Departments & Programs

Communication and Culture

Course Descriptions
  • CMCL-C 121 Public Speaking (3 cr.) CASE A&H Theory and practice of public speaking: training in thought processes necessary to organize speech content; analysis of components of effective delivery and language. Credit not given for both S121 and C121. I Sem., II Sem., SS.
  • CMCL-C 122 Interpersonal Communication (3 cr.) CASE S&H Introduction to the study of communication, culture, identity and power. Each student does original primary research. Topics range from groups in North Africa to high school and college students in the United States, and issues such as gendered language, slang, verbal play, and institutional language.
  • CMCL-C 130 Public Speaking, Honors (3 cr.) CASE A&H For outstanding students, in place of C121.
  • CMCL-C 190 Introduction to Media (3 cr.) CASE A&H Form, technique, and language of the media; analysis of specific film, television, and video productions; introduction to major critical approaches to media studies. Credit given for only one of CMCL C190 or CMLT C190.
  • CMCL-C 201 Race and the Media (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE DUS Explores the ways in which United States’ ideologies in particular historical periods have influenced the production, representations, and audiences’ interpretations of media artifacts. Topic might focus on specific or various ethnic groups (e.g., African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, “Whites”) and mainstream and/or alternative media. Screenings may be required.
  • CMCL-C 202 Media in the Global Context (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE GCC Surveys media industries, products, and publics outside the United States context (e.g., Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America). Analyzes regional media in relation to local/ global historical, economic, and social processes. Screenings may be required.
  • CMCL-C 203 Gender, Sexuality, and the Media (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examines portrayals of women across various media outlets and diverse cultural regions. The course also considers women as producers and consumers of media products. Topics might focus on a specific medium (e.g., television, film, or the Internet), genre (e.g., soap operas, reality TV, anime), or region (the U.S., Africa, Asia). Screenings may be required.
  • CMCL-C 204 Topics in Media, Culture, and Society (3 cr.) CASE S&H Relationship between communication media and a range of social institutions, practices, and beliefs. Course may focus on a particular medium and/or period (e.g., television and family, film and the Cold War, censorship and the media). Topic varies. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.
  • CMCL-C 205 Introduction to Communication and Culture (3 cr.) CASE A&H Critically examines communication as a cultural practice as it affects the beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of individuals, groups, and publics.
  • CMCL-C 207 Topics in Cultural Analysis and Interpretation (3 cr.) CASE A&H Study and analysis of expressions and artifacts produced in the domain of media, public culture, and performance. Focuses on a particular artistic or expressive medium, and/or on a critical approach to analysis (e.g., Punk Subcultures, Rhetorics of Tourism, Diasporic Feminist Film). May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 208 Image Cultures (3 cr.) CASE A&H Offers an interdisciplinary and historical context for understanding contemporary western “image culture” by addressing the notion of the “image” in a wide range of its theoretical, critical, and practical contexts, uses, and history. Examines the claim that our culture is more imagistic than others historically, asking how the roles of images have changed over time in relation to other modes of signification.
  • CMCL-C 209 Topics in Rhetoric and Public Culture (3 cr.) CASE A&H Examines how rhetorical practice shapes public culture. May focus on a medium or mode of rhetorical practice, such as documentary film, social movement, or political speech; a theme or issue, such as race, gender, or democracy; or a particular historical period. Topic varies. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 212 Communicating Sustainability (3 cr.) CASE S&H "Sustainability" is the capacity to negotiate environmental, social, and economic needs and desires for current and future generations. This course traces historical, global discourses of sustainability; defines key terms and frames sustainability; engages related concepts of democracy, citizenship, and community; and develops critical thinking, research, and communication skills
  • CMCL-C 220 Performing Human/Nature: Defining Relationships with the Environment (3 cr.) CASE A&H Reflects on the complexity of human experience from personal, creative, and cultural perspectives using fiction, poetry, journalism, creative nonfiction, visual art, music, and films. Students explore others’ and their own experience of what it means to be human, analyze and compare the tacit philosophies present in these works, and pose their original organizing frameworks. Emphasis on interpretive skills and theory building, testing, and revising these theories to incorporate the lived experiences of others.
  • CMCL-C 222 Democratic Deliberation (3 cr.) CASE A&H Principles and practices of deliberation that enrich democratic culture in civic affairs.
  • CMCL-C 228 Argumentation and Public Advocacy (3 cr.) CASE A&H R: C121 or C130. Reasoning, evidence, and argument in public discourse. Study of forms of argument. Practice in argumentative speaking.
