** Please use the Spring 26 course schedule to find the unique numbers. Classes are subject to change at any time* https://registrar.utexas.edu/schedules
CMS 386L.3 Communicating in Groups and Teams
Dawna Ballard (diballard@utexas.edu)
M 3:30pm-6:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This course offers a broad overview of the major concepts and theories of group and intergroup communication processes. This includes a comparative examination of “top-down” models developed in traditionally studied contexts alongside newer “bottom-up” models that address the unique (inter)group dynamics found in less formal settings. The course is organized around a series of fundamental issues and topical concerns across small groups, identity-based groups, teams, and communities. By the completion of the course, students should: 1) have a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the major issues and concepts concerning communication in and between groups, teams, and communities of practice across a variety of contexts; and, 2) be able to apply this knowledge in a range of scholarly and practice-oriented settings. Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the readings in terms of their content and any perceived weaknesses.
CMS 386N Computational Methods
Ashwin Rajadesingan (arajades@austin.utexas.edu)
W 3:30pm-6:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This hands-on course introduces students to different computational methods that can be applied at scale to answer social science questions. The class will place particular emphasis on how to adopt certain data modeling techniques for classification and clustering, including deep learning and chatGPT, to study social phenomena. The course is structured to cover the complete data analysis pipeline including data collection, cleaning, exploratory data analysis, modeling, and interpretation. This class will use the Python programming language, however, no prior programming experience is required.
CMS 386N.2 Qualitative Research Methods
Stacey Sowards (stacey.sowards@austin.utexas.edu)
T 6:30pm-9:30pm (CMA 7.160)
Through presentation of scholarly readings and immersion into in-depth research, 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, interview tips, coding qualitative data, and research ethics.
CMS 386P Inter-Group Communication
Nik Palomares (nik@austin.utexas.edu)
T 3:30pm-6:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This course will review theory and research on intergroup communication including speech perception and non-verbal communication, especially as it relates to social identity and group conflict, especially when social rather than personal identity forms the basis for communication. Students relate these studies to how gender, race, culture, region, age, class & sexual orientation, as well as national identities are developed & reflected in society in both personal & professional relationships. Language and communication will be investigated both as entities that can cause conflict (e.g., official language laws) and as transparent but constitutive and confusing elements of group misunderstanding and conflict (e.g., the difficulty of translating “rights” across cultures). Other causes of group conflict will be touched on briefly as the focus of this course will be how communication within and between groups affects social relations. Intercultural communication is also, of course, characterized by positive factors in identity expansion, cooperation, altruism, negotiation, and collaboration. Newer Intergroup as well as more traditional intercultural communication research informs many social contexts; some examples of these contexts are to be found in communication between members of co-cultures, cultures, nationalities, genders, generations, as well as groups belonging in the workplace and health contexts. There are arguable intergroup dimensions to all of the areas of concern to communication scholars. Grades will be derived from student contributions to class discussion and from an original research project. The major (70%) evaluation for grading will depend on the development of a research paper, using quantitative or qualitative methods for an actual study. Thirty per cent will depend on class participation. Class participation will include discussion, leadership of discussion on reading, and several one-page response papers.
CMS 386P.12 Language in Persuasion
Matt McGlone (matthew_mcglone@austin.utexas.edu)
TH 6:30pm-9:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This graduate seminar examines how language is used to persuade and influence, focusing on the specific choices speakers and writers make to shape beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. We will study topics such as agency and intensity in wording, euphemism and dysphemism, figurative expression (metaphor, metonymy, irony, hyperbole), language attitudes, and linguistic intergroup bias, as well as recent developments in framing, political rhetoric, digital communication, health messaging, and the persuasive role of memes and hashtags. Readings combine classic theories with contemporary studies, and students will analyze current examples drawn from political discourse, online communities, and public health campaigns. A central part of the course is a group research project in which students design and carry out a mixed-methods empirical study, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, culminating in a written report and presentation.
CMS 390P.5 Foundations of Rhetorical Theory
Scott Stroud (sstroud@austin.utexas.edu)
M 6:30pm-9:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This course explores the intellectual background to the study of rhetoric and persuasive communication. By examining 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 many important thinkers and traditions in the Western tradition of rhetoric. Students will also be encouraged to take a global and pluralistic view of theories of rhetoric and persuasive communication. To further this end, we will 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. This course is open to students in any discipline or in any subarea of communication studies.
CMS 390R.8 Idiom of Haunting
Josh Gunn (josh_gunn@austin.utexas.edu)
TH 3:30pm-6:00pm (CMA 7.160)
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.
CMS 390S.10 Survey in Organizational Communication
Craig Scott (craig.scott@austin.utexas.edu)
TH 6:30pm-9:30pm (CMA 7.160)
This course explores a wide range of micro and macro issues and processes in organizational communication, as well as various theories and methods related to research in this subfield. We will examine topics such as socialization, relational dynamics at work, power, conflict, leadership, decision making, change and innovation, networks, technology, intercultural and global communication, external messaging, and various other emerging processes. In addition to leading articles and participating in weekly conversations, students will write a literature review, craft a bio of an organizational communication scholar, and conduct a team research project. 3-4 scholars in the field of organizational communication beyond UT will also be coming to our seminar sessions to share their expertise.