Department of Communication

Introduction

The study of communication is essential for participating in an increasingly complex and mediated global environment. The Department of Communication's mission is to advance communication for the public good. Through its teaching, research, and service, the department addresses the many ways communication functions to create, sustain, and transform personal life, social relations, political institutions, economic organizations, and cultural and aesthetic conventions in society; promotes competencies required for various modes of mediated and non-mediated communication; and develops skills for analyzing, interpreting, and critiquing communication problems and questions. The curriculum is designed to enable students to develop the capacities to be knowledgeable and responsible producers and consumers of communication through engagement, critique, and creativity. The programs of study offered by the department reflects its vision of citizen-scholars building a better North Carolina and world.

Advising

Department advising for the major in communication studies is conducted by

  1. a full-time lecturer/advisor who holds office hours in Bynum Hall and Steele Building (see the department’s website for the advisor’s office and office hours),
  2. the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Communication (see the department’s website for the director’s office and office hours), and
  3. representative faculty members.

Facilities

The department has extensive media production and performance studies facilities located in the Media Arts Space at 108 East Franklin Street, Swain Hall and Bingham Hall. The Media Arts Space is home to state-of-the-art media production equipment, classroom space, and editing suites. It also houses Studio 6, where numerous live performances are staged. Bingham Hall contains the Martha Nell Hardy Performance Space.

Graduate School and Career Opportunities

Upon completion of their degrees, students are prepared for graduate study and research in communication. Advanced study may be pursued in a problem-defined approach to communication research. A substantial number of graduate assistantships allow M.A.-through-Ph.D. and Ph.D.-only candidates to gain experience in research, teaching, production, and administration. Graduate study is characterized by intensive participation in seminars, original research and creative activities, and close work with individual faculty members. Students are also prepared for advanced study in related academic disciplines such as law.

The career outlook for students with degrees in communication studies is promising, and graduates enter a variety of professions that value communication knowledge and skills. Communication studies majors are prepared to serve as communication specialists in business; in federal, state, and local governments and agencies; and in public service. Some of the specific areas in which majors pursue careers are teaching, social advocacy, nonprofit leadership and management, public relations and advertising, personnel management and training, management consulting, video and film production, and work with emerging technologies.

According to the Federal Bureau of Labor, overall employment in media and communication occupations is projected to grow 6 percent by 2031, resulting in 68,600 currently non-existing jobs over the decade. About 115,800 jobs are projected each year. The median annual salary for media and communication professionals was $62,340 in May 2021, which was higher than the median annual salary for all occupations of $45,760.

An understanding of communication provides a strong base for a range of career options. The mission of the department is to go beyond narrow technical training by providing a liberal arts approach to communication. This provides the student with maximum latitude for promotion and advancement and avoids limited career opportunities resulting from narrow approaches to the field.

The burgeoning growth of communication industries and support fields provides a range of career opportunities. Graduates of the department, who number well over 4,000, are engaged in a variety of occupations ranging from work for international corporations to jobs at local nonprofit organizations.

Professors

Renee Alexander Craft, Cori Dauber, Torin Monahan, Patricia Parker, Tony Perucci, Joyce Rudinsky, Avi Santo.

Associate Professors

Bill Brown, Sarah E. Dempsey, Julia Haslett, Christian O. Lundberg, Steven K. May, Alice Marwick, Michael Palm, Kumi Silva, Michael S. Waltman.

Assistant Professors

Lisa Calvente, E. Chebrolu, Aaron Shapiro, Katie Margavio Striley.

Adjunct Professors

Greg Flaxman, Amanda Graham, Mark Katz, Daniel Kreiss, Chérie Rivers Ndaliko, Christopher Nelson, John Pickles, Barry Saunders, Randall Styers.

Teaching Professor

Joseph Megel.

Teaching Associate Professors

 Kristin Hondros, Kevin Marinelli, David Monje.

Professor of the Practice

Joy Goodwin.

Visiting Lecturers

Michael Acosta, Howard Craft, James Lampley.

Professors Emeriti

Bill Balthrop, Carole Blair, Beverly Long Chapin, Dana Coen, Robert Cox, Howard D. Doll, Paul Ferguson, Lawrence Grossberg, Ken Hillis, Gorham A. Kindem, Dennis Mumby, James W. Pence Jr., Della Pollock, Edward Rankus, Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, Francesca Talenti, Julia Wood.

