Communication Studies Courses | 2024-2025 Graduate Catalog | SIU

An advanced examination of the purposes and processes of constructing and using theories and models in communication research. Students critically analyze existing communication theories from both social scientific and interpretive paradigms in order to explicate and evaluate their implicit and explicit assumptions about human being, knowledge, and value. For graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Satisfies the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement for communication studies majors.

Credit Hours: 3

Designed to develop the student's ability to criticize public discourse, including speeches, written works and the mass media. Satisfies the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement for communication studies majors.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of rhetorical structures and strategies in environmental policy, activism and public discourse. This course traces the significant contributions rhetoric and public debate have made in the struggle to protect environments from excessive industrial and commercial exploitation. A lecture, reading and discussion course.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of visual messages in public discourse and persuasive communication. This course offers tools for doing rhetorical criticism of visual messages, identifying similarities and differences between the analysis and production of verbal and visual persuasion. A lecture, readings, and discussion course.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 415) An exploration of advanced theories and research in gender and sexuality from communication perspectives. Course may be repeated when topics vary.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 416 and WGSS 416) Explore the roots, contemporary manifestations, and current embodiments of Black feminist thought. Explore the works of Black women to engage in critical thinking and thoughtful dialogue that positions the valuable knowledge, experiences and perspectives of women of color at the center of inquiry while simultaneously discovering spaces for multicultural alliances. Prerequisite: CMST 301I or CMST 341 or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Critical studies of speakers and issues relevant to social and political movements dominant in national and international affairs. A lecture, reading and discussion course. Students may repeat enrollment to a total of nine hours.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of advanced theories and techniques in performance studies. Topics vary and are announced in advance. Students may repeat enrollment in the course, since the topics change. Lecture, discussion, class projects.

Credit Hours: 3-6

Study of language in use in social interactions in various cultural and communicative contexts. Topics include components of language, language change and diversity, speech acts, conversational structure, dialects, gender and language, bilingual and multilingual cultures, child language acquisition, and language use in institutional contexts. Prerequisite: CMST 301I or CMST 341, or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of intercultural communication in domestic and global intercultural contexts. Course incorporates intercultural communication research with specific focus on application theory in professional contexts and in service of public advocacy and/or social justice. Prerequisite: CMST 301I (or CMST 341) or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Nature, development, and functions of verbal and nonverbal behavior; application of psychology theories and research to the communication process in individuals and groups. Emphasis on the systemic nature of communicative behavior.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of theories of language, its use, and consequences, with particular attention to general semantics, semiotics, and poststructuralism and their influence on communication research and criticism.

Credit Hours: 3

This course analyzes performance in everyday life in a variety of social, cultural, and historical contexts. The class explores genres such as conversations and personal narratives, folklore and oral traditions, festivals and celebrations, ceremonies and rituals, media events and politics. Topics of reading, discussion, and original research may range from performative elements in language and social interaction to performances of selfhood, identity, and personality.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as AFR 447) Via intercultural theories and methods, this course explores histories, relationships, interactions and recent events by positioning racial and ethnic perspectives at the center of inquiry. The course critically examines the complexities of race, racism and ethnicity by focusing on how people communicate across racial and ethnic differences in different contexts. Prerequisite: CMST 301I or CMST 341, or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Introduction to communication theories and practices informing the training of individuals and groups anticipating extensive interactions with persons from differing cultural communities. The course provides content and learning opportunities aimed toward the design, development, and evaluation of effective, ethical culture-specific and culture-general intercultural training programs. Prerequisite: CMST 341 or CMST 301I or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as POLS 418) A critical review of theory and research which relate to the influence of communication variables on political values, attitudes, and behavior. Satisfies the CoLA Writing-Across-the-Curriculum requirement for communication studies majors.

Credit Hours: 3

This course explores contemporary tourism in a broad context of intercultural communication, rhetoric, performance, and cultural studies. Emphasis is placed on examining tourism as a popular leisure pursuit, booming multinational industry, and also as a complex medium of transnational communication and performance that transforms daily life and culture. Students will be asked to not only study tourism, but also engage in some local tourist activities as part of the experiential learning process.

