Explores the questions around the regulation of media in the digital era. Particular
attention will be paid to transformations in laws and policies surrounding ownership,
copyright, privacy, hacking, and network management. Consideration will be given to
how these changes impact media industries and the public, and how they connect with
larger political, economic, and cultural trends.
COMM 420 - 6, Communication, Culture, and Illness
Instructor, Dr. Andrew Spieldenner
Explores the interconnectedness of health and culture through critical engagement
of narratives and media coverage. Through a rhetorical, media and critical theory
perspective, students will analyze media and narratives with the intent of discerning
how culture frames how people understand and engage in their health, illness, healthcare,
and end of life processes. Particular foci will be: infectious disease, chronic and
hereditary conditions, and end of life
Spring 2018
COMM 420 - 01, Interpreting Art as a Communicative Experience
Instructor: Dr. Michael Huspek
In this class, we begin with the idea that things in this world have an aesthetic
dimension - e.g. sculpture, music, poetry, literature - invites us to interpret the
world in ways that take us beyond all that it thought of as rational, or scientific,
or pragmatic, or even that which typically is grounded in 'common sense'.
COMM 420 - 04, Border Rhetorics
Instructor, Dr. Antonio De La Garza
This class examines the U.S./ Mexico borderlands as a discursive phenomenon. Students
will learn to apply rhetorical theory and criticism to unpack the histories, artifacts,
and narratives that shape the physical and ideological line between citizen and outsider.
Students will also be asked to produce and theorize narratives about the cultural
and legal borderlands.
Prerequisite: COMM 200, Argumentation & Dialogue
COMM 450 - 05: Communication and Transnationalism
Instructor: Dr. Gloria Pindi
This course examines the communication practices that occur accross transnational
borders as well as the multiple ties and interactions linking peoples and/or institutions
across the borders of nation states in the context of globalization. Students will
use transnational/ intercultural communication theories to explore experiences of
transnational subjects, and particularly identity performances that emerge as people
become transnational and locate themselves in new imagined and/or real communities
as well as the power dynamics shaping these types of identities
Prerequisite: COMM 330, Intercultural Communication
MDIA 470 - 05: Mobile Media Cultures
Instructor: Dr. Cecilia Uy-Tioco
Explores the history of mobile media technologies, convergence of old and new media,
the shift towards a mobile society, mobile technologies and intimacies, the different
uses of mobile media around the world, and much more.
MDIA 470 - 06: Media Policy and the Struggle for U.S. Democracy, 1776-1996
Instructor: Dr. Brian Dolber
Explores the history of media policy in the U.S. from the nation's founding to the
birth of the modern Internet. While free expression is typically considered central
to American principles, there have been longstanding struggles over who has the right
and ability to participate in U.S. democracy. Particular attention will be paid to
the relationship between media policy and movements for racial, gender, and economic
justice.
Spring 2017
COMM 450: Communication and Transnationalism
Instructor: Dr. Gloria Pindi
This course examines the communication practices that occur accross transnational
borders as well as the multiple ties and interactions linking peoples and/or institutions
across the borders of nation states in the context of globalization. Students will
use transnational/ intercultural communication theories to explore experiences of
transnational subjects, and particularly identity performances that emerge as people
become transnational and locate themselves in new imagined and/or real communities
as well as the power dynamics shaping these types of identities
Prerequisite: COMM 330, Intercultural Communication