical skills related to digital media. The course provides an introduction to tools and platforms used to produce online content.
CMNS 282 | STATISTICS IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The study of human communication involves observing patterns in human interaction and message behavior. This course introduces students to the statistics most relevant to the field of human communication. Course activities emphasize quantitative reasoning; the measurement of communication variables; performing statistical analyses (e.g., correlation, regression, t-test, ANOVA); interpreting and communicating statistical results; and ethical considerations in data collection, analysis, and research conclusions.
MAT 120 is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 290 | COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP (VARIABLE TOPICS) | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course allows students to sample a range of hands on, practical offerings in communication that can enhance their knowledge and expertise. Topics offered include survey design and focus groups. (2 quarter hours)
CMNS 291 | RESEARCH METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to the study of communication through the observation and analysis of empirical (i.e. aspects of the observable world) data. It will stress how to form appropriate questions from the theories (or hunches, dreams etc.) and rigorously test these propositions (quantitatively and qualitatively) to see how well they correspond to the world outside ourselves. An added benefit of the course will be to show how to be a more informed judge of the claims of others. The format of the course is lecture/discussion. Students cannot earn credit for both CMNS 291 and PRAD 291.
CMNS 300 | MUSIC INDUSTRIES AND CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course critically examines music as a form of cultural communication and as a media industry. Students learn about historical changes in the music business, contemporary issues that industry insiders negotiate, do-it-yourself alternatives to mainstream industry practices, and how music functions as a unique source for collective fandom. Cannot earn credit in conjunction with "MCS 368: Music Industries" class.
CMNS 301 | AUDIO DOCUMENTARY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course uses hands-on projects so that students can explore the steps in the process of creating an audio documentary. Through practical application students consider questions that surround the interpretation of cultural experience. Additionally, students analyze a variety of approaches to audio documentary in an effort to understand better this significant form of storytelling.
CMNS 303 | TOPICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND GROUP COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Topics covered in this course might include: political campaign communication, nonprofit and social impact communication, internal communication and employee development, democratic participation in organizations, diversity and team building, gender in the workplace, communication and customer service, assessment and intervention in organizations, comparative management, etc. (Formerly ORGC 357)
CMNS 304 | COMMUNICATION, CODING & ENTREPRENEURSHIP | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students from College of Computing and Digital Media and the College of Communication will use communication theory to solve problems by implementing web-based solutions using an entrepreneurial framework. Students will learn how communication theory and web design can complement each other to create a web/app-based business. No coding experience needed for communication students.
CMNS 305 | PERFORMANCE STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The course traces the shift from the field of Oral Interpretation to the emergence of Performance Studies as a discipline, with particular attention to the primary theorists and practitioners who have set the foundation and scope of the field of Performance. Taking an historical approach to the development of the field, the course will explore performance epistemologies, performative methodologies, and performative theories, offering students the opportunity to study and engage contemporary approaches to performance research.
CMNS 306 | TOPICS IN PRESENTATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Courses offer advanced analysis of presentational forms. Students will enact presentational theories in relational, small group, or public communication contexts.
CMNS 307 | TOPICS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examines intensively one or more issues in Communication Studies. The topics differ each term focusing on a particular area of discourse, such as environmental communication, political communication, and discourse analysis, among other topics. (Formerly INTC 307)
CMNS 308 | TOPICS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examination of cultural communication in different intercultural contexts. Courses might include language and culture, multicultural issues, social justice, international issues, and cultural industries. (Formerly INTC 308)
CMNS 309 | INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
As the world has become immensely and intricately connected through immigration/diaspora, travel, technology, and intercultural trade, it's imperative to equip ourselves with knowledge and understanding of the dynamic and complex international cultures as well as the impact of globalization on individual countries. This course is intended to introduce concepts, theories, practices, and experiences of international/global communication from scholarly research and empirical studies. It focuses on issues of history, power relations, cultural norms and practices, intersectionality of identities, effects of media/social media, international conflict, and community building through dialogues and common goals in the international/global context.
CMNS 311 | TOPICS IN RELATIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores specialized topic within the field of interpersonal communication. Past topics have included: emotions & communication, gender & its relation to interaction, the "social construction" of interpersonal realities, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
CMNS 312 | EVOLUTION AND COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This seminar explores how communication, across a variety of topics, can be understood with respect to the theory of evolution. Specifically, this course examines how millions of years of human evolution influences how people interact in their personal and social relationships. (Formerly RELC 312)
CMNS 313 | NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course surveys various conceptual areas generally subsumed under the broad rubric of nonverbal communication. Topics include: physical appearances, gestures, face and eye behavior, vocalics, proxemics, touch, time, environmental contexts as well as application of nonverbal behaviors to specific interpersonal communication contexts. (Relational, Group, Organizational) (Formerly RELC 313)
CMNS 314 | FAMILY COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course surveys topics relevant to understanding communication phenomena in the setting of the family. Topics include: family systems, patterns, meaning, themes, roles and types, family life cycles, stressors and conflict, changing family forms and contexts. (Relational, Group, Organizational) (Formerly RELC 314)
CMNS 315 | HEALTH COMMUNICATION | 4-6 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This survey course examines communication as the principle means by which health care is delivered, understood, and experienced. The course surveys the theory and practice of communication as it relates to health in a range of contexts (e.g. interpersonal, small group, organizational, public and/or mediated contexts) with a particular emphasis on critical thinking.