Credit Hours: 3

A critical examination of small group theory and research in communication studies. Emphasis is given to the development of principles of effective communication and decision-making in the small, task-oriented groups. Prerequisite: CMST 261 or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Interpersonal communication is studied as human encounter that participates in the development of human identity. Students explore the philosophical and theoretical approaches to human communication by developing concrete projects that examine the role of relationships in the construction and alteration of values and priorities.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of sources, patterns, and outcomes of conflict in relationships within interpersonal, familial, organizational, managerial, or intercultural relationships. Emphasis on interactive, systems-level analysis of naturally occurring conflict episodes. Practice in managing conflicts, reframing, negotiation, and mediation.

Credit Hours: 3

Study and practical training in approaches to more effective interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Using real-life experiences from political encounters and interpersonal conflicts to inner dialogue, this class offers a way to deepen peaceful connection and understanding with ourselves and others through honesty, empathy, and being "fully present" in the moment. Restricted to CMST major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to philosophical approaches to the study of communicative interaction. Topics include the relation of meaning and conceptual structures to bodily experience and the interpretative nature of communicative interaction.

Credit Hours: 3

Topical study of the role genre plays in analyzing, scripting, and performing literature and other textual forms. Students may repeat enrollment in the course since topics change. Prerequisite: CMST 201 or 370 or 371 with a grade of C- or better or consent of the instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Study and practice of mixed performance methods such as live performance with digital, projected or other media. Reading, discussion, and performance projects.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of culture, ritual, narrative, community and personal identity as performance. Readings, field work and assignments focus on performance ethnography, communicative dimensions of performance and performance epistemology. Prerequisite: six hours of performance studies or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Theory and practice of staging texts with emphasis on adaptation, scripting, and directing. Prerequisite: CMST 201 or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Contemporary performance practices as critical and persuasive tools. Develops skills in reading, writing, analyzing and performing a broad range of texts to acquaint students with methods for composing performance. Prerequisites: CMST 201 or CMST 370 or CMST 371 with a grade of C- or better or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of theoretical and practical issues in solo performance staging with special emphasis on textual production, scripting, social context, and performance practice. Advanced study in individual performance as a method of textual study as well as theory and practice in solo performance as an aesthetic event and rhetorical act. Prerequisites: CMST 201 or CMST 370 or CMST 371 with a grade of C- or better or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

Exploration of leadership communication, current leadership trends, existing leadership theories, and contemporary or historic leaders through case-based teaching. Students apply interpersonal, persuasive, and organizational communication theory to real scenarios. Students discuss communication strategies and tactics leaders use to build relationships and achieve goals. Students will discuss strategies for leading diverse teams, building equitable systems, and encouraging inclusion among team members.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced course in public relations case analysis and campaign planning. Students critique public relations campaigns created by various profit, nonprofit and agency organizations. Students also design and implement public relations campaigns from problem identification through evaluation stages. Satisfies the CoLA Writing-Across-the Curriculum requirement for communication studies majors. Prerequisite: CMST 381 and 382 with a grade of C or better or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Explores the role of public relations within sports and recreation organizations and the relationship between these industries and the media. Students will plan and conduct a fund-raising event, may attend athletic competitions, and learn about careers in the sports and recreation fields.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed for senior-level and graduate communication students who want to apply the knowledge, skills, and abilities developed during their course of study to career development scenarios. This course uses project-based learning and offers learners the opportunity to enhance their ability to use communication tools and techniques to improve their career portfolios and provide coaching and consulting services from a communication perspective. Restricted to CMST major or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced application of contemporary theories in communication studies, particularly those related to principles of rhetoric and persuasion, in digitally mediated environments. Course topics cover the generation, management, and consumption of digital communication within social media and other Web platforms. Includes writing content strategy plans and study of tools used to curate, analyze, and interpret digital documents and information.