COMM–Communication Studies

Undergraduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 51.  First-Year Seminar: Organizing and Communicating for Social Entrepreneurs.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the historical and current development of social entrepreneurship as a field of study and practice, with particular attention to successful organizational communication strategies designed to solve community problems.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 53.  First-Year Seminar: Collective Leadership Models for Community Change.  3 Credits.  

This course will explore communication models for collective leadership involving youth and adults in vulnerable communities. Partnering with local youth-focused organizations, students will work in teams to research and design community-based change projects.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Field Work.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 57.  First-Year Seminar: Is There Life after College?: The Meaning of Work in Contemporary Life.  3 Credits.  

Examines the historical emergence of work as a defining feature of contemporary life. The course asks, What is a "career"? How have neoliberalism and post-Fordism influenced understandings of work and career? How have changing conceptions of work influenced other aspects of life, including family, leisure, consumption, and self-identity?

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 61.  First-Year Seminar: The Politics of Performance.  3 Credits.  

In this course students will explore the possibilities of making political performances, or making performances political. We will be particularly concerned with how performance may contribute to processes of social change.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-CREATE or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 62.  First-Year Seminar: African American Literature and Performance.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the question of what characterizes "Blackness" as it manifests through experience, history, and symbol in the United States, as well as the impact of African practices and identities upon blackness in the United States. The course is concerned with what has been termed the "black literary imagination".

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 63.  First-Year Seminar: The Creative Process in Performance.  3 Credits.  

Students will be engaged with multimedia, music, dance, and theater performances. We will explore the creative processes and cultural contexts of these performances and will compare the arts as a way of knowing the world to the creative processes of academic scholarship.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 73.  First-Year Seminar: Understanding Place through Rhetoric.  3 Credits.  

This seminar explores how we come to understand what places are and how they are meaningful. We will look at places "rhetorically": how they were designed to persuade those who inhabit them, how we actually experience them, and how we make sense of them in our individual lives.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 75.  First-Year Seminar: Researching Society and Culture.  3 Credits.  

Qualitative research offers an exciting way to discover the world. In this course, students will gain focused training in qualitative research methods, learn how to analyze qualitative data, design and perform qualitative research studies, and report research findings.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 82.  First-Year Seminar: Food Politics from an Organizational Communication Perspective.  3 Credits.  

This course provides an applied introduction to food politics by adopting a critical organizational communication lens on our globalized food system. We explore food system labor practices, the role of multinational companies and global commodity chains, the status of hunger and food deserts, the role of food marketing and consumption practices, and the growth of local and sustainable movements devoted to food justice.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-POWER, HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, EE- Service Learning.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 83.  First-Year Seminar: Networked Societies.  3 Credits.  

This seminar is designed to introduce early-career students to the role that networks play in contemporary global societies. We will examine key ways to think about network societies by taking up the idea of the network in social, political, economic, cultural, and technological terms.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 84.  First-Year Seminar: Make A Zine! Do-It-Yourself Writing, Publishing, and Distribution.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to the history, culture, and politics of "zines," self-published, small-circulation, noncommercial printed work. In this hands-on course, students will read, discuss, and create a wide variety of zines that explore a multitude of forms and genres. Students will be visited by local zine makers and participate in zine-making workshops; create a collection of their own zines; and participate in the Zine Machine: Durham Printed Matter Festival.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-CREATE, RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 85.  First-Year Seminar: Think, Speak, Argue.  3 Credits.  

This is a course in learning to think more critically, speak more persuasively, and argue more effectively by focusing on practical skill development in reasoning and debate.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 86.  First-Year Seminar: Surveillance and Society.  3 Credits.  

How are surveillance technologies altering social life? This course will explore this question by mapping the complex ways that technologies and societies interact to produce security, fear, control, vulnerability, and/or empowerment.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 88.  First-Year Seminar: Technologies of Popular Culture.  3 Credits.  

This seminar takes an historical approach to the relationship between popular culture and technological change. We will explore how artists and other workers (including audiences) in the TV, smart phone, and especially music industries have incorporated new technology into the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural commodities and experiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 89.  First-Year Seminar: Special Topics.  3 Credits.  

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 100.  Communication and Social Process.  3 Credits.  

Addresses the many ways our communication--including language, discourse, performance, and media--reflects, creates, sustains, and transforms prevailing social and cultural practices.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 113.  Public Speaking.  3 Credits.  

