Doctor of Philosophy Degree

Admission Requirements
M.A. degree in a communication-related discipline (e.g., rhetoric, communication and culture, film, media studies, etc.) or its equivalent in a related field such as anthropology, education, English, folklore, history, political science, psychology, or sociology. Admission decisions are based upon such evidence as scores on the Graduate Record Examination General Test, undergraduate and graduate courses taken and grades received, a scholarly writing sample, and letters of recommendation.

Course Requirements
A minimum of 90 credit hours, of which eight (3 or 4 credit hour) courses past the M.A. degree must be taken in the Department of Communication and Culture. Dissertation not to exceed 15 credit hours in S810. A minimum of 30 credit hours must be in courses numbered 500 and above.

Minor
Outside minor (typically 12-15 credit hours) required, which must be approved by the advisory committee. With approval of the advisory committee, a second minor may be taken.

Foreign Language Requirement
Reading proficiency in a foreign language. Demonstrated by course work or examination.

Qualifying Examination
Written and oral; may be taken twice only.

Return to Top

Ph.D. Minor in Communication and Culture

Requirements
A minimum of 15 credit hours of course work in communication and culture, including one course from C501, C502, and C503. Course work must be completed with a grade average no lower than B (3.0). Students may transfer a maximum of 3 hours from another university toward this degree with the approval of the director of graduate studies in the Department of Communication and Culture.

To arrange for the minor in communication and culture, students should consult with the director of graduate studies, who will recommend a member of the faculty to serve as an advisor. In consultation with the advisor, a program of study will be outlined and a copy of the plan filed with the director of graduate studies.

Return to Top

Courses

C405 Human Communication Theory (3 cr.)

C406 The Study of Public Advocacy (3 cr.)

C407 Rhetoric and History (3 cr.)

C419 Classical Oratory (3 cr.)

C424 Empirical Research Methods in Speech Communication (3 cr.)

C427 Cross-Cultural Communication (3 cr.)

C440 Organizational Communication (3 cr.)

C444 Political Communication (3 cr.)

C501 Introduction to Rhetoric and Public Culture (3 cr.) A first course for students interested in exploring the relationship between rhetoric and public culture as manifest in modes of practical reasoning, the constitution and performance of self/society, and socio-political critique/judgment. Engages the connection between these modalities by focusing on the premodern and late or postmodern rhetorical theory as they implicate the problematics of contemporary social and political theory, including power, agency, ideology, hegemony, mediation, subjectivity, etc.

C502 Introduction to Performance in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Introduction to various theories and methods of research in human communication studies. Includes theories of discourse and culture, message production and reception, symbol systems, social constructionism, relational communication, conversation analysis, social influence, communication competence, and other topics.

C503 Introduction to Media Theory and Aesthetics (3 cr.) Study of classical and contemporary theoretical texts.

C505 Productive Criticism of Political Rhetoric Conceptualizes rhetoric as a mode of social critique while focusing on the problem of the scapegoat in public culture. Critically examines constructions of the threatening Other as they foster alienation and victimization within and between polities. Draws on Kenneth Burke's dramatism as a framework for rhetorical critique.

C506 Methods of Media Research (3 cr.) Introduction to research methods used in critical studies of media and culture.

C507 Methods of Ethnographic Research in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Exploration of ethnographic research methods in the study of communication and culture, including the ethnography of performance, media, and public discourse. The emphasis is on qualitative methods; course work includes exercises in participant observation and interviewing.

C511 Premodern Rhetorical Theory (3 cr.) Survey of key texts, emphasizing rhetorical theory and practice, in the Greek and Latin traditions. Focus on contextualizing these materials within a continually developing intellectual history of rhetorical studies. Of particular interest is the potential for premodern theory to frame, interpret, and critique contemporary rhetorical practice.

C512 Rhetorical Theories of Cultural Production (3 cr.) Examines theories of rhetoric as a primary source of cultural production. Features Giambattista Vico on eloquence, tropes, and the poetic wisdom of culture; Friedrich Nietzsche on rhetoric, metaphor, and the will to power; Chaim Perelman on the realm of rhetoric and the problem of justice; and Kenneth Burke on rhetoric, identification, and the drama of human relations.

C513 Rhetoric and Sociopolitical Judgment (3 cr.) Exploration of the role that rhetoric plays in the production and performance of collective or socio-political judgment. The focus will be on the tension between modern and late or postmodern conceptions of judgment as they implicate the problems and possibilities of rhetorical praxis (i.e., negotiating the relationship between knowledge, understanding and action) in contemporary democratic policy.

C523 Theory and Research in Persuasion (3 cr.) Contemporary theories of persuasion and their research base: includes definitions, historical foundations, opinion measurement, source characteristics, receiver characteristics, group effects, interpersonal influence, anticipatory effects, role of language, role of nonverbal behavior, balance theories, theories of subjective probability, subjective expected utility theories, and role of memory and cognition. Research paper required.