Credit Hours: 3

Study of ethical communication practices within the framework of the public relations profession. Course teaches the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics, and also prepares students to construct their own ethical guidelines for communicating professionally. Individual projects and group case studies are used to familiarize students with many of the ethical dilemmas faced by public relations professionals. Prerequisite: CMST 281 with a grade of C- or better or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of selected, current topics in public relations. Topics vary and are announced in advance. Students may repeat up to 6 hours as topic varies.

Credit Hours: 3

Summer offering concentrating in specialized areas of performance studies. Prerequisite: CMST 201 or CMST 370 or CMST 371 with a C- or better or consent of instructor or graduate standing.

Credit Hours: 2-8

An exploration of selected current topics in communication arts and studies. Topics vary and are announced in advance; both students and faculty suggest ideas. Students may repeat enrollment in the course, as the topic varies.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Survey of research methods utilized in the discipline of communication studies, along with methodological considerations and paradigmatic orientations. Discussion of these methods as they apply to the various subject matter typologies. Introduction to basic conventions of research investigation and reporting.

Credit Hours: 3

Analysis and application of theoretical approaches to communication research methods that draw on continental philosophy, such as phenomenology, semiology, deconstruction, and/or psychoanalysis. Focus on qualitative aspects of these approaches and their utility for critical-cultural investigation of communication as rhetorical, pedagogical, relational, cultural, and/or performative. May be repeated (up to six hours) with change of topic area. Topics announced prior to each offering. Prerequisite: CMST 501 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of research literature and methods in the ethnography of communication, emphasizing description of communicative practices situated in particular cultural contexts. Course includes such topics as theoretical assumptions and genres of ethnographic writing.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of culturally distinctive patterns of communicative conduct in particular social settings, groups and/or communities. Emphasizes fieldwork methods (e.g., participant-observation, ethnographic fieldnotes, ethnographic interviews) and practice in the collection of data from which cultural patterns of communication can be formulated, including the analysis and interpretation of such data. This course is based in the perspective of ethnography of communication.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of research literature and methods in autoethnography with particular emphasis on the communicative self as a way of studying and speaking about culture. Calling upon the evocative and self-reflexive, strategies for field work and scholarly representation are explored.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of methodological approaches that facilitate analysis of ways discourses constitute, perpetuate, and maintain particular meanings. Objective is to identify, explicate, and practice procedures for conducting interpretive/critical communication research.

Credit Hours: 3

A survey of selected theories of rhetoric. Emphasis on major contributors of historical or contemporary importance.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of selected topics in the field of rhetoric. May be repeated with change of topic area. Topics announced prior to each offering. May be repeated up to nine hours.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 515) How communicative activity creates and sustains human beings as gendered. Emphasis on gaining familiarity with contemporary research on gendering from a particular perspective (e.g., ethnography, performance, phenomenology, quantitative methods, rhetorical criticism). May be repeated when perspective varies. Perspective announced prior to each offering.

Credit Hours: 3-9

The study of persuasion in social-political contexts. Exploration of contemporary research and selected theories in persuasion. Examination of philosophical-ethical questions related to persuasion. Readings, research and discussions.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of selected problems in communication pedagogy. Analysis of research problems and methodologies in communication pedagogy research. Topics may vary from year to year. May be repeated only if topic differs each time repeated.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Advanced study of communication pedagogy research from a critical perspective. Foundations of critical communication pedagogy examined with special attention to current research trends, paradigmatic debates, and issues of culture and power.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of theoretical, methodological and instructional approaches to education that foreground performative ways of teaching and learning. The course provides content and learning opportunities aimed toward the development of critical, embodied and socially transformative pedagogies. Prerequisite: six hours of credit in either Communication Pedagogy or Performance Studies or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of communication pedagogy research from a critical/cultural perspective. Survey of research in communication pedagogy that examines culture, including such topics as intercultural/multicultural education, cultural studies and communication, as well as feminist/queer pedagogies.

Credit Hours: 3

Analysis and practice of instructional methods. Focus on the development of instructional philosophy and skills with specific applications to teaching the introductory communication studies course.

