CMS 081M – INTRO TO GRADUATE STUDIES IN COMMUNICATION
Rene Dailey (rdailey@austin.utexas.edu)
F 3:00 - 4:30 pm. DMC 7.160
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. Open to Graduate Students in The Department of Comm Studies ONLY.
CMS 390S DISASTER COMMUNICATION & THE FUTURE
Keri Stephens
M 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. CMA 6.152
Examines foundational interdisciplinary theories and meaningful community involvement to reveal the pivotal role communication, organizing, and technologies play in disasters, crises, and emergencies.
CMS 383K THEORY CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUNICATION
Nik Palomares (nik@austin.utexas.edu)
M 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
The course deals with the development and advancement of theory for scientific research in communication (not just interpersonal communication). Being a social scientist requires a comprehensive understanding of a diverse set of methods that yield sound observations with meaningful answers to important questions. At the same time, generating a priori explanations for those observations and testing logically deduced hypotheses is the bread and butter of theory-driven communication science. How to evaluate, integrate, and generate theoretical explanations for communication phenomena is the focus for the course. Communication scientists animate their research with theory before collecting data, because doing so provides a longer shelf-life (enhanced sustainability) and greater impact (more heuristic value) for those data than atheoretical (or quasi-theoretical) research. Yet, an understanding of what theory is, how to assess its quality, and the process of generating conceptual explanations is often unclear, inarticulate, or otherwise under-developed in communication scholarship. My goal for this seminar is for you to have a better idea of what theory is and how to develop and critique it. The course will give you the foundation for continued theory development/construction by having you explicate (theoretically define) a core construct central to your research and connect it to other constructs. The main assessment for the course is a theory paper (perhaps with predictions that can evolve into a study with data after the class) that you write in a few iterations over the course of the semester with feedback throughout.
CMS 386K 1-INTERPERSONAL COMM THEORY
Rene Dailey (rdailey@austin.utexas.edu)
TH 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
This survey course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the predominant theories and topics regarding interpersonal communication. We will cover topics such as cognition and emotion regarding communication, nonverbal communication, information management (privacy, self-disclosure), conflict, and social support as well as in various contexts (e.g., romantic relationships, family relationships, health contexts). The objectives for this course are for students to become familiar with foundational and contemporary theories and topics, synthesize information regarding interpersonal theories and research, analyze and critique interpersonal theories and research, and articulate and support their original thinking and theorizing regarding interpersonal communication. Assessments include presentations, participation, leading class discussions, and a research proposal.
CMS 386N 1-QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
Anita L. Vangelisti (vangelisti@austin.utexas.edu)
T 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
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.
CMS 386P STRESS AND COPING
Erin Donovan (erindonovan@utexas.edu)
W 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
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 talk about upsetting or traumatic events and circumstances. We will examine some leading theoretical models of stress and coping and social support and review classic and recent empirical pieces. Processes covered will include individual-level coping (e.g., emotion-focused vs. problem-focused, approach vs. avoidant); communal coping (aka dyadic or relational coping); cybercoping; and supportive communication. An emphasis will be placed on health stressors (e.g., diagnosis of serious illness) and health-related outcomes of coping and support (e.g., depression and anxiety).
CMS 390M.6 EMBODIED INTERACTION
Jurgen Streeck (jstreeck@austin.utexas.edu)
W 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
This course is an introduction to the research conducted in the field known as ‘embodied interaction’ or ‘multimodal communication’, its methodology and research practice, and the theoretical developments resulting from it. Practitioners of this research seek to understand the inter-corporeal foundations of communicative understanding and co-operative action and the ways in which different communication modalities (speech, gaze, gesture, posture, touch, etc.) are coordinated moment by moment. We will give special attention to gesture and recent research on touch. You will work on small, video-based research projects and try out a variety of methods of data analysis (sequence analysis, context analysis, micro-ethnography). We discuss recent work on the cultural evolution of human language and communication; on cultural diversity in embodied interaction; on phenomenological conceptions of embodiment; and on the role of the senses in human and cross-species communication.
CMS 390P PRAGMATISM AND THE DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
Scott R Stroud (sstroud@austin.utexas.edu)
T 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
This course focuses on the development of democracy and its rhetorical tensions in the American intellectual tradition. It pays particular attention to the diverse group of thinkers denoted by the label of pragmatism. What does pragmatism have to say about the nature of democracy? How does democratic community relate to rhetoric, truth, and ethics? By surveying thinkers such as William James, C. S. Peirce, John Dewey, Jane Addams, Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Hu Shih, W.E.B. Dubois, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Richard Rorty, and more, we shall consider the range of the American experiences with democratic theory and practice. Along with primary sources, we will also engage the growing literature in rhetorical studies that emphasizes the contribution of these thinkers and traditions to the study of communication.
CMS 390S DIALOGUE
Shiv Ganesh (shiv.ganesh@austin.utexas.edu)
TH 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. CMA 6.152
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?
CMS 398T – SUPERVISED TEACHING
Maddie Holland (mholland@austin.utexas.edu)
M 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CMA 7.160
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.