Courses and Pedagogy

COMM 100, Introduction to Communication

This course will help you develop and refine your understanding of: (1) communication in a variety of contexts, including the formal public speaking event, mass media, intercultural and interpersonal settings; (2) the history and development of the field of communication studies; (3) communication processes and effects; (4) the role of social identity in politics and political movements; and (5) the research questions and methods of analysis in the field.

COMM 210, Public Discourse

This course will help you develop and refine your understanding of: (1) public speaking, (2) writing and thinking skills, (3) presentation procedures, (4) critique and criticism, (5) and the proper management of communication within a variety of contexts. As such, this course underscores the complete process of thinking, developing, and presenting material.

Rhetorical Theory

This course is designed to introduce students to the history and theory of rhetoric. The course will trace historically the major developments in rhetorical theory from antiquity up to the present. We will also focus throughout the semester on political acts of persuasion that people confront regularly. In our daily lives we are increasingly exposed to countless persuasive messages in various forms, including advertising, politics, music, film, and television. This course will prepare students to investigate these messages and to explore how these persuasive texts are constructed, how they influence us, and how they shape our culture.

Rhetorical Criticism

This course is designed to introduce students to the major critical methods for analyzing and understanding communicative action. The course will trace historically the major developments in rhetorical criticism during the twentieth century. We will also focus throughout the semester on political acts of persuasion that people confront regularly. In our daily lives we are increasingly exposed to countless persuasive messages in various forms, including advertising, politics, music, film, and television.  This course will prepare students to investigate these messages and to explore how persuasive texts are constructed, how they influence us, and how they shape our culture.

Race, Rhetoric, and Resistance

This course is designed to explore the issues of race and rhetorical strategies of resistance. Its purpose is to give students a firm understanding of various theories of resistance and how those theories correspond with pragmatic political action regarding issues of race. The general trajectory of this course moves chronologically through some of the more compelling race and resistance texts, but also from traditional notions of resistance to more radical alternatives that have recently emerged. At every stage students will be asked to consider how new notions of resistance shift the terrain of political practice. Three fundamental questions will animate discussions throughout the course: (1) what are the dominant theories (or strategies) of resistance, (2) how have these been mobilized in political practice, and (3) what avenues of resistance does rhetoric make available.

The Politics of Public Memory

This course will investigate public memory as the public negotiation of the past for political purposes in the present.  The course explores how different cultures have remembered and rhetorically constructed traumatic historical events such as the Holocaust and institutionalized slavery. Students will study the politics of public memory and ask questions such as, "who gets to be remembered," "how are they remembered," and "who gets to do the remembering." As such, the course will deal intensively with issues of power and oppression, identity politics, and trauma. Students will learn about the role of communication and persuasion in these public acts of remembrance.