  • CMCL-C 229 Ways of Speaking (3 cr.) CASE S&H Exploration in comparative perspective of the social use of language, with a focus on the interrelationships among verbal form, social function, and cultural meaning in ways of speaking.
  • CMCL-C 238 Communication in Black America (3 cr.) CASE A&H, CASE DUS Communicative experiences of black Americans, including black dialect, language and ethnicity, interracial communication, recurring themes, spokespersons in black dialogue, and sociohistorical aspects of black language and communication.
  • CMCL-C 290 Hollywood I (3 cr.) CASE S&H Historical survey of the American motion picture industry from 1895 to 1948. Emphasizes narrative cinema and the classical studio system. Credit given for only one of C290 or CMLT C290.
  • CMCL-C 292 Hollywood II (3 cr.) CASE S&H Historical survey of the American motion picture industry from 1948 to the present. Emphasizes narrative cinema and its increasing relation to television and home entertainment. Credit given for only one of C292 or CMLT C290.
  • CMCL-C 304 Communication and Social Conflict (3 cr.) CASE A&H Examination of sources and functions of symbolic influence in contemporary society. Emphasis upon developing rhetorical skills for critiquing social conflict.
  • CMCL-C 305 Rhetorical Criticism (3 cr.) CASE S&H C121 or consent of instructor. The development of standards for evaluating and methods of analyzing rhetorical texts. Significant historical and contemporary texts are studied to exemplify critical principles.
  • CMCL-C 306 Writing Media Criticism (3 cr.) CASE A&H P: C190 or consent of instructor. Study of the main schools and methods of media criticism; emphasis on developing the analytical and critical skills necessary for writing film, television, and/or other types of media criticism.
  • CMCL-C 308 Democratic Dissent in Wartime (3 cr.) CASE A&H Examination of wartime dissent in the United States as a vital democratic practice. Emphasis upon cultural status, political role, and the rhetorical characteristics of democratic dissent.
  • CMCL-C 310 Ethnographies of Media Worlds (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE GCC Examines the challenges that focusing on the mass media—including technologies, production processes, content, and reception—present for studying cultures. Explores the relationship between media and culture to understand people's experiences and conceptualization of time, space, communities, families, and identities.
  • CMCL-C 311 Images of War and Peace in Public Culture (3 cr.) CASE A&H Examines the cultural contestation of images of war and peace with a focus on the materiality of political images in a variety of verbal, visual, and acoustic media across a range of cultural forms such as film, literature, art, public memorials, and political texts. May be repeated when the focus is on a different country or region for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 313 Performance as Communicative Practice (3 cr.) CASE A&H Introduction to performance as a communicative practice, focusing on performance as a special artistic mode of communication and performance and as a special class of display events in which the values and symbols of a culture are enacted before an audience.
  • CMCL-C 314 Communication, Culture, and Social Formations (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examination of cultural identities and related social formations as constituted by symbolic forms in structures around the world. Topic varies. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 315 Advertising and Consumer Culture (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: C190 or consent of instructor. Critical examination of advertising’s role in modern societies. Focuses on marketing and consumption as central activities in shaping personal identity and social relations.
  • CMCL-C 318 Ethnography as Cultural Critique (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examines the ways ethnographic work can provide a critical lens through which to view our world. By juxtaposing familiar cultural practices and beliefs against those of other societies and cultures, students learn to critically assess aspects of their own society they may have previously taken for granted. Provides training in ethnographic methods and features a semester-long ethnographic project. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 321 Rhetoric, Law, and Culture (3 cr.) CASE A&H This course examines the range of ways in which rhetoric, law, and culture intersect in the production and maintenance of social and political community.
  • CMCL-C 323 Speech Composition (3 cr.) CASE A&H R: C121 and one of the following: C223, C225, or C228. Advanced speech writing, focusing upon the content of speeches. The theory and practice of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speaking. Topics include the principles of organization, exposition, and argumentation, and language and style.
  • CMCL-C 324 Persuasion (3 cr.) CASE A&H R: C121 or C130; and one of the following: C223, C225, or C228. Motivational appeals in influencing behavior; psychological factors in speaker-audience relationship; contemporary examples of persuasion. Practice in persuasive speaking.
  • CMCL-C 326 Authorship in the Media (3 cr.) CASE A&H P: C190 or consent of instructor. Topic varies: in-depth analysis of directors, producers, or creative individuals in the media, viewed as “authors.” May be repeated once for credit with a different topic. A maximum of 6 credit hours may be earned for any combination of C326 and CMLT C491.