CMNS 316 | COMMUNICATION AND DECISION-MAKING IN GROUPS AND TEAMS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students will examine different approaches to individual decision-making, discuss unique characteristics of groups and teams, assess factors that contribute to the success and failure of group decision-making, and focus on theories and research to enhance our individual and group/team decision-making practices. (Formerly ORGC 316)
CMNS 317 | PERFORMANCE OF RITUAL | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Participating in and performing rituals is part of what makes us human. Rituals develop and define cultural life. Rituals in modern life include macro events like the transfer of power in a government as well as micro rites of passage, known as "coming of age" events, whether defined experientially (acquiring a driver's license) or chronologically (turning 21). Here in the United States, many so-called rituals have an ambiguous purpose while others are clearly defined. In this course we will be looking at a range of rituals and the communicative and symbolic elements connected to the performance of them. We will examine, for example, the ritual of acquiring a tattoo, voting, participation in a marriage ceremony, rituals surrounding birth and death, as well as the absence of rituals for life-changing events (i.e. divorce/break up and miscarriage). We will ask as many questions as we answer: What roles do ritual, myth, and symbol play in human experience and everyday life? How do rituals reflect, produce, or deflect reality? How do they reinforce socio-political power structures while potentially providing options for resistance?.
CMNS 318 | CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the role of communication in the development, maintenance, and deterioration of romantic attachments. Topics include attraction, intimacy and self-disclosure, attachment beliefs, jealousy, satisfaction, commitment, trust, betrayal, conflict, autonomy, interdependence, etc. (Relational) (Formerly RELC 318)
CMNS 319 | THE DARK SIDE OF PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the "dark side" of interpersonal communication by examining the growing literature on the troubling or problematic aspects of close relationships. Topics covered include relational dilemmas, relational control and dominance, hurtful messages, paradoxical communication, social predicaments, relational transgressions, privacy violations, physical abuse, verbal aggression, etc. (Formerly RELC 319)
CMNS 320 | DECEPTIVE COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores the use of deceptive communication in social and personal relationships from a range of theoretical perspectives including ethics, evolutionary biology, linguistics, social and developmental psychology and jurisprudence. (Formerly RELC 320)
CMNS 322 | PERFORMING IDENTITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
In this performance presentation course, students creatively explore and reflect upon how their own identities are represented, embodied and communicated within contemporary culture. Enlisting voice, body and visual media, students will make performance works that challenge, theorize and re-imagine who they are, how they understand themselves, and who they might be. The course is an artistic and self-reflexive exploration of how identity is constructed (and resisted) through language, social systems, pop culture, historical memory, and social media.
CMNS 323 | SOCIAL MOVEMENTS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the rhetoric of social movements throughout American History. As a rhetoric class, the focus is primarily on the symbolic creation of movements in order to provide background of the political and social events that gave rise to the movement. Using readings from a variety of sources, we will investigate the discursive construction of power as it relates to society and politics. The class will take a case-study approach to examining social movement rhetoric, exploring the discourse that has served to resist oppressive, or perceptively oppressive, systems. (Formerly INTC 323)
CMNS 324 | CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Introduces students to the critique of our consumer culture. Teaches students how to be critical consumers and understand how to be critical consumers and understand how we consume lifestyles, images, aesthetics, and desire through our shopping patterns. Provides theoretical, observational, and critical tools that allow students to critique patterns of consumption, the production of culture through consumption, and how consumption is a means of communication. (Formerly INTC 324)
CMNS 325 | PROMOTING SUSTAINABILITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Provides a foundation in the communication skills necessary for achieving conservation goals. Introduces communication approaches such as social marketing, citizen participation, public campaigns, and environmental interpretation that have proven effective in the work of conservation professionals. (Formerly INTC 325)
CMNS 326 | ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND RHETORIC | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Rhetorical perspective on environmental public discourse. Course also explores the relationship between rhetorically constituted ideas about nature and the development of political and social ideas, institutions, and practices that inform our understanding of the human place in the environment. (Formerly INTC 326)
CMNS 327 | RESEARCHING RELATIONSHIPS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Researching Relationships provides an overview of the concepts, methods and tools by which interpersonal/relational research is designed, conducted, interpreted, and critically evaluated. Quantitative, qualitative, and critical interpersonal/relational research will be examined. The primary goals of the course are to help students become knowledgeable consumers and producers of relational communication research by developing skills in gathering, organizing, interpreting and presenting research information using informed, competent, and ethical methods.
CMNS 329 | PERSUASION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores major theoretical assumptions of current persuasion research. Examines causes and effects of effective and ineffective persuasion. Analyzes persuasive skills and strategies for a variety of persuasion applications, e.g. political, interpersonal, intercultural, and advertising. (Formerly RELC 329)
CMNS 330 | TOPICS IN PERFORMANCE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Advanced study in performance focusing on a specific genre each quarter such as: Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Drama or Chamber Theater. Other possibilities include: performing autobiography; life performances; ritual, ceremony, and storytelling; and radio and television performances. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab. (Formerly INTC 330)
CMNS 331 | COMMUNICATION FIELDWORK | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Provides students with experience conducting qualitative research, including data collection techniques, data coding and analysis, as well as interpretation of data and writing ethnographic reports. In addition to providing practical hands-on training in ethnographic research, this course serves to explore the theory, ethics, and politics behind various research methodologies. (Formerly INTC 331)
CMNS 333 | CULTURES IN CONVERSATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Whenever we communicate, we show parts of our identities, perspectives, values, and norms. In short, when we interact with others, we reveal culture. Because we are cultural beings and we each belong to various cultural groups, interactions can often backfire and misunderstandings may occur. This course teaches a specialized way to listen for culture in conversation in order to become competent and successful communicators no matter the context. Whether you are navigating difficult relationships with family and friends, or attempting to succeed at work and school, this course will help you learn strategies to decipher cultures in conversation and become competent navigators of cultural misunderstandings.
CMNS 334 | URBAN COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examines relationships between material features of the city and symbolic representations of urban life (e.g., photography, film, songs, public discourse) with the goal of understanding the city as a site of communication. Special attention is paid to expressions of hope for and fear of the city. (Formerly INTC 334)
CMNS 335 | LATINX COMMUNICATION, ADVOCACY AND COMMUNITY BUILDING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students will examine the relationships between Latino cultures, communication, institutions, and public and private life. Message crafting and relationship building for strategic objectives will be examined through the lens of multiculturalism. This course will teach students how to manage diversity issues for Latino community organizations, management, and policy advocacy.
