Tentative Course List

Communications 2000

Required

Critical Approaches to Popular Culture

considers critical issues and approaches in the study of popular culture. It will explore the ways in which everyone is both a user of and is used by popular culture. A variety of critical approaches to studying popular culture will be examined: Production, Texts, Audience, and History.

English 2851

B

Introduction to Film Form and Film Theory

is concerned with developing visual literacy skills, while also providing terminology and theory necessary to critically engage film. Special attention is paid to film form, historical/social contexts for the production and reception of visual images, and the roles that progressive reproduction technologies, spectatorship, and seeing play in understanding our contemporary world through and beyond visual culture.

Folklore 3930

A

Folklore and Popular Culture

is an examination of the transitional processes involved in the development of folk societies to mass cultures with regard to folklore and the products of popular culture. In addition, sensory and technological media theories will be scrutinized and evaluated in conjunction with cultural comparisons of the qualities and functions of folkshong, disc recordings and the radio; folktales, television melodrama and popular film; folk art and pupular "techno-art" foms.

Note: Credit may not be obtained for both FOLK 3930 and the former FOLK 2400

German 3000

B

German Film I

is a survey of German film from the beginnings to 1995.

Linguistics 2100

A

Language and Communication

is a general and non-technical introduction to linguistic concepts which are important for understanding the nature of language, its change and its function for communication. Topics include: languages as structured systems; the systematicity of language change; the classification of languages into families and their geographical distribution; language, the brain, and language disorders; the acquisition of language; and human vs animal communication.

Notes:

1. Credit may not be obtained for both LING 1100 and 2100. (Intended for students beyond first year.)

2. This course may qualify as a Research/Writing course. Consult each semester's Undergraduate Registration Procedures booklet for the R/W designation.

Philosophy 2571

A

Technology

examines concepts of technology and their ethical implications.

Note: Credit may be obtained for only one of PHIL 2571 and the former PHIL 2801

Communications and Culture

is an examination of verbal and non-verbal systems of communication, and the influence of language on human cognition.

Post-Soviet Russian: Media and Film

examines visual media with attention paid to the embedded cultural discourse that can only be understood with references to Russian history, language, and cultural identity. Liberated from communist ideology following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian film-makers refused to construct a bright future. Instead they portrayed the reality surrounding them for the first time without ideological constraints. These explorations, in turn, will raise certain questions about visual media in post-Soviet society.

Feminist Texts, Theories and Histories

is an examination of the development of feminist theories through analyses of key texts and their connections to historical and contemporary debates within feminism.

Prerequisite: WSTD 1000 is required. WSTD 2005 is recommended.

Communications 2001

Required

Introduction to Communication Theory

provides an introduction to theoretical approaches to organization, use and manipulation of language, including semiotics, performativity, mass and group communications, sociolinguistics and interpersonal communication. We will examine notions of influence, rhetoric, social judgment, deception, subject formation, globalization and cultural hybridity within the field of communications.

Prerequisite: CMST 2000

Communications 4000

Required

Advanced Communications Theory

engages communication theories, such as interpersonal, organizational, intercultural, or international communication, seeking to understand how and why mediated communication works have found their explanatory power to be useful. The course will aim to analyze various communication theories, apply communication theories to everyday life, write a theoretical literature review, and form sound hypotheses

Prerequisite: CMST 2000 and 2001 and 9 additional credit hours chosen from Program and Regulations, Elective Courses, List A or B

German 3001

B

German Film I

is a survey of West German film from 1945-1990.

Topics in German Studies II: The Third Reich

to be announced by the department