Theory and extensive practice in various types of speaking.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: COMMBEYOND.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 120.  Introduction to Interpersonal and Organizational Communication.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to communication theory, research, and practice in a variety of interpersonal and organizational contexts. This course examines the role of communication in both personal and professional relationships. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: MNGT 120.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 130.  Introduction to Media Production.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Prerequisite for all production courses. Introduces students to basic tools, techniques, and conventions of production in audio, video, and film.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 131.  Writing for the Screen and Stage.  3 Credits.  

Restricted course. Dramatic writing workshop open only to students in the writing for the screen and stage minor.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: DRAM 131.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 140.  Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to the critical analysis of film, television, advertising, video, and new media texts, contexts, and audiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-LAUNCH (only designated sections).
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 142.  Popular Music.  3 Credits.  

This class explores the historical, social, political, and cultural significances of popular music as a communicative practice in the United States from 1950 to the present.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 150.  Introduction to New Media.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to the design, aesthetics, and analysis of various forms of digital media. Hands-on experience with different modes of creation, including graphics, web-based communication, and social media.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 160.  Introduction to Performance Studies.  3 Credits.  

As the introductory course in performance studies, students will explore and experiment with performance as ritual, performance in everyday life, and the performance of literature. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 170.  Rhetoric and Public Issues.  3 Credits.  

Examines the basic nature and importance of rhetoric and argumentation. Attention is devoted to interpreting the persuasive function of texts and their relation to modern forms of life.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 171.  Argumentation and Debate.  3 Credits.  

Analysis of issues, use of evidence, reasoning, briefmaking, and refutation. Argumentative speeches and debates on legal cases and on current events. Designed for prospective law students, public policy students, speech teachers, and college debaters.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 223.  Small Group Communication.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Introduction to the theory and practice of communication in the small group setting. Topics may include group development, conformity and deviation, gender, problem solving, and power and leadership.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-VALUES.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: MNGT 223.  
COMM 224.  Introduction to Gender and Communication.  3 Credits.  

Examines multiple relationships among gender, communication and culture. Explores how communication creates gender and shapes relationships and how communication reflects, sustains, and alters cultural views of gender. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: WGST 224.  
COMM 230.  Audio/Video/Film Production and Writing.  3 Credits.  

The material, processes, and procedures of audio, video, and film production; emphasis on the control of those elements of convention that define form in the appropriate medium. Lecture and laboratory hours.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, COMM 130 and 140; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 249.  Introduction to Communication Technology, Culture, and Society.  3 Credits.  

Historical exploration of the sociocultural import of communication technologies, from the introduction of the telegraph in the mid-1800s through current implications of the Internet and various digital devices.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 251.  Introduction to American Film and Culture, 1965-Present.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to some key connections between American film history and cultural history since 1965, most of which remain backbones of United States film culture to this day.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 260.  Introduction to Performance and Social Change.  3 Credits.  

This course addresses the relationship between performance and power, focusing on topics concerned with the potential for performance to contribute to social change.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 262.  Introduction to the Performance of Culture.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to performance as a way of studying culture in all of its creative, dynamic forms, including family stories, joking, rituals, and practices of everyday life. The course emphasizes field methods and experiential research. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 263.  Performing Literature.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the study and practice of performing literature. Students will create, rehearse, and stage performances that draw on fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and/or memoir. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 312.  Persuasion.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Examines contemporary theory and practice of influencing others' attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Focuses particularly on analyzing and developing persuasive messages.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 318.  Cultural Diversity.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to basic paradigms of thinking about cultural difference, encouraging students to examine how these paradigms shape how we think, act, and imagine ourselves/others as members of diverse cultures.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 325.  Introduction to Organizational Communication.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. The course explores the historical and theoretical developments in the research and practice of organizational communication. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: MNGT 325.  
COMM 330.  Introduction to Writing for Film and Television.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to screenwriting for film and television.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 331.  Writing the Short Film.  3 Credits.  

Students practice and learn the craft of narrative, short film writing by conceptualizing, outlining, writing, and rewriting three short film scripts. They include one three-minute silent, one five-minute script with dialogue, and one 15-minute script with dialogue.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 334.  Writing the One-Hour TV Drama.  3 Credits.  

Students in this class will live the life of a writing staff on a just-picked-up, fictional, one-hour television series. As if on a real series, they will individually and cooperatively create story ideas, treatments, and outlines, as well as write scenes, acts, and entire scripts.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 330.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 335.  Film Story Analysis.  3 Credits.  

A variety of feature films (both domestic and foreign) are screened in class and analyzed from a storytelling perspective. Emphasis is on the range of possibilities the screenwriter and film director face in the process of managing the audience's emotional involvement in a story.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 337.  Visual Storytelling for Screenwriters.  3 Credits.  