CMNS 336 | STORYTELLING: COMMUNICATION AS NARRATIVE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Scholars suggest that the oldest form of communication is storytelling. Narrative theories and methodologies form a substantive core throughout the history of human communication praxis. This course responds to the contemporary resurgence of narrative and highlights its communicative aspects. Rooted in both the oral and literary traditions, this course builds and enhances skills for those who would like to use storytelling in various ways including: 1) storytelling as a teaching tool, 2) giving structure to personal narratives, 3) developing a repertoire of stories, and 4) improving general presentation skills.
CMNS 337 | ASIAN-AMERICAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The course takes an interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of the media images and explores issues of power, identity, race, gender, class, sexual orientation and the interaction of these factors in the representation of Asian Americans. (Formerly INTC 337)
CMNS 338 | ASIAN CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Reviews major Asian philosophical and religious traditions such as Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism and examines how these traditions influence and affect Asian cultures and communication behaviors, particularly communication among Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Asian Americans in various contexts. (Formerly INTC 338)
CMNS 339 | PERFORMANCE OF GENDER & SEXUALITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed to give students an opportunity to experiment, explore, and reflect upon the performative dimensions of gender and sexuality. Using aesthetic performance as a point of entry, students will view, analyze, and generate performance work that interrogates the communicative, political, and transformative potentials of embodied actions. With an emphasis on the intersections of gender and sexuality, the course will move through three units of reading, discussion, viewing, and performance creation. (Formerly INTC 329)
CMNS 340 | COMMUNICATING & DATING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The goal of this course is provide students with a research-based understanding of the role of communication within dating relationships. Accordingly, this course traces the life-cycle of a dating relationship. Specifically, this course begins by examining initial interactions that are potentially romantic and could turn into dating interactions. Next, the course focuses on how people engage in dating relationships and the factors that influence relationships. Finally, the course concludes with what happens after dating (i.e., long term commitment/marriage, relational termination, or the death of a partner). (Formerly RELC 340)
CMNS 341 | COMMUNICATION NETWORKS IN A DIGITAL AGE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The social world is a vastly complicated network consisting of more than eight billion individuals. Network theory has long been the purview of mathematicians, computer scientists and physicists; however, this course alternatively examines the dynamics of networks from a social perspective. We consider how networks impact relational/organizational life, communication and community, and link people around the world through digital communication.
CMNS 342 | LIVING ONLINE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
An overview of how people use communication technology in their everyday life. Examines a variety of communication technology in interpersonal and organizational contexts. Focus is on the appropriate and effective use of mediated communication and surveys issues including trust, privacy, identity, and relational communication.
CMNS 343 | WORK/FAMILY COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course focuses on communication at the intersections of paid work and family life. Students will approach work/family "balance" as an essentially communicative process. Throughout the quarter, students will critically analyze how communication and discourse at micro- (interpersonal), meso- (organizational), and macro- (cultural) levels enables and constrains individuals and organizations as they navigate and manage the work/family interface.
CMNS 344 | MINDFULNESS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the role of mindfulness in everyday interaction. It explores how mindfulness practices can influence how people related to each other, create mutually beneficial partnerships, and help each other achieve their personal, social and relational goals. This course also examines how to apply the knowledge and skills regarding mindfulness to other contexts through the entrepreneurial process. In other words, how can principles of mindfulness be used to create value for others?.
CMNS 345 | THE DARK WEB | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The World Wide Web has developed into an incredibly powerful social force creating a new world of opportunities for human interaction, for better and for worse. This course examines the digital underworld also known as the Dark Web. The Dark Web is a sprawling yet secretive network, which provides a haven for behavior that may or may not be illegal, but is often deemed radical, unethical or immoral. Literature that examines the difficulty in maintaining the delicate balance between privacy and protection, as well as freedom and regulation in virtual spaces will be covered. Students will explore topics including trolling, exploitative content, illegal markets, and cryptocurrencies.
CMNS 346 | SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an overview of methodological choices for analyzing social media platforms, users, and messages. Students will learn a variety of techniques and concepts including reading analytic reports, basics of social network analysis, language processing, data visualization, and content analysis. Students will also engage in forming appropriate research questions and ethical considerations in internet research.
CMNS 348 | COMMUNICATING HEALTH, RACE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines "the political" that arises from women's bodies and reproductive rights and practices. In this course, we will grapple with theories on how race, media representations of blackness and power intersect within the context of the female body. We will begin with a theoretical framework for our readings and discussions then we will delve into the history of women and reproduction as it relates to power; this history will focus primarily on women of the Black Diaspora which will include indigenous women of the Americas and Latinas. We will also interrogate various race-based case studies as both a force for change and for reinforcing hegemonic discourse. Among the issues we will engage are the constructions and representations of blackness and how race and reproduction relates to underlying factors such as globalization, racism, sexism, classism, and resistance. A crucial part of our task in this course is to think critically and complexly about the roles of race and racism as it pertains to the female body and reproduction within our contemporary world.
CMN 103 is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 349 | DIGITAL MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course covers fundamental principles of law and ethics with specific attention to uses and applications of digital communication technologies. The class explores the interplay of law (the rights and freedoms granted to citizens under the First Amendment and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and applied ethics (the range of civic and professional responsibilities under consideration as citizens exercise these rights) with a focus on critical issues concerning communication technology. Emphasis will be placed on the legal privileges, regulatory limitations, and ethical issues that specifically concern digital media and information technologies within the broader context of communication law and ethics. The course focuses on legal rights and ethical responsibilities within the American framework but also includes comparative analysis with other nations and cultures to empower students to appreciate and contrast other legal and ethical decision-making frameworks.
CMNS 350 | TOPICS IN COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Advanced study of the relationships between communication and technology. Varied topics.