C529 Theory and Research in Small-Group Communication (3 cr.) Examines the small-group communication process through the study of diverse theoretical perspectives and related research. Particular emphasis on socioemotional and structural variables that influence decision making, including pressures for uniformity, problem-solving strategies, inference-making cohesiveness, status, and power.

C530 Institutions and Communicative Practice (3 cr.) The comparative study of institutions as communicatively constituted. Topic varies; may be repeated for credit.

C533 Interpersonal Communication (3 cr.) Surveys the social scientific theory and research concerning interpersonal communication. Topics for discussion usually include relational formation and dissolution, the communication dynamics of ongoing relationships, personality variables and their relationship to interaction, and the interpersonal consequences of interaction, such as relational control, influence, and behavior change.

C545 Introduction to Pedagogy in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Fundamentals of teaching as applied to communication. Focuses on teaching methods and culture, criticism, communication apprehension, textbook selection, test construction, gender in the classroom, and the place of communication and culture in the liberal arts and sciences.

C552 Media Institutions and the Production of Culture (3 cr.) Study of media institutions, work practices, products, and their relationships with their sociopolitical environment.

C560 Motion Picture Production (3-4 cr.) Introduction to 16mm film production, including cinematography, editing, and sound.

C561 Intermediate Motion Picture Production (4 cr.) P: CMCL C560. Introduces students to the making of 16 mm 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.

C562 The Screenplay (3 cr.) Terminology of screenwriting and form of the screenplay. Development of the screenplay from story outline and treatment to the shooting script. The original screenplay. Techniques of adaptation. Contributions of the screenwriter to the mise-en-scène. Exercises in screenwriting, culmination in the writing of a full-length original screenplay or adaptation.

C592 Media Genres (3 cr.) Topic varies: the evaluation of typical genres; problems of generic description of definition; themes, conventions, and iconography peculiar to given genres, etc. May be repeated for credit.

C593 History of European and American Films I (3 cr.) Survey of the development of cinema 1895-1926 (silent film era). Particular attention on representative work of leading filmmakers, emergence of film movements and development of national trends, growth of film industry, and impact of television. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.

C594 Media History (4 cr.) Media historiography, topics in national history, national and international movements and trends. Topic varies. May be repeated once for credit with different topic.

C596 National Cinemas (3 cr.) Topics varies: historical survey of major national cinemas. Topics may include Brazilian cinema, French national cinema, German film culture, Italian cinema, Indian cinema, and others. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

C604 Topical Seminar in Mass Communication and Culture (1-3 cr.) P: consent of instructor.

C606 Media Criticism (3 cr.) Study of the main schools and methods of media criticism. Course may be repeated once for credit with a different topic.

C610 Identity and Difference (3 cr.) Political, social, and cultural dimensions of identity and difference. Interrogates the production of marginal and dominant identities (e.g., racial, sexual, colonial) and the emergence of new forms of identification.

C611 Topics in Rhetoric and Public Culture (3 cr.) Systematic review of research related to a specific issue or area in rhetoric and public culture. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

C612 Constituting Democracy in Rhetorical Discourse (3 cr.) Compares the role of rhetoric in liberal, deliberative democracy to its function in radical, participatory, and agonistic democracy. Considers problematic constructions of democracy in U.S. political culture and their relationship to exaggerated perceptions of national vulnerability. Explores the rhetorical potential of myth and metaphor for reconstituting the image of democracy from a diseased to a healthy political practice.

C613 Coherence and Fragmentation in Postwar American Discourse (3 cr.) Exploration of essential tensions in U.S. public culture from World War II to the present, including uniformity and diversity, identity and division, isolation and aggression, the individual and society, and power and freedom. Focus is on the manner in which such tensions are animated in and through exemplars of rhetorical discourse, including speeches, films, novels, poetry, television programs, and World Wide Web sites.

C614 Rhetoric, Ideology, and Hegemony (3 cr.) Examination of the relationship between rhetoric, ideology, and hegemony in contemporary social and political thought. The emphasis will be on conceptions of hegemony as a site of praxis for negotiating the tensions between rhetoric and ideology in the production of social and political change (or permanence) in late or postmodernity. Primary readings will draw from twentieth-century rhetorical theory, Marxism, critical theory, and psychoanalysis.

C615 The Problem of Protest in America (3 cr.) Presents key instances of protest discourse both in their historical contexts and through the lenses of rhetorical theories of dissent. The focus is on illuminating the problematic and constitutive role of protest in the public culture of the United States, as manifested across a range of electronic and print media. The American Revolution, southern secession, feminisms, black liberation, and gay/lesbian rights will receive particular attention.

