Independent study in special subjects.

This course applies a communication perspective to the study of health, disease and illness. The course will introduce, investigate and explore the nature of communication processes that influence and/are influenced by health and health care contexts. Communication theories and practices will be applied to a variety of health issues including the physician-patient relationship, the design of health media campaigns, the influence of health promotion on human behavior, health literacy, Western and cultural expressions of health and the use of interactive technology.

This course is designed to engage with the methods of qualitative and quantitative research, to examine the possible research questions that different methods allow, to understand the limits and the potential of various methods, to conceptualize and execute a group research project and apply its methods, and to reflect on the role of Communication research and the ways it helps us to know ourselves and the world. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

Students work individually or in small groups to devote the entire semester's class time to the creation and completion of a substantial media project: e.g. short narrative film, documentary, music videos, TV or Web series, etc. Students are required to have a script or outline of the project prior to the start of the semester so that projects will commence production shortly into the semester and move on to completion of post-production, including creation of a soundtrack; run test screenings; develop marketing strategies for distribution and/or festival exhibitions.

What is Ethnography? What is Performance (auto) Ethnography? How can we think about Performing Ethnography? Drawing heavily on the works of Dwight Conquergood, Norman Denzin, and D. Soyini Madison, we give a rest to traditional forms of qualitative inquiry as we disrupt the notion of "business as usual" in the academic space. We will examine the interpenetrating relationships among performance, ethnography, and culture.

This course combines reading and discussion with application of theoretically informed methods in the study of everyday social interaction. We will: 1) Read and discuss representative studies of social interaction and communicative behavior in cultural context. 2) Do graduated classroom and field exercises to assemble methodological tools and accumulate data for your final paper. The final paper will be based on accumulated data - especially recordings and transcripts - from your field site. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

An exploration of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s and 70s and later, hosted by someone who was there and lived to tell the tale. Through the medium of documentary and fiction films, we will delve into the musical, sexual, artistic, political and spiritual upheavals that rocked America and Europe back then and that continue to reverberate today. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

This course examines conflict and collaboration in relation to language, processes of human interaction, and the rich settings where people conduct their lives. We'll study communicative approaches to argumentation and focus on disagreement management and interventions to improve communication. We will investigate conflict and collaboration both in ordinary face-to-face conversations and in professional settings, including dispute mediation and the workplace. We will also analyze how cultural issues can produce miscommunication and conflict.

This course explores the influence of the mass media on the social world, particularly the media's impact on audiences. We will investigate various approaches utilized to determine if, when, and how media influence viewers, listeners, and readers. We will examine this issue from both scientific and cultural studies perspectives. Some of the questions we will consider include: How does television violence impact society and individuals? Can watching sex on television and film lead to teenage promiscuity?

This pro-seminar is designed for new graduate students (although all are welcome) has three broad foci: (1) teaching/instructional development; (2) professional development for graduate students; and (3) topics of scholarly expertise in the Department. A variety of speakers, workshops and panels will cover topics ranging from instructional techniques and pedagogical concerns, to building expertise and networks toward a professional career, to discussion of various approaches among faculty in the department to common topics (e.g., culture, media, power, identity/ies, publics/citizenships).