As forms of communication contribute to the growing integration of the planet, the planet itself is threatened by unprecedented environmental and economic crises. This course will examine ecology and sustainability through the mediating logic of communication technologies, institutions and texts, as well as insights drawn from fields like Anthropology, Geography, Biology, Physics, and Spirituality. Students will develop an interdisciplinary framework to examine conflicts over nature and the social construction of nature and ecology.

Semiotics is the study of meaning within society. It deepens our understanding of culture, communication and philosophy, and provides us with a theoretical and practical framework for analyzing the world. The course will introduce and develop the semiotic approach, using literature, politics, film, TV, music, and our everyday surroundings and conversations.

Exploration of the types of writing associated with the discipline of communication. Development and improvement of the student's writing, research, and critical thinking skills. Fulfills Junior Year Writing requirement.

This course offers an introduction to the study of film as a distinct medium. It introduces the ways in which film style, form, and genre contribute to the meaning and the experience of movies. Topics include film as industrial commodity, narrative and non-narrative form, aspects of style (e.g. composition, cinematography, editing, and sound), and the role of film as a cultural practice. Examples are drawn from new and classic films, from Hollywood and from around the world. This course is intended to serve as a basis for film studies courses you might take in the future.

This course provides an introduction to the major ideas and concepts of rhetorical and performance studies and their contributions to social action. Students will be introduced to the thinkers and movements in rhetoric and performance most significant to how we understand ourselves: the ways we represent and remember our pasts, live our presents (presence), and imagine our futures. Theories of rhetoric and performance will be connected to each other and to our communication practices to examine how theories can be deployed as part of the art of living our lives.

Introductory survey of media theory and research.

An examination of the art, craft, and business of screenwriting from theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics include screenplay format and structure, story, plot and character development, dialog and scene description, visual storytelling, pace and rhythm, analysis of professional and student scripts and films.

Not available at this time

This course offers an introductory overview of major approaches to the study of film and audiovisual media, including formalism and realism ("classical" film theory), and theoretical and critical methods informed by structuralism, semiology, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, political theory, and cultural studies. Auteurism, feminist film theory, queer theory, genre studies, spectator/audience/ reception, star and performance studies, apparatus theory, postcolonial theory, and theories of new media will also be considered.

Not available at this time