Honors Project expectations are high. The intended end-product is a traditional project manuscript with accompanying artifact(s), all projects: - are 6 credits or more of sustained research on a single topic, typically conducted over two semesters. - begin with creative inquiry and systematic research. - include documentation of substantive scholarly endeavor. - culminate in an oral defense or other form of public presentation.

Continuation of Comm 499C, this course is devoted to the implementation of students' individual research projects. Each will culminate in an archivable Honors Thesis. Comm 499C and Comm 499DI together satisfy the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors. Prerequisite: Comm 499C.

This is a stand-alone independent study designed by the student and faculty sponsor that involves frequent interaction between instructor and student. Qualitative and quantitative enrichment must be evident on the proposed contract before consent is given to undertake the study.

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. The readings and assignments forefront localized critical pedagogy, critical personal narratives, decolonizing and interpretive inquiry as moral, political discourse.

This course uses tools from the study of everyday interaction to explore one-on-one interactions in the electronic media. The course focuses on two genres in two different media: television news and call-in radio. Alongside theoretical studies, the course uses data sessions to analyze different television and radio segments. 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.

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 a variety of disciplines. Students will develop an interdisciplinary theoretical and practical framework that will allow them connect their everyday life to the dynamics of the socio-environmental world.

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.

In this course we will think through working with data from a feminist perspective. We will explore historical feminist critiques of technology before diving into data practices in the present and imagining better data futures through a creative final project. We will examine power, epistemology, paradigms, positionality, infrastructure, and invisible labor within the context of data use and practices. This is a theory driven course; you are not expected or required to have coding or data science experience.

This course examines what wellness is, where we encounter it and how it exists as a social discourse and a cultural story. From workplace health initiatives and meditation practices to diet cultures, experiential retreats, and digital influencer economies, we trace how wellness is staged, embodied, and commodified. Drawing on Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, Media Studies and Feminist Studies, we will approach wellness through the lenses of ritual, embodiment, and spectatorship, asking how it is performed both in media and in everyday life.