Priority given to majors. This course instructs students on how to tell stories in a visual manner. How do the words on a page get translated onto a screen and how will the writer collaborate visually with a director? It is designed for writers to better understand how their scripts are interpreted and to improve visual writing.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 345.  Gender and Film.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the representations of women in contemporary American film and also considers women as producers of film.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: WGST 345.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 348.  Algorithms and Society.  3 Credits.  

Society, we're told, is increasingly subject to automated decisions rendered by algorithm. What effects do algorithmic classifications have on social, cultural, and economic life? When, how, and why do institutions use algorithms? Are they really more "objective" than human decisions? How are the costs and benefits of algorithmic systems distributed? What does it mean to say we now live in an "algorithmic society"?

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 350.  Practices of Cultural Studies.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to the history, methods, and central intellectual questions of cultural studies.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 355.  Terrorism and Political Violence.  3 Credits.  

This course is a multi-disciplinary analysis of the phenomena of terrorism and political violence, their history, causes, the threat they pose, and what steps the United States can take in response.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PWAD 355.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 360.  Social Media and Society.  3 Credits.  

This class examines the relationship between society and computer-mediated communication technologies known as "social media," including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more. It aims to break down the mythologies of social media and develop methods of analysis and critical understanding. Drawing from communication, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies, students will understand social media's role within a larger social context.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 371.  Argumentation.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the theory and practice of argument and deliberation in communication studies, drawing from resources in rhetorical studies, informal logic, and argumentation. Intended for pre-law, public policy and other students interested in argumentation.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 372.  The Rhetoric of Social Movements.  3 Credits.  

Explores the discourse of dissident voices in American society, particularly as they speak about grievances pertaining to race, gender, the environment; focuses on rhetorical strategies that initiate and sustain social movements.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 374.  The Southern Experience in Rhetoric.  3 Credits.  

Examines recurrent themes in the rhetoric of significant Southerners and important campaigns. Considers both the rhetoric of the establishment and the rhetoric of change.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 375.  Environmental Advocacy.  3 Credits.  

Explores rhetorical means of citizen influence of practices affecting our natural and human environment; also, study of communication processes and dilemmas of redress of environmental grievances in communities and workplace.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENEC 375.  
COMM 386.  Dance and Embodied Knowledge in the Indian Context.  3 Credits.  

In this theory-practice course focusing on religion, performance, and South Asian studies we will analyze the nature of embodied knowledge, aesthetic theory, and the creative power of dance performance in the Indian context. The course also includes a practical component involving embodied experience with Indian classical dance forms.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, BN.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RELI 386, ASIA 386.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 387.  Disciplining the Body and Mind: The Martial Arts of East Asia in Religion, History, and Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course offers an introduction to the history and practice of East Asian martial arts. We will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts of the martial arts, from the classical period to the present. Integral to this course is a practical component involving embodied experience with martial arts training.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-KNOWING, HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN, EE- Performing Arts.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RELI 387, ASIA 387.  
COMM 390.  Special Topics in Communication Study.  3 Credits.  

A special topics course on a selected aspect of communication studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 393.  Internships.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Majors only. 2.5 cumulative grade point average required. Individualized study closely supervised by a faculty advisor and by the departmental coordinator of internships. Cannot count toward the COMM major.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-INTERN.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Academic Internship.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 396.  Independent Study and Directed Research.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Majors only. 3.0 cumulative grade point average and 3.5 communication studies grade point average required. For communication studies majors who wish to pursue independent research projects or reading programs under the supervision of a selected instructor. Intensive individual research on a problem designed by instructor and student in conference.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 412.  Critical Theory.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to European modern and contemporary philosophy, from the enlightenment to contemporary postmodernism.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 422.  Family Communication.  3 Credits.  

Growth in technologies, more frequent travel, and movements of products and people across the borders of nation states change concepts of family and community. Foregrounded by these realities, this course combines theories of family and communication with documentation of lived experience to interrogate family communication patterns in contemporary culture. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL, US.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 423.  Critical Perspectives on Work, Labor, and Professional Life.  3 Credits.  

This upper level seminar develops a critical perspective on work, labor, and professional life within the global context. Throughout, we will engage in moral and philosophical debates about the status of labor and the meanings of work in our daily lives.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 430.  History of American Screenwriting.  3 Credits.  

