Spring 2016

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. MADELINE MAXWELL

CMS 386N

SPRING 2016

TUESDAYS 6:30-9:30 pm in CMA 7.120

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

Through presentation of scholarly readings and immersion into one’s own in-depth research project, this course explores a variety of qualitative research approaches, taking into account issues of epistemology (ways of knowing), methodology (ways of examining), and representation (ways of writing and reporting). We will examine interpretive theory, and several intellectual traditions that constitute this field of research including ethnography, sensemaking, analytic induction, and grounded theory. We will read exemplars of qualitative research that illustrate these particular theoretical traditions as well as examine key issues such as gaining access to research sites, forms of interactions with research subjects, and research ethics. Students will carry out their own research project, engaging in 20+ hours of field research. Through this project, students will have the opportunity to collectively enact and reflect upon the central phases of qualitative research such as: planning, negotiating access, observing, interviewing, creating field texts, analyzing field texts, writing, and explicating the contribution of their work. The goal is that students will emerge from the class with first-hand qualitative research experience and a significant understanding of qualitative methods that can serve as a basis for an ongoing research program.   

 

TEXTBOOKS:

Tracy, S. J. (2013). Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. ISBN-10: 140519202X | ISBN-13: 978-1405192026

 

Restricted to CMS graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. JOHN DALY

CMS 386P AND MAN 383 (meets with)

SPRING 2016

THURSDAYS 12:30-2 pm in UTC 3.102

CLASS SIZE = 10

 

This course focuses on research and theory related to the very practical issue of how one "sells" ideas and themselves. Integrating topics in persuasion and marketing, the course reviews relevant theories and research on strategic influence.

 

TEXTBOOK:

Daly, J.A. (2011). Advocacy; Championing Ideas and Influencing Others

 

The CMS part of the course is restricted to Communication Studies graduate students. The Business School portion is restricted to Business graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. ANITA VANGELISTI

CMS 386R

SPRING 2015

TUESDAY 3:30 – 6:30 PM CMA 7.120

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

This course is designed to acquaint students with some of the more common theoretical and methodological issues that face those who conduct research on family communication. Research examining the developmental life course of U.S. families, the various types of families that comprise today’s society, and several current issues that affect families will be covered. Specific topics include communication and attraction, marriage, divorce, sibling relationships, step-families, the effect of spouses’ occupations on the family, the influence of culture on family interaction, and communication in abusive families.

 

TEXTBOOK:

Vangelisti, A.L., (Ed.). (2013). The Routledge handbook of family communication (2^nd ed.),  New York:  Routledge.

 

Reading packet of articles.

 

Course is restricted to Communication Studies majors.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. JÜRGEN STREECK

CMS 390M

SPRING 2016

THURSDAYS 3-6 pm in CMA 7.120

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

Great advances have recently been made in the reconstruction of (the development of) human interaction, communication, migration, language, and what we call ‘the mind’. These reconstructions converge in a view of the living human body, and bodily movement, action, and cooperative interaction, as the source of all conceptual structures in natural languages (cultural meaning systems), revealing human unity within cultural diversity. The living human body/embodied mind will also take center stage in this course. Its ambition is to provide you with a profound, integrated understanding of what we know today about the origins, development, and features of living human communication, languages, and the enculturated mind.

 

Class meetings will center around discussions of relevant texts (almost all of them very accessible), complemented by occasional short lectures and presentations. Each student will prepare the discussion of one class meeting and write response papers and one essay that contextualizes a theme of their choice within the current research landscape.  

 

TEXTBOOKS:

Deutscher, G. (2005). The Unfolding of Language : An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention. New York: Metropolitan Books.

Enfield, N. J., & Levinson, S. C. (Eds.). (2006). Roots of Human Sociality. Culture, Cognition and Interaction. London: Berg.

Everett, D. L. (2012). Language, the Cultural Tool. New York: Pantheon.

Gibbs, R. (2005). Embodiment and Cognitive Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goodwin, C. (in press). Co-Operative Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in Life. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Tomasello, M. (1999). The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

 

Open to all University of Texas graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. BARRY BRUMMETT

CMS 390P

SPRING 2016

WEDNESDAYS 7:00 – 10:00 PM (CMA 7.120)

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

A broad-based consideration of social style (including dress, grooming, posture, entertainment, vehicles, living arrangements, etc.) as a system of communication at the intersection of culture and commodification, with special attention to the expressive and practical functions of such symbolic displays.

 

TEXTBOOK:

Barry Brummett, A Rhetoric of Style Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-2858-5

Stuart Ewen, All Consuming Images:  The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture Basic Books.  ISBN 0-465-00101-7

Dick Hebdige, Subculture:  The Meaning of Style  New Accent.  ISBN 0-416-70860-9

Crispin Sartwell, Political Aesthetics.  Cornell.  ISBN 978 0 8014 4890 4

Virginia Postrel, The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion.  Simon and Schuster (ISBN pending)

 

Restricted to CMS graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. SCOTT STROUD

CMS 390J

SPRING 2016

THURSDAYS 3-6 PM in CMA 7.120

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

This course engages two important and interrelated areas of study in rhetoric: narrative and myth. This course investigates a range of accounts that have been given concerning narrative’s rhetorical and argumentative powers. Of particular interest to us will be the theory of narrative argument offered by Walter Fisher in communication studies, although we will explore accounts of narrative from other disciplines as well. Arguments against narrative’s argumentative employment from philosophical aesthetics will also be considered. In terms of myth, the course will focus primarily on the question of how myth and mythic narrative occur in rhetorical activity. Issues to be explored include the psychological foundations of myths (particularly Jungian accounts), how mythic criticism might proceed, as well as critiques of mythic criticism from a variety of disciplines.