C616 Rhetorical Critiques of War (3 cr.) Rhetoric as an heuristic for critically engaging discourses of war and transforming the legitimization of war into a cultural problematic. Focuses on the problem of war in U.S. political culture.

C617 Rhetoric and Visual Culture (3 cr.) Examination of the relationship between rhetoric and visual culture. Key topics to be considered include: the relationship between visual rhetoric and collective memory, social and political controversy and dissent, political style and representation, postmodern media communities, race, gender, identity politics, etc.

C618 Rhetoric and Critical Hermeneutics (3 cr.) The political art of rhetorical criticism is compared and contrasted against other modes of critical interpretation. In particular, this course concentrates on the strategies, methods, and assumptions that guide these modes of critical reading and that thus illuminate the special characteristics of rhetorical reading. The goal is to discover the particulars that constitute a rhetorical attitude toward cultural and textual critique.

C620 Media, Politics, and Power (3 cr.) Examination of media institutions (including new media) through various schools of thought. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.

C626 Studies in Contemporary Communication (3 cr.) Systematic review of research related to contemporary problems in the study of communication; may be theoretical, methodological, or critical. Topic varies. May be repeated for credit.

C627 Performance in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Critical examination of performance as a vantage point on communication and culture in specific societies, world areas, or social formations. Topic varies. May be repeated for credit.

C633 Studies in Interpersonal Communication (3 cr.) Focuses on one area of the social scientific study of interpersonal communication. The topic varies to include such issues as power and control in interactions, the formation of relationships, and the foundations of communicative competence.

C640 Studies in Organizational Communication (3 cr.) Critical examination of quantitative and qualitative research in the area of organizational communication. Emphasizes decision making, superior-subordinate interaction, communication networks and climate, and organizational culture. Focuses on critical assessment of research. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

C645 Topics in the Comparative Study of Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Analysis of communicative forms and practices in comparative perspective. Topic varies. May be repeated for credit.

C646 Pedagogy Practicum (1 cr.) Taken by associate instructors in communication and culture who are pursuing a three-course sequence leading to the Certificate of Pedagogy. Students in C646 will be assigned a faculty mentor who will work with them as they prepare to teach a departmental course that is not under the supervision of a course director. May be repeated for credit.

C652 Globalization of Media (3 cr.) Explores media institutions, practices, and texts across national borders. Topic varies. May examine particular issues such as globalization of media, transnational implications of media texts, transnational data flows, media and foreign policy. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.

C680 Theory and Research in Nonverbal Communication (3 cr.) P: consent of instructor. Study of the origins, evolution, physiological bases, and present functions of nonverbal communication behavior. Special attention to the relationship of nonverbal behavior to gender, power, dominance, deception, interpersonal relationship development, and language. May be repeated for credit.

C690 Theories of Symbolic Meaning (3 cr.) P: Linguistics L503 or consent of instructor. Intensive study of referential, behavioral, rule-governed, and cognitive theories of symbolic meaning, with attention to comprehension of words, utterances/sentences, and extended discourse. May be repeated for credit

C691 Authorship in Media (4 cr.) In-depth analysis of individuals in the media who become known as "authors." May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

C700 Research (cr. arr.)*

C701 Practicum in Communication Research (3 cr.) P: consent of instructor. Students must have ample preparation in some theoretical area and in one or more research methods. Designed to allow students to conduct a research study, including the collection and examination of data (broadly defined), to answer a question, to prove a thesis, or to test a hypothesis relating to communication/rhetorical theory. May be repeated for credit.

C705 Research Seminar in Rhetoric and Public Culture (3 cr.) Problems and issues in rhetoric and public culture. May be repeated for credit.

C706 Theories of Performance in Communication and Culture (3 cr.) Critical examination of theoretical problems in the study of performance in communication and culture. Topic varies. May be repeated for credit.

C710 Research Seminar (1-3 cr.) May be repeated for credit.

C727 Seminar in Cross-Cultural Communications (3 cr.) May be repeated for credit.

C790 Seminar: Pragmatic Functions of Language (3 cr.) P: C501 and C502, or consent of instructor. Study of research dealing with the correlates of language variation, including topics such as language clarity, intensity, obscenity, style, dialects, interactions of language with perception/cognition and mental health, and the constituents of pragmatic language competence. May be repeated for credit.

C792 Advanced Seminar in Media Theory (3 cr.) Topic varies: advanced study in media history and theory; major movements and historical periods and their relationship to the intellectual and cultural climate of the time; studies of technology and modes of production; advanced work in genre or auteur studies; close reading of major works of media theory; new developments in theory and criticism. May be repeated for credit.

C793 Seminar in Media (3 cr.) Topics in media studies. May be repeated once for credit when topic changes.

C800 M.A. Thesis (cr. arr.)

C810 Ph.D. Thesis (cr. arr.)*

Return to Top