CMNS 351 | MASTERING EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION: STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Skillful communication lies at the heart of all effective employee management practice. This course reviews research and best practices in effective communication with employees. Topics covered include: recruitment and selection; orientation and socialization; crafting policies; performance appraisal; professional development; and leaving the organization. This course is particularly useful to those who see themselves working in Human Resources or supervising other employees at work. (Formerly ORGC 360)
CMNS 352 | COMMUNICATION AND THE CORPORATE CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Focuses on the communicative implications of such cultural elements as values, heroes, rites, rituals, symbolism and storytelling. Analyzes and presents ways of adapting to the diverse components of a culture. (Formerly ORGC 352)
CMNS 353 | COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Change is a constant in organizations. Students will examine how culture, leadership, and organizational members influence, and are influenced by, change. Learn how organizational leaders anticipate, facilitate, and implement change - and how to become an agent for change yourself. (Formerly ORGC 353)
CMNS 354 | EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the theory and practice of on the job interviewing and is especially helpful to those students who will soon graduate and transition into the world of full-time work. Through the class, you will have the opportunity to practice your interviewing skills in simulated probing and employment screening interviews. While the principal emphasis of the class is on the employment screening interview, many interviewing skills and pitfalls that translate equally well to other interview contexts.
CMNS 355 | CONFLICT MANAGEMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examines the process of conflict in interpersonal and organizational contexts. Focuses upon the causes, types, and theories of conflict as well as upon practical approaches to dispute resolution. Topics include: social cognition, emotion, and power in conflict; personal conflict style(s); cultural and contextual factors; conflict tactics and messaging; destructive versus constructive interaction cycles; and negotiation and resolution strategies.
CMNS 356 | COMMUNICATION CONSULTING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Interested in consulting as a career or as a side hustle? This project-based learning course matches students with a real client to complete a consulting project while also learning about the contemporary consulting industry. Students can expect to learn how to develop expertise, build and maintain client relationships, anticipate and navigate client concerns, and complete a project as an internal or external consultant for a client organization. May be cross-listed with CMNS 205: Communication, Community, and Culture. (Formerly ORGC 356)
CMNS 357 | DARK SIDE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores the unsavory communication dimensions and dysfunctions of organizational life - and how to overcome them. Attention will be devoted to examining and trouble-shooting harmful organizational communication activities like incivility, bullying and violence, social ostracism, gossip, prejudice and discrimination, sexual harassment, group (dy)synergies, and stress and burnout. (Formerly ORGC 355)
CMNS 358 | DIVERSITY, LEADERSHIP, & TEAM BUILDING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Learn how teams can benefit from thoughtful leadership and intentional focus on diversity and inclusion during team formation. Class materials will focus on various leadership theories and research, and their applications to leadership issues in real-life organizational teams. Students will acquire knowledge about what separates successful leaders from their unsuccessful counterparts, learn analytical tools to observe, diagnose, and choose appropriate responses to different leadership and team-related problems, and have opportunities to recognize and reflect on one's own leadership skills in a team context. (Formerly ORGC 358)
CMNS 359 | THE FUTURE OF REMOTE AND VIRTUAL TEAMS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Teamwork skills are consistently ranked high as one of the top qualities that employers look for in new hires. Cultivate the necessary communication skills to thrive in virtual or remote teams that require communication technologies for collaboration. Students will learn how to contribute to and lead teams that may span cultural, temporal, disciplinary, and geographic boundaries. Students should expect to participate in a virtual team of their own through online simulations, discussions, and team projects. This course may be offered in an online or hybrid environment (Formerly ORGC 359)
CMNS 360 | RELATIONAL, GROUP, AND ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course surveys relevant theoretical developments in the field of communication. While exploring the major theoretical paradigms that inform and guide the study of human communication, students receive insight into the significance and meaning of their own day-to-day communication activities and discover how theories provide complementary and viable explanations for analyzing as well as assessing the impact of communication in relational, group and organizational contexts.
CMNS 361 | GENDER AND COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students will discover the intricate relationship between gender, communication, and culture. The course focuses on how gender influences communication, how gender gets communicated, and how communication reflects, refracts, shapes, and revises our understandings of gender and what it means to be gendered beings. Further, the course asks what role culture plays in the communication of our gendered identities. Students work toward recognizing societal expectations of gender while discovering how we may use communication, as gendered beings, in order to improve our lives, both individually and collectively.
CMNS 362 | SOUND AND VISION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to unique ways that photography and audio documentary can blend together. The course will combine documentary and experimental production to help students learn to create audio documentary and visual projects and to work in mixed-media contexts.
CMNS 363 | CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Individuals make up their minds on climate change, energy development, and other science of pressing public policy importance through a complex set of factors: values, demographics, political ideology, and so on. Journalists, strategic communicators, scientists, and policy analysts need to be able to communicate effectively with diverse public audiences on climate and energy topics. This course is oriented from a science communication perspective and draws on social scientific research on communicating on climate change and energy issues. We will take a human perspective on climate issues and focuses on the social, political and cultural aspects of climate change. The course covers best practices for promoting and facilitating public dialogue on climate change policy and global energy systems. Topics covered include: climate change public opinion and knowledge, media portrayals of climate change and its societal effects, climate skepticism and denial, psychological factors that contribute to values and beliefs on climate science, journalism and covering climate issues, framing and developing narratives on climate impacts, and climate change in popular culture. Students will conduct original research to analyze and evaluate climate change communication. For the final project, students have the option of completing a major journalistic reporting project, designing an advocacy or marketing campaign, or conducting a research project. (Cross-listed with JOUR 311)
CMNS 364 | PERFORMING MY FUTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
No one knows their future, yet images, anxieties and narratives of the future are ever-present. We live our lives navigating the known and unknown, the tangible and the imagined. This capacity to conjure visions and representations of the future is a uniquely human process, marking a space for artistic exploration, creative imagination and yet-to-be sketched potential. In this class, we will study a range of artistic forms?including performance art, poetry, prose, music, painting and sculpture --- to examine how time and the future are negotiated a gallery of creative expression. Our examination of the art then opens up the opportunity for us to become the art, wherein students will create three live multimedia performance projects. These projects will enlist body, voice, text sound, visual media, movement and audience in a creative examination of differing futures, while reflecting on their process of creation. In these three performances (one solo, one duo and one group), students will investigate, contemplate and creatively express the stories of future from their youth, their current images of future, and the future not-yet imaginable. What lies beyond our most wild of speculations? This course invites us into this creative unknown.