This viewing and research-intensive course examines the history of American narrative film through the screenwriter's experience, using a decade-by-decade approach to examine the political, social, global, psychological, religious, and cultural influences on the art, process, and careers of screenwriters.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 431.  Advanced Audio Production.  3 Credits.  

Advanced analysis and application of the principles and methods of audio production.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 130 or 150; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 432.  Visual Culture.  3 Credits.  

Course provides an overview of theories of visual culture. We apply these theories to better understand contemporary visual media and technologies, along with the everyday media practices they support.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 433.  Intermediate Screenwriting.  3 Credits.  

Open only to students in the writing for the screen and stage minor. Conceiving and outlining a feature-length screenplay.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 131.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 435.  Memory Acts.  3 Credits.  

Advanced introduction to foundational work in memory and performance studies, emphasizing theory and practice of various forms of remembering. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 437.  United States Black Culture and Performance.  3 Credits.  

Examines how the United States Black experience is constituted in and through performance across a range of cultural contexts including the antebellum South, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Aesthetic, and contemporary urban life.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, US.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 450.  Media and Popular Culture.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Examination of communication processes and cultural significance of film, television, and other electronic media.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 453.  The History of New Media Technology in Everyday Life.  3 Credits.  

The starting point for this course, chronologically and conceptually, is the emergence of popular media technology. Our purview includes transformative innovations in mediated communication, such as telephony and e-mail, alongside familiar media technologies such as televisions and computers.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 454.  Media and Activism.  3 Credits.  

A study of the electronic media as a feedback mechanism for community organization and social change. A variety of broadcast and nonbroadcast uses of the media are studied.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 455.  Sound Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course is about sound and the auditory dimension. In a society dominated by images and spectacle, sound and listening have been remarkably under-appreciated. Sound is physical-the vibration of molecules according to frequencies, pitches, and intensities-and biological-our ability to hear is an evolutionary trait. But sound is also cultural (what qualifies as signal or noise?), technological (how is sound recorded and reproduced?), and historical (how has the soundscape changed and how have we listened differently).

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 463.  Creating the Solo Performance.  3 Credits.  

This course examines processes of creating and performing solo work. Students engage a variety of performances: autobiographical, representation of the lives of other/s, and exploration of cultural or political ideas.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160, DRAM 120, or ENGL 206, 207, or 208; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 464.  Collaborative Performance.  3 Credits.  

Theory and practice of collaborative performance, emphasizing image, intertextual adaptation, site-specific and installation work, avant-garde traditions, and the play of time and space. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 466.  Advanced Study in Performing Literature.  3 Credits.  

This course engages the theory and embodiment of prose fiction, poetry, and other kinds of literary texts, including nonfiction. Students practice adaptation and script preparation, solo/group performance, and performance critique.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE or FC-KNOWING, HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, EE- Performing Arts.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 470.  Political Communication and the Public Sphere.  3 Credits.  

A course covering the relationship between communication and political processes and institutions. Topics include media coverage and portrayal of political institutions, elections, actors, and media influence on political beliefs.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 471.  Rhetorics of Public Memory.  3 Credits.  

Takes up the fundamental assumptions of contemporary memory studies and the centrality of rhetoric to memory. Research focus on how constructions of the past respond to the present and future.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 472.  Rhetorical Criticism.  3 Credits.  

Approaches to the analysis and assessment of rhetorical practice with a focus on how rhetoric reflects and shapes public culture.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, EE- Mentored Research.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 490.  Special Topics in Communication Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. A special topics course on a selected aspect of communication studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 499.  The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication.  3 Credits.  

The "dark side" of communication is a metaphor describing the study of disruptive, dysfunctional, distorted, distressing, and destructive aspects of communication. This course explores humanity's darker side that allows us to reject, exclude, stigmatize, exploit, objectify, misguide, lie, and cheat. The course examines various theoretical perspectives and applies them to everyday problems in interpersonal encounters. A sample of topics discussed include: prejudice, stigma, marginalization, bullying, ostracism, resistance, manipulation, conformity, deceit, gossip, rumors, infidelity, and revenge.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 500.  Visual and Material Rhetoric.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the use of rhetorical criticism as a way to understand how the visual and material are used for symbolic and political purposes. Examples ranging from news images to public art will be studied.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 521.  Communication and Social Memory.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. An investigation of psychological aspects of communication, particularly the perceptual and interpretive processes underlying the sending and receiving of messages.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 523.  Communication and Leadership.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Critical examination of alternative theories of leadership and trends in the study of leadership; focuses on the communicative dimensions of leadership.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 524.  Gender, Communication, and Culture.  3 Credits.  