  • CMCL-C 333 Stigma: Culture, Deviance, and Identity (3 cr.) CASE A&H Stigma theory speaks broadly to the nature of the social relationships that create marked categories of persons. In this course we look both at theory and at particular cases of stigmatized persons and groups with an aim toward identifying historically effective strategies for combating stigmas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and physical ability.
  • CMCL-C 334 Current Topics in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Analysis of selected problems in communication and culture. Topics vary each semester. May be repeated once for credit if topic varies.
  • CMCL-C 335 Production as Criticism (3 cr.) CASE A&H Provides conceptual and hands-on experience for researching, writing, and producing different genres of video programs using VRA camcorders and editing systems. This course emphasizes conceptual processes from the original script to the completed video. Lab fee required. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 336 Using Popular Culture (3 cr.) CASE S&H Critical exploration of the form, content, and uses of popular culture in everyday life.
  • CMCL-C 337 New Media (3 cr.) Develops frameworks for understanding new media technologies in social contexts. Compares computing, networked digital media, and social media to prior eras of technological change, focusing on interactions among technological, industrial, regulatory, social, and cultural forces. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 339 Freedom of Speech (3 cr.) CASE A&H A brief survey of the historical development of the concept of freedom of speech, and a close examination of contemporary free speech issues, such as those relating to national security, public order, civil rights movements, antiwar protests, obscenity, academic freedom, and symbolic speech. Credit not given for both S339 and C399.
  • CMCL-C 340 The Rhetoric of Social Movements (3 cr.) CASE A&H Introduces rhetorical theories and practices which inform and are informed by the study of social movements. Topics vary and focus on a specific social movement or a range of social movements. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 342 Rhetoric and Race (3 cr.) Explores the relationship between rhetoric and race, including the possibilities and implications entailed by an understanding of race as a rhetorical artifact, and rhetoric as a necessarily raced phenomenon.
  • CMCL-C 346 Ethnicity, Class, and the Model U.S. Citizen (3 cr.) Considers how people's identities influence the ideals and practice of citizenship. Focuses in particular on identities based on ethnicity and class. Examines how ethnicity and class shape discourses of citizenship found in the media and in political and legal spheres.
  • CMCL-C 348 Environmental Communication (3 cr.) This class is grounded in the perspective that symbolic and natural systems are mutually constituted and therefore, the ways we communicate about and with the environment are vital to examine for a sustainable and just future. The focus of the class may vary to engage topics, such as environmental tourism or environmental disasters.
  • CMCL-C 355 Public Memory in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Examines the contested nature of public memory from a communication and culture perspective. Focuses on the nature of public memory, its methods of perpetuation, its role in shaping citizens, and its implications for society.
  • CMCL-C 357 Politics of Style (3 cr.) CASE A&H Critical examination of fashion or other everyday aesthetic expressions as political and cultural practices. Style is analyzed as a form of agency in relation to such issues as gender, consumer culture, and social class.
  • CMCL-C 360 Motion Picture Production (4 cr.) A hands-on introduction to the technical and aesthetic basics of making 16mm silent films. Students learn how to design, direct, light, shoot, and edit several short films working individually and in groups. Lab fee required.
  • CMCL-C 361 Intermediate Motion Picture Production (4 cr.) P: C360. Introduction to the making of 16mm sound films, including the recording and editing of synch sound. The various stages of production are explored in lectures, lab exercises, and discussions. Each student designs, directs, and edits a short synch sound film and participates as a crew member in the other students’ productions. Lab fee required.
  • CMCL-C 382 Internship in Communication and Culture (1-3 cr.) P: Junior or senior standing; at least 12 semester credit hours completed in the department; advanced arrangement with academic advisor. Faculty-supervised work in a field related to student's professional and academic interests. Student must write a critical analysis paper and be evaluated by a workplace supervisor. S/F grading. Students can earn up to 6 total credits for C382, but a maximum of 3 credit hours will apply toward the 30 credit hours required for the major.