CMNS 365 | ARGUMENTATION, ADVOCACY, AND DELIBERATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The primary purpose of this course is to equip students with a heightened capacity for reasoning so that they will be better prepared to participate in argumentation, advocacy, and deliberation in a number of contexts (academic, work place, public life). This course focuses on critical thinking, effective argumentation, and civil dialogue. Students in the class will develop and evaluate reasoned arguments; practice the skills of critical thinking; and deliver class presentations.
CMNS 366 | COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Survey of a variety of contemporary and historical issues related to the introduction and diffusion of communication technologies in society. Especially examines how new technologies, particularly the Internet, are transforming the communication landscape. Emphasis on issues of intellectual property, surveillance, privacy, regulation, message construction, and access will be central to this course.
CMNS 367 | PERFORMANCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
There is no greater obstacle facing our culture right now than the intensified divisions that exist in our politics and the inability to speak with and listen to those who do not agree with our positions. As a special topics course focusing on polarization in our society, this class will focus on the role of performance and creative intervention (theater, poetry, aesthetics communication) as a tool to facilitate dialogues across difference. Practical and applied in its design, this course will call for students to examine what it means to seek out and sit with differences in perspective, listen to differences in understanding and work to bridge disparate worldviews. Students will challenge their own communication practices, engage and practice difficult dialogues, script, and stage performance work that works to foster discussion within and across disagreement.
CMNS 369 | PERFORMANCE OF HUMOR | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides a critical and performative exploration into the role of humor and comedy in our social world. Often layered, complex, and contested, the communicative and critical workings of humor mark an ongoing site of cultural struggle, cultural tension, and heated debate. This course engages humor from a performative lens, which calls for us to consider the embodied, contextual, relational, historical, and political dimensions of comedy. The first unit in the course offers a broad theoretical framework to discuss the doings of humor, as well as providing a foundational class vocabulary in the concepts of satire, irony, parody, ideology, performance, performativity, and the absurd. The second section looks to the construction of the ironic persona as a site of humor and a tool for cultural criticism, reflection, and parody. The third unit, coinciding with the November election, looks to political satire as a tool for questioning, challenging, and complicating sedimented cultural systems, performances, and beliefs. Finally, the last unit broadens out our understanding of comedy to explore the notion of harmony, looking to humor as a space for disrupting hierarchies of power and building alternative forms of community.
CMNS 371 | PERFORMANCE OF RITUAL | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Participating in and performing rituals is part of what makes us human. Rituals develop and define cultural life. Rituals in modern life include macro events like the transfer of power in a government as well as micro rites of passage, known as "coming of age" events, whether defined experientially (acquiring a driver's license) or chronologically (turning 21). Here in the United States, many so-called rituals have an ambiguous purpose while others are clearly defined. In this course we will be looking at a range of rituals and the communicative and symbolic elements connected to the performance of them. We will examine, for example, the ritual of acquiring a tattoo, voting, participation in a marriage ceremony, rituals surrounding birth and death, as well as the absence of rituals for life-changing events (i.e. divorce/break up and miscarriage). We will ask as many questions as we answer: What roles do ritual, myth, and symbol play in human experience and everyday life? How do rituals reflect, produce, or deflect reality? How do they reinforce socio-political power structures while potentially providing options for resistance?.
CMNS 373 | INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION, POWER, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is organized around the central question: how does interpersonal communication reinforce, maintain, or resist dominant power relations in our relationships, families, organizations, and communities? In it, students will apply critical interpersonal communication scholarship and theory to a range of topics, with a focus on how interpersonal interactions contribute to the equitable or inequitable distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges in society.
CMNS 377 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES: CUSTOMER SERVICE COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
CMNS 382 | APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
In this course, students apply quantitative research methods to answer questions about human communication. Students pose research questions, select and design quantitative measures, collect quantitative data, conduct descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, and interpret results.
LSP 121 (or MAT 137 or MAT 242 or PSY 240 or SOC 279) is a prerequisite for this course.
CMNS 393 | COMMUNICATION STUDIES PRACTICUM | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Structured and supervised student participation in group presentations for various audiences. Includes practical experience in research, rehearsal and performance. Students may take a maximum of 2 credit hours in one quarter, 4 credit hours in the major, and 8 total credit hours. Written permission of supervising faculty member and of the departmental chair is necessary before registration.
CMNS 394 | ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICUM | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Structured and supervised student participation group presentations for various audiences. Includes practical experience in research, rehearsal and performance. Students may take a maximum of 2 credit hours in one quarter, 4 credit hours in the major, and 8 total credit hours. (2 quarter hours) (Formerly ORGC 393)
CMNS 500 | FOUNDATIONS IN GRADUATE COMMUNICATION STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course provides an orientation and introduction to graduate study in Communication and Media in the College of Communication; including graduate program policies, faculty, DePaul resources, the broader academic discipline of Communication and potential pathways for program graduates. In addition, the course explains relevant research paradigms and methodologies, while emphasizing the breadth and interconnectedness of communication contexts (relationships, organizations, media, culture). Students will develop a personalized study plan and a literature review on their area of research interest. This class will integrate student participation, active learning, and diverse disciplinary perspectives. Students will be required to participate in small group discussions and submit papers and other written assignments.