Course examines the speeches and other texts that announced and embodied the goals and political strategies of multiple branches of three waves of feminist activism in the United States.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 224; permission of the instructor for non-majors.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: WGST 524.  
COMM 525.  Organizational Communication.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Provides a critical exploration of organizational communication theory, research, and application, examining the factors involved in the functioning and analysis of complex organizations.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, COMM 120 and 325.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 526.  Critical-Cultural Approaches to Organizational Communication.  3 Credits.  

The study of organizational culture operates on a set of assumptions distinct from traditional management perspectives. This course explores the cultural perspective as an alternative approach to understanding organizational communication processes.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 325; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 527.  Organizational Ethics.  3 Credits.  

A critical examination of the theory, research, and practice of organizational ethics.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-VALUES.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 325.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 532.  Performing the Screenplay.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to approaches for creating performance from screenplays and other texts for electronic media forms, focusing on scripts as literature and the tensions between live and electronically delivered performances.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 534.  Aesthetic and Technical Considerations in Making Short Videos.  3 Credits.  

The course examines the aesthetic and technical elements at work and play in cinematic storytelling. The student is required to complete three projects and will gain hands-on experience in narrative filmmaking.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 230.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 535.  Introduction to Screen Adaptation.  3 Credits.  

Students practice the craft of screen adaptation by conceptualizing, outlining, and writing scenes based on material from another medium (both fiction and nonfiction). Work is presented, discussed, and performed in a workshop environment.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 131, 330, ENGL 130, or 132H.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 537.  Master Screenwriting.  3 Credits.  

Open only to students in the writing for the screen and stage minor. Students will write and workshop a full-length feature film screenplay. Students will learn about the film and television business through a combination of research, in-class discussions, and interactive interviews with industry insiders.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 433.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 549.  Sexuality and Visual Culture.  3 Credits.  

Examines questions about sexuality and how it has changed over time, through various media of visual communication.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 561.  Performance of Women of Color.  3 Credits.  

Explores through performance contemporary poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and feminist thought by women of color in the United States. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: WGST 561.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 562.  Oral History and Performance.  3 Credits.  

This course combines readings and field work in oral history with the study of performance as a means of interpreting and conveying oral history texts. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FOLK 562, HIST 562, WGST 562.  
COMM 564.  Performance and Popular Culture.  3 Credits.  

Critical examination of the operation of performance as a cultural phenomenon, with an emphasis on meaning, power, and resistance in cultural events, social practices, and media spectacles.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 568.  Adapting and Directing for the Stage.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces students to practices in adapting and directing literary texts for live ensemble performance. Students will create original performance work, engage in collaborative critique, and discuss the development of aesthetic value.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 571.  Rhetorical Theory and Practice.  3 Credits.  

Investigates the theoretical definitions and uses of rhetorical interpretation and action in spoken, written, visual, material practices, discourses, and events.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 572.  Public Policy Argument.  3 Credits.  

Analyzes argument in a variety of contexts with an emphasis on public policy and exploring tensions involved in addressing both expert and public audience in the political sphere. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 573.  The American Experience in Rhetoric.  3 Credits.  

Examines public discourse from the colonial period to the present. Discourses, critical perspectives, and historical periods studied will vary.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 574.  War and Culture.  3 Credits.  

Examines American cultural myths about war generally and specifically about the causes of war, enemies, weapons, and warriors, and the way these myths constrain foreign and defense policy, military strategy, and procurement.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PWAD 574.  
COMM 575.  Presidential Rhetoric.  3 Credits.  

The power of the presidency depends in part upon the president's ability to rally public opinion, which depends upon the president's ability to use the "bully pulpit." This course examines the hurdles presidents face and the steps presidents take to shape opinion.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 170.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: PWAD 575.  
COMM 576.  Making and Manipulating "Race" in the United States.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine how tropes of "race" are symbolically invented and experienced psychologically and emotionally. This course assesses how "race" reflects and shapes cultural politics.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 577.  Rhetoric and Black Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course will explore the complex ways in which Black aesthetic forms and creative expression function as public discourse.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 596.  Advanced Independent Study/Directed Reading.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Majors only. 3.0 cumulative grade point average and 3.5 communication studies grade point average required. For the communication studies major who wishes to pursue an advanced independent research project under the supervision of a selected instructor. Intensive individual research on a problem designed by instructor and student in conference.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 620.  Theories of Interpersonal Communication.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Course focuses on how communication is used to build and sustain interpersonal relationships. Forms and functions of communication are examined as a means of testing and defining relationships.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 120.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 622.  Environmental Filmmaking: Creative Production and Social Impact.  3 Credits.  

