Fall 2022 Course Descriptions

** Please use the Fall 2022 course schedule to find the unique# & verify time/room for ALL Graduate courses listed below. 
**Please note that the CMS 395C is for the Stackable Certificate program administered by the dean's office. They are not courses in our Department Graduate program.
**The CMS 390U courses in the schedule are for the Option III Masters program.  They are not courses in our Department Graduate program.

 

 

CMS 386K-1 () - Survey in Interpersonal

Erin Donovan (erindonovan@utexas.edu)
M; 3:30 - 6:30 pm; CMA 7.120
 

DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to provide a rigorous overview of the fundamental and contemporary theories and types of research problems that are the foci of interpersonal communication scholarship. The purpose of the course is to give you opportunities to engage with theory. That is, in addition to learning the constructs and assumptions of major theoretical frameworks, you will think critically about the perspectives that have guided seminal research programs in our field; understand the strengths and limitations of those perspectives; and become better able to theorize and to contribute new knowledge of interpersonal communication through your own theoretically-driven, empirical research.

TEXTBOOKS:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 398T () - Supervised Teaching

Johanna Hartelius (j.hartelius@austin.utexas.edu)
M; 6:30 - 9:30 pm; CMA 6.152
 
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 

TEXTBOOKS:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 386N-1() - Quantitative Research Methods

Anita L. Vangelisti (vangelisti@austin.utexas.edu)

T; 3:30 - 6:30 pm; CMA 7.120

 

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.

TEXTBOOKS:

TBD
 

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 390S () - Dialogue

T; 6:30 - 9:30 pm; Hybrid                         
 
DESCRIPTION: This seminar on dialogue treats it as a constitutive dimension of collective communicative engagement. Studies and theories of dialogue cut across all areas of communication inquiry, so while this class will discuss dialogic theory and practice as it relates to organizing processes, it will also draw extensively from scholars whose work is situated in interpersonal and rhetorical traditions. Over the semester, we will consider critical questions such as: what are the relative places of consensus and openness in dialogue? How can dialogue be understood vis-à-vis deliberation, agonism and antagonism? Can power differences be suspended in dialogic processes? Is dialogue a prescriptive or descriptive view of communication? How is dialogue related to conflict? Who tends to write about dialogue and who does not? And what are the limits of dialogue as communicative practice? 
 
TEXTBOOKS:
 
TBD
 
PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 390N-8 () - Social Media Effects

W; 3:30 - 6:30pm; CMA 7.120
 
DESCRIPTION: Social media are now a major way in which people spend their time, find information, and interact with others. But what are the effects? How are these platforms changing what people think, feel, believe, and do? And what are the societal implications of these effects? In this class, we will review the most recent and cutting-edge social science research on the effects of social media. Emphasis will be placed on the effects of social media on our social, political, and psychological lives. As part of the course, students will design their own projects to investigate the effects of social media. 
 
TEXTBOOKS:
 
TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 390S.8 () - Communicating Knowledge

Jeff Treem (jtreem@austin.utexas.edu)

Organizational Comm MACRO with Joshua Barbour is CANCELLED; Communicating Knowledge replaces this selection.
 

DESCRIPTION: This course covers a broad range of theoretical approaches and empirical research related to the communication of knowledge – including the study of both organizations, and processes of organizing among workers. Topics will include: communities of practice, boundary objects, innovation, knowledge management, transactive memory, expertise, and ICT use.

TEXTBOOKS:

Weekly class readings will be available online

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Preference will be given to Communication Studies students

CMS 390P-5 () - Foundations of Rhetoric Theory

Scott R Stroud (sstroud@austin.utexas.edu)
TH; 3:30 - 6:30 pm; CMA 6.152
 

DESCRIPTION:

This course explores the intellectual background to the study of rhetoric and persuasive communication. By examining the important figures in rhetoric and how they define persuasion and its relation to knowledge and ethics, this course will enhance one’s ability to address rhetorical and communication content in many of the courses that one may be asked to teach, including rhetorical theory, public speaking, persuasion, and rhetorical criticism. It also will add a historical scope to the theories and approaches one may use in their contemporary research into rhetorical and communicative phenomena.  

This course represents a theoretical-historical review of writings about rhetoric, covering important thinkers and traditions in the Western tradition of rhetoric. Students will be encouraged to take a global and pluralistic view of theories of rhetoric and persuasive communication. To further this end, we will also explore theorists and approaches rooted in traditions from China and India. As a whole, the course will cover many topics of vital interest to the contemporary practice and study of rhetoric, public address, persuasion, and criticism. Each writer’s way of situating rhetoric in a world of texts and action will be interrogated as a way of understanding human experience in general.  

Students will be encouraged to write a paper suitable for conference presentation that fits one of these paths: (1) a paper that appropriates concepts or concerns from a historical figure in rhetoric in studying a phenomenon or practice of the student’s current research interests in communication/rhetoric, or (2) a paper that engages a topic in the history of rhetoric proper.  Students can engage figures, traditions, and problematics that are not explicitly covered in our class sessions. 

TEXTBOOKS:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 386P-6 () - Dark Side of Interpersonal

Rene Dailey (rdailey@austin.utexas.edu)
TH; 3:30 - 6:30 pm; CMA  7.120
 
DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to provide an overview of topics related to the “dark side” of communication in interpersonal relationships. In addition to addressing undesired features of interpersonal relationships, this course will also cover seemingly productive communication patterns that are actually dysfunctional as well as seemingly destructive patterns that are actually functional. Specifically, the course will cover topics such as honesty and deception, complaining and compliments, affection and conflict, and forgiveness and revenge. Assessments will include leading discussion, article critiques, and a research project. 
 
TEXTBOOKS:

TBD

PREREQUISITES/RULES:

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

CMS 081M () - Intro to Graduate Studies in Comm

F; 3:00 - 4:30 pm; DMC 4.212
 

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. 

TEXTBOOKS: 

TBD
 
PREREQUISITES/RULES:

Open to Graduate Students in The Department of Comm Studies ONLY.