Status as a Graduate Communication student, Health Communication student, or Relational Communication student is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 501 | COMMUNICATION IN CULTURAL CONTEXTS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course examines the relationship between culture and communication in various international and co-cultural contexts. It analyzes theories, concepts, personal narratives, and empirical studies on inter cultural and multicultural communication. It engages students in dialogues and reflections of the readings and familiarizes students with various approaches to intercultural communication studies. The course aims to develop students' self-reflectivity, critical thinking and analytical skills in the observation, interpretation, and understanding of communication in various cultural contexts. Formerly CMN 501.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 506 | SEMINAR IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course focuses on communication between individuals in the context of personal and professional relationships. Various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of interpersonal communication, major interpersonal communication dynamics and processes, and contemporary concerns of interpersonal communication researchers and practitioners will be discussed. Students will critique and apply interpersonal scholarship to address communication problems in personal and professional contexts.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 507 | ATTACHMENT & RELATIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will explore the unique role that attachment styles play in the formation, maintenance, and deterioration of close relationships. Attachment theory will be used to examine how working models of self and other influence patterns of interaction among relational partners. Topics will include how attachment styles influence self-disclosure, conflict resolution, jealousy and deceptive communication. Students will also explore communicative strategies for dealing with attachment related problems.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 509 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Course covers a variety of topics that address theories about multicultural communication such as culture, gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 510 | APPLIED COMMUNICATION: THEORIES AND CASES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course provides students with a review of foundational and leading-edge theories of human communication, examined in contexts of practical significance. Coursework will involve deep reading and discussion of specific communication theories; and students will practice using theory to identify, analyze, and remediate communication problems via case study.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 511 | TOPICS IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Explores specialized topics within the field of relational communication. Past topics have included emotions and communication, gender and its relationship to interaction, and the social construction of interpersonal realities. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 512 | TOPICS IN APPLIED COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Explores specialized topics and contemporary problems within the field of human communication, such as Gendered Communication, Communicating Identity, Persuasion and Social Influence, and Social Media & Misinformation.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 513 | NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Nonverbal messages are important as we typically monitor our own nonverbal messages less, but believe others nonverbal messages more than their verbal messages. Likewise, research suggests that 65% of our communication is based on nonverbal messages and some estimates are as high as 93%. Clearly such messages are important, yet we spend little time examining such messages. That said, the goal of this course is to provide you with a research based overview of a variety of nonverbal messages, that is, everything we communicate without using our words. This course surveys various conceptual areas generally subsumed under the broad rubric of nonverbal communication. Topics include physical appearances, gestures, face and eye behavior, vocalic, proxemics, touch, time, environmental contexts as well as application of nonverbal behaviors to specific interpersonal communication contexts.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 522 | COMMUNICATING IDENTITY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Focuses on the rhetorical theories and practices through which various cultural groups within the US. construct a sense of identity. The course examines different rhetorical forms and strategies through an analysis of the rhetorical situations, texts and artifacts of various cultural groups.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 523 | GENDERED COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Examines research into the ways the various aspects of communication are affected by and affect the social construction of gender. Topics covered include language and language usage differences, interaction patterns and perceptions of the sexes generated through language and communication. (Cross-listed as MLS 445/WMS 440).
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 524 | NARRATIVES IN HEALTH CARE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Focusing on the performance and narrative paradigms of communication studies, the course will survey uses of performance and narrative methods to consider health communication relationships. Narrative and narrative performance are sites of health communication issues for marginalized populations, difficult conversations, and alternate means of reporting. For example, narrative and narrative performance are increasingly being used as part of medical curriculum, as a means to train health care professionals to understand the experiences of their patients, encourage deep listening, and foster different professional-patient relations. For cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other patients, performance becomes a means of speaking into mainstream and dominant discourses of health and to actively shape discourses from their own subjectivities. This increases the visibility of health care experiences in their gendered, sexualized, and racialized dimensions. Finally, narrative and narrative performance offers an additional means of visibility in catalyzing change in public, legislative, scholarly and relational arenas.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 525 | COMMUNICATION TRAINING FOR INTERNATIONAL WORK | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Examines and contrasts the management philosophies of different cultures around the world, paying special attention to how European and Asian organizational practices influence structure, culture and communication within American corporations.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student, Organizational Diversity MBA Student or department consent is a prerequisite to this class.
CMNS 527 | ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION IN ORGANIZATIONS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Organizations are symbolic realities constructed by humans in communication. In other words, organizations are creations, and both organizational members and observers need to comprehend them as such. Communication 527 is devoted to preparing you to become communication professionals able to understand organizations through the analysis of organizational patterns of meaning and expectations. Communication professionals help organizations to improve communication by (1) identifying differences between actual and desired conditions of communication and (2) devising ways to close the gap between actual and desired states. The first function involves organizational communication evaluation (gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about an organization's communication processes). The second function is referred to as intervention (actions taken to improve organizational communication). People who perform organizational communication evaluation and intervention may be members of the organization or outside agents brought in to perform specific projects. This class will focus on the role of the communication professional in the maintenance and change of organizational communication functions, structures, and the communication processes that occur at various systems levels, including dyads, groups, intercultural and multicultural relations, and organization-wide network processes.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 528 | THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Beginning with foundational theories and principles of social construction, the course examines cases illustrating socially-constructed features of healthcare. We discuss (a) medicine as a gendered and hierarchical institution, (2) specialized languages used to describe/construct specific illnesses (e.g. anorexia and obesity, addiction, depression, HIV/AIDS), and (3) how constructed realities become internalized through primary and secondary socialization within the family, through media, and through encounters with the health care system.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 529 | TOPICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course offers students a variety of special topic areas related to organizational and multicultural communication. Students will have opportunities to delve more deeply into each topic area working with instructors who have specialized expertise in that area. Typical topics include but are not limited to Global Workplaces and International Management, Organizational Identity, Critical Theory, and Latino(a) Representation.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 530 | INSTRUCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course is designed to assist in understanding the principles necessary for effective design based on learning outcomes, delivery and evaluation of instruction based on awareness of differing learning styles, subject content, and educational setting including both higher education and professional development settings. This course examines issues related to instructional development by emphasizing the components that are critical in the development, delivery, and assessment of quality teaching and learning experiences in both academic and organizational settings. Students will have the opportunity to implement instructional strategies in the class setting.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 532 | INTRODUCTION TO TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course provides an introduction to training and its relationship to organizational problem solving. Basic and advanced training strategies are taught within the context of developing organizations. Organizations often have in house training and development specialists that facilitate on-going organizational change processes. The functions of such human relations specials are explored and the kinds of communication knowledge, competencies and skills needed to enact such functions are examined.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 541 | ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The central purpose of this course is to introduce students to the role communication plays in organizational life. Throughout the quarter, attention will be devoted to examining the various theoretical perspectives from which organizational communication can be viewed, and selectively surveying major content topics and current issues in the organizational communication literature.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 542 | MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Multicultural issues affect the communication of organizational members on a day-to-day basis. This course examines multicultural issues in professional settings. It provides students with knowledge about co-cultural communication patterns, which will enhance their own ability to interact. Further, it demonstrates how multicultural communication can be an organizational asset.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student, Organizational Diversity MBA Student or department consent is a prerequisite to this class.