  • CMCL-C 385 Communication, Culture, and Community (3 cr.) A service-learning seminar that offers students hands-on experience working with a community-based cultural production. Topics will range from film festival programming, political campaigning, and advocacy work to environmental activism and street theatre. Students learn how to conceptualize and operationalize cultural productions as articulations of communicative strategies and rhetorical inventions. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 391 Media Audiences (3 cr.) CASE A&H Studies audiences in the context of film, television, new media, and other media forms. Topic varies, but may include a focus on theories of spectatorship, historical reception studies, ethnographic and/or empirical audience studies, global or transnational audiences, Internet communities, performance theory, fan cultures, and subcultures. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 392 Media Genres (3 cr.) CASE A&H P: C190 or consent of instructor. Topic varies. Analysis of typical genres, such as westerns, situation comedies, documentaries, etc. Problems of generic description or definition: themes, conventions, iconography peculiar to given genres. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 393 History of European and American Films I (3 cr.) CASE A&H, CASE GCC P: C190 or consent of instructor. C393 is a survey of the development of cinema during the period 1895–1926 (the silent film era); C394 is a survey of European and American cinema since 1927. Particular attention paid to representative work of leading filmmakers, emergence of film movements and development of national trends, growth of film industry, and impact of television. Topics vary. Each course may be taken for a total of 6 credit hours with different topics.
  • CMCL-C 394 History of European and American Films II (3 cr.) CASE A&H, CASE GCC P: C190 or consent of instructor. C393 is a survey of the development of cinema during the period 1895–1926 (the silent film era); C394 is a survey of European and American cinema since 1927. Particular attention paid to representative work of leading filmmakers, emergence of film movements and development of national trends, growth of film industry, and impact of television. Topics vary. Each course may be taken for a total of 6 credit hours with different topics.
  • CMCL-C 398 National Cinemas (3 cr.) CASE A&H Historical survey of major national cinemas. Subject varies. Topics include Brazilian cinema, British cinema, Chinese cinema, French National cinema, German film culture, Indian cinema, and Italian cinema. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credits.
  • CMCL-C 399 Reading for Honors (3 cr.; max of 6 cr.) P: Junior standing and approval of departmental undergraduate studies committee. Readings directed by member of faculty.
  • CMCL-C 401 Senior Seminar in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) P: Senior standing and consent of instructor. Study of problems and issues in rhetoric and communication. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 406 The Study of Public Advocacy (3 cr.) Study of great rhetorical works in English. Focus on understanding the nature and role of public discourse in addressing significant human concerns.
  • CMCL-C 410 Media Theory (3 cr.) P: C190 or consent of instructor. Survey of writings, concepts, and movements in media theory.
  • CMCL-C 411 Media Industries and Cultural Production (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examines the social, economic, and cultural forces that influence the creation of programs and genres in the media industries. Topic varies, but may explore the role of networks, advertisers, studios, and independent producers. May not be repeated for credit.
  • CMCL-C 412 Race, Gender, and Representation (3 cr.) CASE S&H Construction of race and gender identities across a range of media. Emphasis on the power of sound/image representations to shape and contest ideas about race and gender. Topic varies. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.
  • CMCL-C 413 Global Villages (3 cr.) CASE S&H Electronic media’s role in altering perceptions of time, space, locality, and identity. Explores changing economic, political, and cultural relations in the global media environment. Topic varies and may include global media events, transborder information flows, cultural differences in media forms and practices. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 414 Topics in Performance and Culture (3 cr.) CASE A&H Examination of the relationship between performance and culture in specific domains of social life and aspects of social experience. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 415 Topics in Communication and Culture in Comparative Perspective (3 cr.) CASE S&H Cross-cultural exploration of communication systems, ranging from face-to-face interaction to mediated forms of communication, with an emphasis on their cultural foundations and social organization. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 417 Power and Violence: Political Systems in Ethnographic Perspective (3 cr.) CASE S&H Different political systems are founded and maintained by varying combinations of overt violence and more subtle workings of ideas and ideologies. Through cross-cultural case studies, the course examines how coercion, persuasion, consensus, and dissent operate in and through the politics and performances of everyday life.
  • CMCL-C 420 Topics in Media History (3 cr.) CASE S&H P: C190 or consent of instructor. Media historiography, topics in national media history, national and international movements and trends. Topic varies. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 422 Performance, Culture, and Power in the Middle East and North Africa (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE GCC Middle Eastern cultures are well known for their rich and diverse performance practices. Taking an ethnographic perspective, this course views performances as communicative events through which social relations are organized. It explores how performances both participate in local arrangements of power and constitute responses to colonialism, nationalism, and globalization.
  • CMCL-C 425 Culture, Identity, and the Rhetoric of Place (3 cr.) CASE A&H Invites advanced undergraduate students to consider the rhetorical dimensions of places with a particular focus on theories of culture and identity (e.g., race, gender, and nationality). Students will critically examine how places are the product of strategic communication choices that have been made to influence how human beings think and behave.
