**All Graduate classes will have a web-based component in Spring 2021. Please check the course schedule for times and locations.
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
DESCRIPTION:
This seminar has three units. The first is devoted to a critical overview of traditional and recent literature on intercultural communication; we will deal critically with the received ‘territorial’ conception of cultures and confront it with a newer conception of ‘cultural flow’, which pays particular attention to globalization and the increased hybriditization of cultures in our time. In the second unit we will work towards an integrated approach to research on intercultural interactions, which draws upon cultural and linguistic anthropology, practice theory, social constructivism, interactional socio-linguistics, as well as conversation-analytic and micro-ethnographic research methods. Seminar participants will present a published work on intercultural communication; submit a research proposal; and conduct an empirical study on a specific situation or genre of intercultural communication, aligned with their individual area of study, summarized in a research paper.
TEXTBOOKS:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
RHETORIC AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
DESCRIPTION:
Those who have proclaimed the death of psychoanalysis never seem to tire of such pronouncements. Psychoanalytic theory, of course, has a number of explanations for why folks would take such pleasure in death. In this course we will examine those explanations, as well as the rationale for "killing off" certain elements and thinkers of the psychoanalytic tradition (e.g., Freud, drive theory, and so on). More specifically, this course is intended as a broad survey of the various schools of psychoanalysis, the controversies and disagreements among those who claim and jettison psychoanalytic perspectives, and the ways in which psychoanalytic theory has been used in critical practice. Although this course will fail to provide any semblance of mastery, it should help to provide a starting place for further researches should you choose to pursue a psychoanalytically informed criticism or critique. At the very least, this course will help to explain a number of common assumptions behind fashionable contemporary cultural theories (e.g., poststructuralism, posthumanism, postmodernism)—assumptions that are often mistakenly, if not irresponsibly, overlooked by scholars in rhetorical studies and communication theory. As we will see, no contemporary theorist or critic—from Alain Badiou and Judith Butler, to Deleuze and Guattari and Slavoj Zizek—can be appropriately understood without some familiarity with psychoanalysis.
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
ADVOCACY
DESCRIPTION:
This course introduces you to how people successful “market” their ideas particularly within organizations. No matter how good your ideas are, unless you can also effectively sell those notions to decision-makers, those ideas don’t matter. Good ideas, in short, don’t sell themselves. In this class we focus on crucial skills that help you not only understand how people influence you but also help you successfully pitch your ideas to others. You’ll be exposed to research answering questions like:
- How do you clearly and memorably communicate your ideas?
- How do you build and maintain affinity and credibility as an advocate?
- How do you become a more effective story-teller when persuading others?
- How do you know when it is the right time to pitch an idea?
- How do you build alliances to get better buy-in for your ideas?
- How do you “pre-sell” ideas?
- How do you successfully influence change in organizations?
- How do you effectively persuade others to adopt your ideas?
- How do you make yourself more impactful in meetings?
The class is designed for anyone who will face the challenge of convincing others to invest in their ideas. Advocacy matters in every profession and at every level of an organization. Creative entrepreneurs must successfully pitch their innovations, managers must, on a daily basis, effectively persuade team members and garner buy-in from leadership to adopt their ideas, sales and marketing folks constantly advocate for their products and services.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all University of Texas graduate students.
ON TIME
DESCRIPTION:
This seminar is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exploration of one of the most central dimensions of human experience: Time. Approached from a chronemic lens, we will address wide-ranging issues related to communication, relationships, and work that shape and are shaped by fundamentally temporal processes. This includes, but is not limited to: resilience, inclusion, overwork, technology and anytime/anywhere communication, pace of life, the Slow Movement, busyness, mindfulness, pauses, flow, sleep deprivation, multi-tasking, interruptions, grief, “work-life” issues, organizational performance, communication as design, and, of course, COVID-19.
Students will engage a particular area of communication, or related, research and consider how it might be better informed through (re)considering its relationship to time. Additionally, the process of theory-building (itself a temporal issue) will be explored in detailed, offering students some grounding in the long-term process of theory construction and refinement.
TEXTBOOK/READING PACKET:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
DESCRIPTION:
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 analytic induction, grounded theory, and ethnography. We will read exemplars of qualitative research that illustrate diverse 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.
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
COMM CHALLENGES AND WORK
DESCRIPTION: Please contact the instructor.
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
UNDST TECH THRU USERS
DESCRIPTION:
Digital technologies both enable and constrain the everyday actions of technology users. Designers create technological artifacts that possess material features meant to guide and facilitate user behavior. It’s not difficult to see the power here: how the desires, values, and assumptions of those who build a technology may shape the actions of anyone who uses it. Yet, an innovation rarely follows a straight or simple path once it’s put into the world. Between organizational structures and technology systems are the practices of users. Users adapt and reinvent technology. They shape how it is used, who uses it, and for what purpose. In this course we will bring our attention to the practices of technology users – seeking to understand how the creative, unexpected, and tactical acts of everyday people shape the meaning and function of technology within society.
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
FAMILY COMMUNICATION
DESCRIPTION:
This course will focus on current research and theory on Family Communication. Readings will cover such topics as the development of families, various types of families that comprise modern society, family members, and several current issues that affect families. The goal of the course is to provide students with the opportunity to learn about family communication both in an abstract way (via readings and class discussions) and in a more concrete, "hands-on" fashion (by collecting data and conducting your own study).
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.
RHETORICAL OF EXPERTISE
DESCRIPTION:
If “expertise is knowledge living its rhetorical life,” then the purpose of this course is to examine the conditions and implications of that life in the contemporary moment. That is, to study how power and social relationships are constituted through discourses of expertise. In terms of theories and methods, the course has its center of gravity in rhetoric and critical scholarship; however, the course welcomes various student backgrounds and research foci, and is designed to facilitate productive discussion. For the major research assignment, each student may choose to employ the method/approach of her/his field or academic specialty as long as the final project relates to expertise/experts and communication.
TEXTBOOK:
TBD
PREREQUISITES/RULES:
Open to all Communication Studies graduate students and with instructor approval, other University of Texas graduate students.