CMNS 543 | COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Change in an organization implies change in communicative processes at the individual, dyadic, group and systemic levels. Communication variables that define patterns of interaction within these organizational contexts will be examined as well as key issues that might cause communication difficulties.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 545 | COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Communication and Technology explores the process through which technological and social systems co-create or invent each other. As such, this course not only examines the role that new communication technologies play in shaping our social systems and the organizations within them, but also looks at how social, cultural, economic and legal contexts influence the development and emergence of these technologies.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 548 | TEAMS, DIVERSITY AND LEADERSHIP | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Modern organizations are increasingly interested in shifting their organizational structures toward the goal of creating self-managed work teams. Therefore, the current communication graduate greatly benefits from knowledge and experience with two interdependent aspects of group dynamics: decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, and the philosophy and practice of developing groups into self-managed teams. The December quarter version of this course will combine a relatively brief period of lecture/discussion with a teamwork intensive action learning component towards the goal of making each student competent to either spearhead a change to self-managed work teams in their own organization (if called upon to do so), or to understand and weather this change in work mode without stress.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 549 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Course covers a variety of topics that address theories about organizational communication such as group processes, conflict management, and leadership. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 551 | COLLABORATION FOR SOCIAL IMPACT | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Collaboration is a communicative process by which people work together to achieve something they couldn't do alone. This class explores collaboration as a communicative strategy for achieving social impact, with an emphasis on defining problems that warrant a collaborative response and negotiating structures that promote coordination across individuals and organizations. Students will learn strategies for collaborating across organizational boundaries, power and resource differences, and cultural contexts to enact social impact.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 552 | RELATIONSHIPS AND INFLUENCE IN THE WORKPLACE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course explores the process by which communicators attempt to accomplish their goals. In particular, this course covers theories of persuasion, strategic message design (creating messages that take into account multiple audiences and goals), and how the inferential process influences decision-making.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 563 | MULTICULTURAL MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course examines both representational practices and theories that are informed by multicultural perspectives. It explores ways in which scholars and media practitioners have dealt with the epistemological problem of "difference" The course may take up topics such as race, class, age, and sexual orientation as categories of difference that have informed and continue to inform academic inquiries. The course also looks at historical and/or contemporary media texts, and analyzes them through these methods.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student, Critical Ethnic Studies Student or department consent is a prerequisite to this class.
CMNS 570 | INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL CMN | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will provide students with a detailed critical introduction to the field of digital communication. Topics will include practical applications of digital communication across disciplines: communication studies, journalism, public relations, advertising, media and cinema studies, and communication technology. This class will offer students a glimpse of those disciplines and allow them to integrate them all together. Additionally, this course will provide an entry point for students into the program who have had little experience with either digital technology or communication courses. Ideally, this course would be a critical introduction to the field.
Status as a student in Digital Communication and Media Arts (CDM or College of Communication) or the Digital Communication Certificate or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 573 | WORK/LIFE COMMUNICATION AND WELLNESS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Work/life at all levels is enacted through communication, as individuals take up, contest, and re-inscribe work/life boundaries and negotiate work/life conflicts with other social and institutional actors. This seminar examines the communication theory and practice of work/life management at the individual, dyadic, familial, and organizational levels. Topics include family, health, and labor policy; organizational wellness initiatives and interventions; and the pursuit of personal work/life "balance" across the life course.
Status as a Graduate Communication student, Health Communication student, or Relational Communication student is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 580 | DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING IN COMMUNICATION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course guides students to translate communication research methodology and skill to domains of practical significance. The course addresses specific processes by which data and research insights are applied to guide agenda-setting and decision-making, inform change processes, involve stakeholders, influence leadership, conduct evaluation, and create communication products and interventions across a variety of institutional and community contexts. [Prerequisite: MCS 503, CMNS 581, OR CMNS 582].
CMNS 581 or CMNS 582 or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 581 | QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Introduction to qualitative approaches to research in communication. The course includes a systematic review and application of ethnography, unstructured interviewing, personal document analysis, historical research, and critical practice. Addresses the rationale, method, and theory of each qualitative approach to research in addition to placing emphasis upon data collection and interpretation.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student, Critical Ethnic Studies Student or department consent is a prerequisite to this class.