  • CMCL-C 427 Cross-Cultural Communication (3 cr.) A survey study of national, cultural, and cross-cultural persuasion in theory and practice.
  • CMCL-C 429 Cyberpublics (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examines the everyday issues surrounding public speech in new media: how people establish appropriate behavior in new media and respond to new possibilities for deceptive behavior; how ideas of what counts as "public" and "private" change as the result of changes in the way communication circulates; why scholars believe public speech and democracy are so intertwined.
  • CMCL-C 430 Native American Communication and Performance (3 cr.) CASE S&H, CASE DUS Survey of communicative patterns in Native American cultures and their realization in performance, including oral performance (e.g., narrative, oratory), ceremonial (e.g., feast days, powwow), and media (e.g., radio, film). We will also explore the use of performance forms as symbolic resources in literature, photography, and film.
  • CMCL-C 432 Visual Rhetoric (3 cr.) Focuses on distinctive rhetorical features of visual discourse to examine the political, cultural, persuasive, and ideological functions of media images in United States’ public culture. Explores examples from advertising, journalism, and entertainment across media, including print, television, and film. Interrogates the consequences of conducting public communication through commodified imagery for contemporary social life.
  • CMCL-C 433 Food Performance and Communication (3 cr.) CASE S&H Examines the cultural, political, and communicative qualities of food, using theory, ethnography, and critical essays about historical and contemporary ways that food culture is organized. Texts include such subjects as the structural organization of cuisines, the political economy of obesity, historical and environmental explanations for taboo foods, and the effects of local food production on perceptions of community. Considers individual practices and meanings in a cultural context.
  • CMCL-C 435 Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice (4 cr.) P: C190 and C335, C360, or equivalent. Study of the major historical movements in documentary film. Combines theoretical and historical readings on questions of documentary realism with practical exercises in the production of digital-video documentaries. Lab fee required.
  • CMCL-C 438 Experiments with the Film Camera (4 cr.) P: C360. An exploration of techniques and concepts of experimental filmmaking which builds on the foundation of other production classes. For students with a solid background in basic cinematography and visual storytelling, as well as in the fundamentals of digital editing.
  • CMCL-C 444 Political Communication (3 cr.) Critical examination of historical and contemporary political communication. Focus on key public texts that shape American political culture, including speeches, protest discourse, and mediated political campaigns. Emphasis on interpretive and critical strategies through which texts can be productively engaged.
  • CMCL-C 445 Media, Culture, and Politics (3 cr.) Examines the role of media in the political process. Topic varies and may include censorship and free speech, social movements, politics of representation. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 446 Cultures of Democracy (3 cr.) Examines the role of culture in how democracies are practiced. Ethnographic focus varies and includes cross-cultural comparisons of political speech, voting, and democratic representation in different cultures. We will pay particular attention to the dilemmas surrounding exporting democracy, especially to the Middle East, Africa, South Africa, the Pacific, and the Balkans.
  • CMCL-C 450 Gender and Communication (3 cr.) Examines the extent to which biological sex and gender role orientation and stereotypes influence the process of communication. Focuses on gender differences in decoding and encoding verbal and nonverbal behavior, development of sex roles, cultural assumption, and stereotypes regarding gender differences in communication. Analyzes how the media present, influence, and reinforce gender stereotypes.
  • CMCL-C 460 Advanced Motion Picture Production (4 cr.) P: C360 and C361, or C335; permission of instructor. Students produce one personal project (narrative, documentary, or experimental) from script to screen, using either 16 mm. or digital video. Each class meeting devoted to discussing the students’ projects and exploring the aesthetic and technical issues involved. Each student assists in the production of at least one other project by a fellow student. Lab fee required.
  • CMCL-C 490 Capstone Seminar in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) P: C190 and C205. Students synthesize previous course work in Communication and Culture, culminating in a substantive project that directs their learning to some particular problem of mediation, publics, or cultures. Final project may include research essays, short films, websites, or public presentations or performances. Specific topics vary. With the permission of the undergraduate advisor, may be repeated with a different topic for a total of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 497 Independent Study in Communication and Culture (1-6 cr.) P: Junior standing and approval of instructor. Independent readings or other projects in communication and culture. Projects must be approved by faculty member before enrolling. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
  • CMCL-C 499 Senior Honors Thesis (3-6 cr.) P: Senior standing. Original research project, culminating in honors thesis to be written under direction of faculty member.