Credit Hours: 3

Examination of communication problems and research focusing on the relation among cultural values, communication behaviors in the speech community, and social exchange. Emphasis on the semantics and pragmatics of intercultural communication and social semiotic systems. Prerequisite: CMST 440 or CMST 441 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of selected topics in intercultural communication. May be repeated for a total of nine hours when topics vary. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides a survey of intercultural communication studies, paying close attention to the historical development of the field. Students will engage with multiple paradigmatic approaches to intercultural communication research; mainly functionalist, interpretive, and critical. Students can also expect to reflect on how we can connect intercultural communication research to everyday practice.

Credit Hours: 3

A theoretical exploration of identity performance across and in/between cultures. Draws mainly upon cultural studies, postcolonial theory, literary theory, critical globalization theory, and intercultural communication theory to provide a multidisciplinary understanding of how identity politics are negotiated in cultural contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

Critical examination of emerging and enduring themes in communication theory and praxis developed as a human science by such continental theorists as Arendt, Barthes, Cixous, Benjamin, Foucault, Habermas, Kristeva, and/or Merleau-Ponty, as well as those such as Butler and Ronell and others influenced by this tradition. Focus on elements of their work that deal specifically with approaches to communication. May be repeated (up to six hours) with change of topic area. Topics announced prior to each offering. Prerequisite: CMST 501 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Studies of group action, interaction and leadership designed to apply small group theory and communication theory. Emphasis on the nature of group communication as exemplified in the laboratory model or the discussion/conference model. Students may repeat enrollment to a total of six hours.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 562) Study of selected topics in the philosophical study of communication. May be repeated with change in topic area. Topics announced prior to each offering.

Credit Hours: 3

An investigation of recent theories and empirical research concerning interpersonal communication. Emphasis will be placed on analyses of relational development, maintenance and change in the contexts of working relations, friendships and families. Both analytic and quantitative perspectives on interactional processes will be considered.

Credit Hours: 3

Survey of theories, research methods, and/or creative representations of communication in family contexts. Emphasis is on describing family communication as a process; parent-child and sibling communication across the lifespan; as well as intercultural, gendered, and sociopolitical influences on various family structures and contexts. May be repeated (up to six hours) with change of topic area.

Credit Hours: 3

The examination of performance methodologies for exploring human communication. Particular attention is given to generating and reporting performance knowledge. Prerequisite: nine hours of 400 level performance studies courses or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

A study of social and critical trends in performance studies with emphasis on their historical development. Prerequisite: nine hours of performance studies or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

A study of the theoretical trends in performance studies and literary criticism. Prerequisite: nine hours of performance studies or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the theoretical and practical issues surrounding the evaluation of artistic performances for interpretation, rhetoric, theatre, journalism, film and television students interested in developing their critical skills. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An exploration of selected current topics in the field of performance studies. May be repeated for a total of six hours. Prerequisite: twelve hours of performance studies courses or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

The study and creation of postmodern performance. Particular attention is given to performance artists in the theatrical tradition. Prerequisite: nine hours of performance studies or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study and applications related to specific issues in organizational communication. Topics announced prior to each offering.

Credit Hours: 3

A supervised experience using communication skills. Emphasis on the development of performance skills in performance studies. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

A supervised experience using communication skills. Emphasis on the development of skills in debate. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

A supervised experience using communication skills. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Independent research study with a theoretical focus under the tutorial supervision of a member of the graduate faculty. May be taken twice for a maximum of 6 credit hours. Special approval needed from the instructor and program advisor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

One to three hours required of all non-thesis students writing a research paper. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1-3

An open forum offered each semester for the systematic discussion of contemporary research in the field of communication arts and studies. Specific content is determined by participating faculty and students. Topics will usually be related to current faculty research or dissertations in progress in the department. Graded S/U only.

Credit Hours: 0

Minimum of three hours to be counted toward a Master's degree.

Credit Hours: 1-6

Minimum of 24 hours to be earned for the Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Credit Hours: 1-16

For those graduate students who have not finished their degree programs and who are in the process of working on their dissertation, thesis, or research paper. The student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research, or the minimum thesis, or research hours before being eligible to register for this course. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1

Must be a Postdoctoral Fellow. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted.

Credit Hours: 1