CMNS 582 | QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Introduces students to quantitative approaches to research and basic statistics. Topics include research design and control, survey construction, measurement and other general research issues, nonparametric statistics, correlation, the t-test and analysis of variance.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 583 | RESEARCH METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Focuses on developing an understanding of appropriate quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and relevant descriptive and inferential statistics for the investigation of both practical and theoretical problems in the study of communication. By considering the nature, concepts, and logic of the research enterprise, permits a critically informed assessment of published research, including data gathering and data analysis procedures.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 584 | METHODOLOGICAL TOPICS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course is a special topics course in research methods, wherein students study and practice a specialized approach to data collection and knowledge generation. Students will engage the philosophical foundations and practical methodological operations of the study of human communication from a specific research perspective.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 585 | THE POLITICS OF HIP HOP CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course examines "the political" in hip hop culture. Thus, it is not an appreciation of hip hop class; this is, instead, a rigorous theory-based course that interrogates hip hop culture for its political potential for social equality and change. In this course, we will grapple with theories on how popular culture, representations of blackness and power intersect within the context of hip hop. This course examines "the political" in hip hop culture. Thus, it is not an appreciation of hip hop class; this is, instead, a rigorous theory-based course that interrogates hip hop culture for its political potential for social equality and change. In this course, we will grapple with theories on how popular culture, representations of blackness and power intersect within the context of hip hop. We will also interrogate various media texts (film, music, television, and "new media") in relation to the multiple ways in which hip hop culture has been defined. Among the issues we engage are the constructions and representations of blackness, black images in popular culture, and how hip hop culture relates to underlying factors such as globalization, hyper-commodification, racism, sexism, hetero-normativity, classism, and resistance.
Status as a Communication and Media graduate student is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 586 | COMMUNICATING HEALTH, RACE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course examines "the political" that arises from women's bodies and reproductive rights and practices. In this course, we will grapple with theories on how race, media representations of blackness and power intersect within the context of the female body. We will begin with a theoretical framework for our readings and discussions then we will delve into the history of women and reproduction as it relates to power; this history will focus primarily on women of the Black Diaspora which will include indigenous women of the Americas and Latinas. We will also interrogate various race-based case studies as both a force for change and for reinforcing hegemonic discourse. Among the issues we will engage are the constructions and representations of blackness and how race and reproduction relates to underlying factors such as globalization, racism, sexism, classism, and resistance. A crucial part of our task in this course is to think critically and complexly about the roles of race and racism as it pertains to the female body and reproduction within our contemporary world.
Status as a Communication and Media graduate student is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 590 | COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP (VARIABLE TOPICS) | 2 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course allows students to sample a range of hands on, practical offerings in communication that can enhance their knowledge and expertise. Topics offered include survey design and focus groups. (2 quarter hours)
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 592 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Students will be guided in the development of a special project that furthers their collaboration with an instructor and produces a report that demonstrates their mastery of critical content and competencies. The independent study option is intended for students who have demonstrated a mastery of course content, who would benefit from a sustained, focused collaboration with a relevant faculty member. (Variable credit).
Status as a Graduate Communication student and Director Consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 594 | DCMA THESIS 1 | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Enroll in 594 during the term before you plan on taking Thesis II. This is a graded, 4-credit hour course. Tuition is charged and loan deferment is available. Your thesis/project advisor needs to communicate this date to the Graduate Studies Director for your program, before you are allowed to enroll. PREREQUISITE(S): Status as a Graduate Digital Communication and Media Arts student and Director consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 595 | DCMA THESIS II | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Enroll in CMNS 595 during the term you plan to defend your thesis or complete your final project. This is a graded, 4-credit hour course. Tuition is charged and loan deferment is available. You must have a scheduled defense/completion date to be approved for this class. Your thesis/project advisor needs to communicate this date to the Graduate Studies Director for your program, before you are allowed to enroll. This class is for DCMA students in the Digital Communication concentration and follows DMA 695.
A concentration in Digital Communication and CMNS 594 are prerequisites for this class.
CMNS 596 | GRADUATE CAPSTONE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
The graduate capstone course is designed to accompany the completion of an exit project, an option to fulfill the requirements for an M.A. in the following programs: Organizational and Multicultural, Relational Communication, and Health Communication. Under the mentorship of a faculty member, students will design and create an exit project as guided by their chosen committee. The students in the course will serve as peer collaborators for one another, providing resources throughout the exit project process. The purpose of an exit project is to allow students the flexibility to create a meaningful work product that integrates the graduate coursework, which is distinctly separate from the thesis and comprehensive exam options. To enroll in this course, students must complete and submit the requisite paperwork with the signature of their exit project committee members along with a proposal of the exit project.
Status as a Graduate Communication student, Health Communication student, or Relational Communication student is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 599 | RESEARCH THESIS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Enroll in 599 during the term you plan to defend your thesis or complete your final project. This is a graded, 4-credit hour course. Tuition is charged. You must have a scheduled defense/completion date to be approved for this class. Your thesis/project advisor needs to communicate this date to the Graduate Studies Director for your program, before you are allowed to enroll. Loan deferment is allowed to those registered for this class.
Status as a Graduate Communication student and Director Consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 601 | ACTIVE DEGREE COMPLETION | 0 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a 0-credit hour course that is available to students who are working actively toward the completion of a thesis or project. Enrollment in this course is limited to the two quarters prior to the defense of the thesis/project and requires thesis/project advisor and graduate director approval and proof of work each quarter. Enrollment in this course allows access to the library and other campus facilities. This course carries half-time enrollment status and eligibility for loan deferment and student loans. This course is graded as pass/fail. (0 credit hours)
Status as a Graduate Communication or Relational Communication student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
CMNS 602 | CANDIDACY CONTINUATION | 0 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a 0-credit hour course that requires permission from the graduate director. Students can enroll in this course if they are finishing a course in which they received an incomplete (IN) and are not registered for any other regular credit-bearing courses in the quarter they plan to finish the incomplete. Enrollment in this course is limited to the two quarters following the quarter of the original incomplete (IN) grade. Enrollment in this course allows access to the library and other campus facilities. This course does not carry any enrollment status. Students enrolled in this course are not eligible for loan deferment or student loans. This course is not graded. (0 credit hours)
Status as a Graduate Communication student is a prerequisite for this class.