A workshop to study and create non-fiction films about the environment. The course examines aesthetic, narrative, and representational strategies with an eye to how these films can contribute to critical conversations about our species' impact on the natural world. Special attention will be paid to questions of environmental justice and the disproportionate effects of environmental hazards on communities of color and low-income communities.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 130 or Permission of the Instructor.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 624.  Hate Speech.  3 Credits.  

The primary focus of hate speech is on the ways that interactants manipulate hatred to accomplish a variety of social and personal goals. The pursuit of this focus will allow the student to appreciate the operation of hatred in a variety of contexts. Often taught as a service-learning course.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 625.  Communication and Nonprofits in the Global Context.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of participation within the nonprofit/NGO sector. The course also equips students with the skills needed to design and conduct engaged scholarship.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Service Learning, EE- Mentored Research, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 635.  Documentary Production.  3 Credits.  

A workshop in the production of video and/or film nonfiction or documentary projects. The course will focus on narrative, representational, and aesthetic strategies of documentary production.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE, RESEARCH.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 230.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 636.  Interactive Media.  3 Credits.  

Explores interactive media through creative projects that include sound, video, and graphic elements. Technical information will serve the broader goal of understanding the aesthetics and critical issues of interactive media.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 638.  Game Design.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Studio course that explores gaming critically and aesthetically. Practice in game design and production including 3-D worlds and scripting.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 150.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 640.  Game Studio.  3 Credits.  

Game Studio is a project-based course in the new media track. This course is designed to provide a structured environment, instructor and peer feedback, along with technical and conceptual resources in which to complete a new media project. Students may work individually or on collaborative teams. The class focuses on idea development, design, and experimentation.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 638; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 642.  Special Topics in Cultural Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. This course will explore various specific topics, theories, and methodologies in cultural studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 350.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 644.  Documentary Production: First Person Filmmaking.  3 Credits.  

Students create documentaries emphasizing the filmmaker's personal perspective and experience: essay, diary, and autobiographical films, and pieces in which the filmmaker performs a role for expressive or political ends. Significant class time is devoted to work-shopping student films.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 230; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 645.  The Documentary Idea.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Historical and theoretical examination of expressions of the documentary idea in different eras and various modes including film, television, and radio.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 646.  Introduction to the Art and Mechanics of Two-Dimensional Digital Animation.  3 Credits.  

Students use Adobe After-Effects and Adobe Photoshop as their primary image software to create several original animations. Assignments are given weekly, and a substantial final project is expected.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 130 or 150; Grade of C or better required in COMM 130.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 647.  Advanced Projects in Media Production.  3 Credits.  

Recommended preparation, several production courses above COMM 230. Course provides a structured environment, instructor and peer feedback, along with production and postproduction resources for completing advanced near-to-graduation media projects. Projects can be narrative, documentary, experimental, or interactive.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Requisites: Prerequisites, COMM 230 and one of COMM 534, 635, 646, 653, or 654.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 650.  Cultural Politics of Global Media Economies.  3 Credits.  

Primary subjects will be popular culture and media technology, and guiding questions will be organized around the relationships of each to commerce and/as social change.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, GL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 652.  Media and Difference.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. This course examines critical and theoretical issues concerning the representation and study of various modes of difference, such as sexuality, race, and gender, in specific media texts.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 653.  Experimental Video.  3 Credits.  

This course allows students to create video productions that play with forms that lie outside of mainstream media.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 230; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 654.  Motion Graphics, Special Effects, and Compositing.  3 Credits.  

In this course students learn a wide range of video post production techniques working mostly with the application After Effects.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 130 or 150; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 655.  Television Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces students to critical television studies. The course emphasizes not television or culture as separate entities but instead "Television Culture." The focus of the class is on the interrelationship between television and contemporary culture.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 140.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 656.  Sound for Film and Video: Theory and Practice for Motion Picture Sound Design.  3 Credits.  

The aim of this course is to provide students who have an interest in film and video production with an understanding of the technical, conceptual, and aesthetic implications of the motion picture soundtrack, with a special emphasis on sound-image relationships. Students who have already developed a basic proficiency in the use of video cameras, audio recorders, and editing software will be asked to cultivate an understanding of and appreciation for the expressive and artistic possibilities.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 130.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 657.  Movie Making Machines: Learning About Cinema in the Maker Space.  3 Credits.  

