Subject Description
Communication Studies

COMM 383 | Lying and Deception

Deception occurs in communication behavior across species, and lying (i.e., intentional deception) is a pervasive phenomenon in human communication. This course explores the many varieties of deceptive verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as their motives and consequences, and provides an overview of the research into deception as it has occurred in the field of Communication.

COMM 381 | Communication and the Internet

This course is part of the human communication and technology curriculum. This course explores issues and questions about computer-mediated communication in multiple contexts, in order to understand the psychological, interpersonal, professional, social, and cultural implications of computer-mediated communication. The objective of Communication and the Internet is to develop a critical view of online communication by applying the processes and principles of social scientific theories and research to issues and patterns of Internet communication.

COMM 368 | Environment and Organizational Practice

Since organizations cannot exist without communication and interaction, organizational life is filled with communication activities that intersect with personal boundaries. Management and coordination, training, decision-making, and conflict are only a few examples. On another level, organizations are themselves the products of the constant processes of organizing. Thus, communication forms and maintains organizations by enabling the process of organizing.

COMM 361 | Organizing Difference

Using a variety of different organizational lenses (e.g. culture, workgroup, and agent), students learn to think through how social identity issues materialize in modern organizational policy and practice. Course materials encourage students to take the role of diverse organizational agents as they face ethical dilemmas in examining contemporary social identity issues such as gender, race, class, and age. Students can expect a variety of theory and application integration through intensive class discussion, reflective and analytic writing assignments and a final research project.

COMM 360 | Contemporary Issues in Organizational Communication

Using a variety of different organizational lenses (i.e. culture, workgroup, and agent), students learn to think through issues in modern organizations. Course materials encourage students to take the role of organizational agents as they face ethical dilemmas in examining contemporary organizational issues such as gender, language, class, and technology. Students can expect a variety of theory and application, integration through intensive class discussion, ethics case papers, and an in-depth group project, which includes a 40-minute professional presentation.

COMM 350 | Family Communication

Many orientations to the social world are formed from our experiences that extend from family identities; in particular, the ways individuals relate and communicate with others are profoundly affected by our familial relationships. Furthermore, understanding the family as a communication system is imperative in an era when family issues are at the forefront of national concerns in governmental, educational, health, and religious arenas. This class regards the examination of "family" as fundamental to a comprehensive understanding of relational communication.