This introductory course considers the ways in which people create, maintain, repair, and transform interpersonal relationships through communication within particular historical, social, economic, and cultural contexts. Through class activities, reading assignments, and course projects, we explore a variety of aspects of interpersonal communication including identity, language, nonverbal communication, perception, listening, and conflict. In addition, we address challenges to the creation of healthy identities and relationships including substance abuse, domestic violence, and poverty. Throughout the course, we emphasize the impact of ethnicity, class, and gender on interpersonal communication.

4 credits

This course considers how gender is created, maintained, repaired, and transformed through communication in particular relational, cultural, social, and historical contexts. We examine a variety of topics including the relationship between sex and gender, verbal and nonverbal communication, cultural mythologies regarding gender, gender at home, in educational settings, and in the media, and tactics for resisting and recreating gender conventions. Through readings, class discussions, and course assignments, we explore the consequences of social constructions of gender for identity, relationships, and culture.

Prereq: CMN 457 or permission.
4 credits

This course explores the relationship between language, social interaction, and reality. From a social constructionist perspective, we will examine the ways in which we constitute our identities, our relationships, and our realities through language. Through course readings, class lectures and discussions, and writing assignments we consider a variety of topics including perception, meaning, metaphor, identity, power, gender, illness, and the environment.

Prereq: CMN 457 or permission.
4 credits

This course examines the role of communication in the creation, maintenance, and transformation of family. Throughout the semester, we focus on the ways in which the meanings of "family" are inscribed in relational discourse, and the consequences these communication practices have for our own personal experiences. While many disciplines and theories offer insights into family functioning, this course takes a communication perspective by emphasizing interactional processes and practices that constitute our families, and considering the ways in which we might transform those interactions to create more healthy families.

Prereq: CMN 457 or permission.
4 credits

This course explores the myriad ways qualitative researchers approach the study of interpersonal communication. With an emphasis on the artistic practice of fieldwork, the course considers the process of research design, the relationship between researcher and researched, the moral and ethical aspects of research, issues of representation and audience, and evaluation strategies. Students design, conduct, and present original qualitative research projects.

Prereq: Any two courses from both areas A and B for which CMN 457 is prerequisite or permission.
4 credits

This course critically examines a variety of theories which seek to explain the dynamics of relational communication including performance theory, social construction theory, systems theory, feminist theory, and narrative theory.

Prereq: Any two courses from both areas A and B for which CMN 457 is prerequisite or permission. Writing intensive.
4 credits

Human beings are storytelling creatures. We make sense of our experiences through communication, creating narratives that identify who we are and provide us with “dwelling places.” This course considers the myriad ways we craft those stories within particular social, political, and cultural contexts. We will explore a variety of topics relevant to narrative theory including: canonical stories, objectivity/subjectivity, reflexivity, time, memory work, epiphanies, reframing, and truth. We will also consider methodologies for narrative research, including autoethnography, and criteria for evaluation. Readings include theoretical, autobiographical, and fictional texts, focusing primarily on personal narratives that examine identity, family, aging, mental illness, ethnicity, class, and gender. Each student will conduct a personal narrative research project.

Prereq: Any two courses from both areas A and B for which CMN 457 is prerequisite or permission. Writing intensive.
4 credits