This projects-based seminar will introduce students to the fundamental optical and technological principles of motion pictures. By using the Maker Space to design and fabricate pinhole cameras, zoetropes, and 16mm film strips, students will gain a deep understanding of the material and technological foundations of the cinema, and the operating principles that are behind not only the classic films of Hollywood's past, but the high-definition digital imaging technologies of the present.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE.
Requisites: Prerequisite, ARTS 105, 106, 209, or COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ARTS 657.  
COMM 658.  Surveillance Cultures.  3 Credits.  

We live in surveillance societies. Just about every element of our lives is affected by surveillance: workplaces and schools, social media sites and mobile phone use, police encounters and security screening. Surveillance practices shape how institutions operate and how people see themselves and others. The goal of this course is to develop a critical awareness of surveillance and its implications for society.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 660.  Advanced Projects in Performance Studies.  3 Credits.  

Course provides a workshop setting for the process of creation, dramaturgy, development, analysis, and critique of graduates' and undergraduates' original performance work, focusing on the needs of each project in progress.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 661.  Race and Ethnicity.  3 Credits.  

Examines race and ethnicity in specific geopolitical contexts as discursive formations, performative identities, and lived realities. Studies disciplinary/political boundaries that are produced and maintained through acts of performance.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 662.  Black/African Diaspora Performance.  3 Credits.  

Recommended preparation, COMM 160. Relying on critical race theories, colonial and postcolonial theories, and theories of performance, this course engages comparative discourses of Black/African diaspora citizenship through the literature, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and cultural performances of people of African descent, particularly in Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 665.  Performance, Politics, and Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course is a arts-based inquiry into the ways in which performance and theatricality structure contemporary politics, culture, and everyday life, as well as the ways in which artists utilize performance as mode of political engagement.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Requisites: Prerequisites, COMM 61, 62, 63, 160, 260, 262, 263, or 464.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 666.  Media in Performance.  3 Credits.  

Required preparation, one performance studies course above COMM 400. Permission of the instructor for students lacking the required preparation. Project-based class where students acquire skills and critical approaches to create collaborative, professional, multimedia works.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Performing Arts.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: DRAM 666.  
COMM 667.  Performance Activism.  3 Credits.  

History and practice of performance in contemporary social movements. Practical exploration of direct action, guerilla theatre, and performance interventions.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, COMM 160 or 260.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 676.  Digital Media and Live Performance.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates. Intended for students from various majors, this course provides a foundation in the history, theory, and practice of developing live, technologically-intensive, multimedia performance works. The course analyzes new media masterworks, addresses techniques of interdisciplinary collaboration, and offers workshops in specific software/technology applications.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: MUSC 676.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 681.  Contemporary Film Theory.  3 Credits.  

Overview of poststructuralist, or "contemporary" film theory. Traces its development, its techniques, fierce critiques lobbed at it since the early 1980s, and its points of continuing importance.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Requisites: Prerequisite, ARTH 159, COMM 140, or ENGL 142; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 682.  History of the Moving Image: Pasts, Presents, Futures.  3 Credits.  

Theories of moving images and imaging technologies--from the primitive to the not-yet-existing--that focus on their multifaceted relations with various registers of time, memory, flux, and futurity.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, ARTH 159, COMM 140, or ENGL 142; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 690.  Advanced Topics in Communication Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. A special topics course on a selected aspect of communication studies. May be repeated. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 691H.  Honors in Cultural Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Required of all senior honors candidates in cultural studies. First semester of senior honors thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 692H.  Honors in Cultural Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Required of all senior honors candidates in cultural studies. Second semester of senior honors thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 693H.  Honors.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Majors only. Cumulative grade point average must meet University standard. Individual projects designed by students and supervised by a faculty member.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCOMM 694H.  Honors.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Majors only. Cumulative grade point average must meet University standard. Individual projects designed by students and supervised by a faculty member.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
COMM 695.  Field Methods.  3 Credits.  

Recommended preparation, COMM 562 or 841. A bridge course designed to offer graduate students and advanced undergraduates a practicum in fieldwork methods and performance ethnography.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Department of Communication

Visit Program Website

CB 3285, 308 Bynum Hall, 222 East Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

(919) 962-2311

Chair

Avi Santo

asanto@unc.edu

Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies (Spring 2024)

Bill Brown

brownwa@live.unc.edu

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Steve May

skmay@email.unc.edu