Fall 2021 Course Descriptions

**Please check the course schedule for times and locations.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION THEORY

INSTRUCTOR:  René Dailey (rdailey@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 386K.1
CLASS SIZE =  10
 

DESCRIPTION:

This survey course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the predominant theories and topics regarding interpersonal communication. The objectives for this course are for students to:

  1. become familiar with foundational and contemporary theories and topics as well as current trends in interpersonal communication research
  2. synthesize information regarding interpersonal theories and research
  3. analyze and critique interpersonal theories and research
  4. articulate and support, through presentations and written assignments, your original thinking and theorizing regarding interpersonal communication. 

TEXTBOOKS:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

BASIC RHETORICAL CRITISISM

INSTRUCTOR:  Michael Butterworth (michael.butterworth@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 390R.1
CLASS SIZE =  10
 

DESCRIPTION:

This course conceives of rhetorical criticism as an attitude toward critique. To this end, rhetorical criticism is not a “method” in the traditional sense. Rather, it is a way of engaging cultural, political, and social issues through the lens of rhetoric. Accordingly, rhetoric’s constitutive capacity will be privileged over its instrumental capacity. Course readings will feature approaches to rhetoric that value contingency, invention, and judgment, with the understanding that rhetorical critics are participants in the discourses that they analyze. From this perspective, rhetorical criticism is politically engaged, ethically responsible, and invested in rhetoric as a means of cultural production. This course is reading and writing intensive, and students will produce an essay of original scholarship at the end of the semester. 

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

SUPERVISED TEACHING - COMM STDS

INSTRUCTOR:  Johanna Hartelius (j.hartelius@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 398T
CLASS SIZE = 15
 

DESCRIPTION:

Whatever the ambitions and professional plans of students in 398T—whether you want to become university professors, consultants, or something else entirely—honing your teaching skills is imperative. They will make it possible for you to do good in the world, and to be able to earn a living. The stakes of the course are both ideological and material. Like any experience, you get from it what you put into it. A worthwhile graduate seminar requires and facilitates both teaching and learning for everyone in the room. Students who participate intentionally/mindfully in this course will 

  • Read about and consider through reflection and discussion various teaching methods and philosophies. 
  • Read about and consider through reflection and discussion the particularity of communication studies and/as pedagogy 
  • Read about and consider through reflection and discussion what critical pedagogies might look like and accomplish from 2020 onward.  
  • Learn about and practice course design in the form of a syllabus, a teaching philosophy, and a lesson plan 

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval.

SEMINAR ON LYING AND DECEPTION

INSTRUCTOR:  Matt McGlone (matthew_mcglone@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 386P
CLASS SIZE = 10
 

DESCRIPTION:

Deception occurs in communication behavior across species, and lying (i.e., intentional deception) is a pervasive phenomenon in human communication. This course explores the varieties of deceptive communication, their causes and consequences in a wide range of contexts (advertising, art, interspecies contact, family and romantic relationships, journalism, mass media, politics, etc.), and the strategies used to detect their occurrence (verbal and nonverbal cues, polygraphs, fMRI, etc.).

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

ORGANIZATION COMMUNICATION THEORY

INSTRUCTOR:  Craig R. Scott (craig.scott@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 390T
CLASS SIZE = 10

DESCRIPTION:

This course examines the relevant history, theories, methods, and empirical research relevant to the study of Organizational Communication. Readings and discussion will introduce students to key scholars and research on socialization and attachment, dyadic/relational processes in organizations, conflict and disruption, power and difference, leadership and participation, change and innovation, networks and technology, (inter)cultural and global challenges, external communication and the environment, and key emerging areas in the field. Students will also conduct a team research project as part of the class.

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

STRESS AND COPING

INSTRUCTOR:  Erin Donovan (erindonovan@utexas.edu)
CMS 386P.10
CLASS SIZE = 10

DESCRIPTION:

In this course, we will explore how people interact with each other and with their environments during times of change and stress—including the emotions, cognitions, and behaviors that occur when people endure and talk through upsetting or traumatic events and circumstances. We will examine some leading models of stress and coping and social support by drawing from scholarship originating in communication and allied fields. Processes covered will include individual-level coping, communal/dyadic/relationship-focused coping, and supportive communication. An emphasis will be placed on health stressors (e.g., diagnosis of serious illness, public health risks) and health-related outcomes of coping and support (e.g., depression and anxiety). 

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

DECOLONIZING RHETORIC

INSTRUCTOR:  Stacey Sowards (stacey.sowards@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 390_
CLASS SIZE = 10

DESCRIPTION:

This course will be an advanced reading course in rhetorical theories on decoloniality, postcolonial theory, globalization, modernity, race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality.  

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

INSTRUCTOR:  Talia Stroud (tstroud@austin.utexas.edu)
CMS 386N
CLASS SIZE = 10

DESCRIPTION:

The primary goal of this course is to give you a solid understanding of the logic of quantitative social science.  The class will focus on the process of defining research problems, the logic of research design, and a limited number of techniques – for measurement, for design and sampling, and for analysis of data.  There are no pre-requisites for this course.

TEXTBOOK:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.

INTRO TO GRADUATE STUDIES IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION

INSTRUCTOR:  TBD
CMS 081
CLASS SIZE = 10

DESCRIPTION:

This course was created in 2000, driven by graduate student input. It has taken several forms over the years. Consistent goals, however, have been to (1) introduce incoming graduate students to their cohort, other graduate students, the faculty, the department, the college and the university and (2) socialize incoming graduate students to professional expectations and issues associated with the department and careers involving research.

TEXTBOOK:

There are required and supplemental readings for this class, all posted to our Canvas site. Throughout the course, we will be encouraging you to focus on the readings—including academic articles, scholarly blogs, higher education news outlets, academic list-serves, and social media accounts that seem most relevant for your interests. 

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Restricted to first-year Communication Studies graduate students.