 

TEXTBOOKS:

Walter R. Fisher, Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action (University of South Carolina Press, 1989), ISBN-10: 0872496244.  Required.

 

 

Robert A. Segal (ed.), Jung on Mythology (Princeton, 1998), ISNB-10: 0691017360. Required.

 

Laurie L. Patton & Wendy Doniger (eds.), Myth and Method (University of Virginia Press, 1996), ISBN-10: 0813916577. Required.

 

Alan Dundes (ed.), Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth (University of California Press, 1984), ISBN-10: 0520051920. Required.

 

Janice Hocker Rushing & Thomas S. Frentz, Projecting the Shadow: The Cyborg Hero in American Film (Chicago, 1995), ISBN-10: 0226731677. Required.

 

 

 

Course Reader (available at Jenn’s Copies).

 

Open to all University of Texas graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. JOSH GUNN

CMS 390R

SPRING 2016

TUESDAYS 3:30-6:30 PM in  CMA 3.108

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

Haunting is an ambivalent repetition, a semiotics of repression and repressing.  To be haunted is to be troubled--and sometimes delighted--by a ghost or an absence that paradoxically seems present.  This course addresses haunting as a central experience of modern subjectivity rooted in the ontotheological concept of communication.  Through the idiom of haunting and ghosts, we will explore how the arrival of postmodernity (particularly in respect to mass media technology) has altered how we think about communication and subjectivity in ways that are common (popular) and uncommon (academic and scholarly).  The course will conclude with a consideration of the ghost of speech, a specter that continues to haunt Communication Studies despite numerous attempts to banish it from departmental nameplates over the past fifteen years.

 

TEXTBOOK:

 

Reading packet (available at Jenn's Copies)

 

Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx (ISBN: 0415389577)

 

Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (ISBN: 0143039989)

 

Additional course texts TBA.

 

Open to all University of Texas graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. BRENDA BERKELAAR

CMS 390S

SPRING 2016

WEDNESDAYS 6-9 PM in CMA 6.172

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

This course provides an introduction to the theories, concepts, and methods associated with analyzing and understanding social networks, in particular social networks related to communicating and organizing. We will review theoretical and empirical scholarship on social networks and develop a basic understanding of social network analysis. Social network analysis focuses on quantitatively and qualitatively mapping and measuring the connections, relationships, and flows between entities (e.g. individuals, teams, groups, organizations, and other information sources or entities).

 

After taking this course, you will understand basic theories, concepts, and approaches to social networks; be familiar with network research in organizations and organizing, communication and related areas; and be able to analyze, visualize, and interpret basic social network data. The theories, tools, and techniques of social networks have a long history of being used to examine the relationships, interactions, and resource flows, even before the advent of the Internet and social media. Like most seminar classes, most class time will involve discussing the assigned readings. Lab exercises will give you the opportunity to experience computer-based network analysis and visualization. The course project will be a term paper advancing some aspect of theory or method in social networks.

 

Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G. & Johnson, J. C. (2013). Analyzing social networks. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Monge, P. M. & Contractor N. (2003). Theories of communication networks. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

 

Selected readings available on Canvas.

No prerequisites; however, it is recommended that students have a solid understanding of basic univariate statistics. Open to all University of Texas graduate students.

INSTRUCTOR:  DR. KERI STEPHENS

CMS 390S

SPRING 2016

WEDNESDAYS 3-6 PM in CMA 7.120

CLASS SIZE = 12

 

This course explores contemporary issues and processes in organizational communication.  The focus is on reading, understanding, and conducting research in organizations.  We begin by reviewing the key constructs, methods, and philosophical positions found in this subdiscipline.  We will then discuss how to approach organizations as research partners and how to negotiate access for data collection.  We examine topics such as: how newcomers are socialized, how supervisor/subordinate communication occurs, interprofessional communication, emotion and work/life, emergency communication, and the impact of technology on work groups and organizational meetings.  We will also explore more macro topics such as the role of communication in major organizational changes and the types of messages organizations craft during crises. The major course project will consist of research in an actual organization or with organizational members.  The current plan is to partner with the Seton Family of Medical Center for the Spring 2016 data collection project. 

 

Major Learning Outcomes:

Provide you a broad understanding of the major concepts and scholars in organizational communication.

Plan and conduct a research study in an organization.

Individually demonstrate your ability to read and synthesize scholarly research.

Help you better understand the publishing process as it relates to org. comm.

Help you understand how to negotiate access to organizations as research partners.

Enjoy the classroom environment and have you be an active participant in your learning.

 

All students will prepare summaries of selected class articles, create individual annotated bibliographies, and collect, analyze data, and write a full length scholarly research paper as a team.  If you have not had an organizational communication course (or if it has been a while), I will also include suggested background readings from the Miller undergraduate textbook.

 

TEXTBOOK:

Putnam & Mumby, The Sage Handbook of Organizational Communion.  (2013) ISBN-1412987725 or ISBN-13: 978-1412987721

APA Reference Guide, 6^th edition (latest version)

If needed an undergraduate organizational communicational textbook

 

Course is restricted to Communication Studies majors. Other students should contact the instructor to check availability.