In the Department of Communication, students learn about communication practices that underlie all of our social interactions, both in face-to-face interaction and in new forums, such as social media. The department is a vibrant community of scholars who share a commitment to excellence and innovation in communication research and teaching.
Our undergraduate degree blends the best of a broad, liberal arts education with practical skills that contribute to career and life success. We also offer a minor in communication.
Students will acquire broad knowledge in communication, including:
- Communication contexts (e.g., interpersonal, group, organizational, public, intercultural and digital).
- Ethical issues and responsibilities of communication practice.
- Fostering and supporting inclusive and just communities.
- History of communication and rhetorical study.
- Implications for shifting communication technologies.
- Methods for investigating communication problems.
Students will also acquire the skills and abilities to:
- Design innovative and influential messages.
- Develop inclusive and responsible communication practices.
- Analyze and critique communication processes.
- Build quality relationships and interactions.
Course code for this program is COMM.
Faculty
While many faculty teach both undergraduate and graduate students, some instruct students at the undergraduate level only. For more information, contact the faculty member's home department.
Ackerman, John Martin
Professor; PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
Ashcraft, Karen Lee
Professor; PhD, University of Colorado Boulder
Boromisza-Habashi, David
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Burns, Michael
Assistant Teaching Professor; PhD, North Dakota State University
Cruz, Joelle
Associate Professor; PhD, Texas A&M University
Frey, Lawrence R.
Professor Emeritus; PhD, University of Kansas
Gries, Laurie Ellen
Associate Professor; PhD, Syracuse University
Hickerson, Ruth Lynne
Senior Instructor; PhD, University of Denver
Hodge, Danielle
Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Colorado Boulder
Izaguirre, José G.
Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jahn, Jody L.
Associate Professor; PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kelsie, Amber
Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Koschmann, Matthew A.
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Texas at Austin
Kuhn, Tim
Professor; PhD, Arizona State University
Maurer, Christy
Senior Instructor; PhD, University of Colorado Boulder
Ochieng, Omedi
Associate Professor; PhD, Bowling Green State University
Pezzullo, Phaedra Carmen
Associate Professor; PhD, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Shrikant, Natasha
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Simonson, Peter D.
Professor Emeritus; PhD, University of Iowa
Skerski, Jamie L.
Senior Instructor; PhD, Indiana University Bloomington
Sprain, Leah M.H.
Associate Professor, Faculty Director; PhD, University of Washington
Taylor, Bryan Copeland
Professor; PhD, University of Utah
White, Cindy Hagemeier
Associate Professor; PhD, University of Arizona
Courses
COMM 1210 (3) Perspectives on Human Communication
Surveys communication in a variety of contexts and applications. Topics include basic concepts and general models of communication, ethics, language and nonverbal communication, personal relationships, group decision making, organizational communication, and impact of technological developments on communication. Required for COMN majors and minors.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Contemporary Societies
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
MAPS Course: Social Science
COMM 1300 (3) Public Speaking
Develops confidence and competence in writing and delivering presentations. Examines public speaking in a variety of personal, civic and professional settings. Required for COMM or COMN majors.
COMM 1600 (3) Group Interaction
Learn communication skills to be a better group member and enhance group effectiveness in a variety of professional and civic contexts. Practice group communication skills through an innovative group project and online simulation. Focuses on topics such as group development & socialization, decision making, conflict management, technology & virtual group work, difference & diversity, planning & coordination, leadership & management, and ethics. Required for COMM and COMN majors.
COMM 2000 (3) Topics in Communication
Investigates select topics in communication. Does not count toward the 2000-level courses required for the major, unless explicitly stated in the course schedule.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 2320 (3) The Craft of Argument
Focuses on the practice of argumentation in public life with attention to how the process of critical thinking leads to the invention of arguments. Students use argumentation theory to craft ethical and well-reasoned appeals and to critically evaluate the arguments of others. Formerly COMM 3310. Students who took this course previously as COMM 3310 cannot re-take it for credit.
COMM 2400 (3) Discourse, Culture and Identities
Considers how communication is central to constructing who people are and examines social controversies related to talk and identities. Students learn to analyze and understand discourse, defined as everyday talk and conversation, through the practice of discourse analysis.
Additional Information: GT Pathways: GT-SS3 -Soc Behav Sci:Hmn Behav, Cult, Soc Frame
Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
COMM 2410 (3) The Practice of Intercultural Communication
Prepares students to approach intercultural communication as interaction across cultural difference. Teaches the discovery of how culturally variable communication practices (e.g., word and language choice, speech acts, personal address, silence, nonverbal communication, etc.) can lead to the breakdown of coordinated interaction, and how coordination can be restored. Examines broader social, cultural, and political contexts in which intercultural interactions occur.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
COMM 2500 (3) Interpersonal Communication
Examines how communication processes such as language and nonverbal behavior shape perceptions of self, influence identity, and impact interpersonal roles and relationships. Students learn theories of human interaction and consider how this can be used to improve relational communication.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 2650 (3) Business and Professional Communication
Develops knowledge of concepts and skills required for successful participation in contemporary workplace communication. Focuses on communication processes associated with contexts such as sales, leadership, diversity, teamwork, customer service, and conflict. Facilitates students conduct of self-assessment, networking, interviewing, and other career-development strategies. Provides students training in informative and persuasive business presentations.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1300 and COMM 1600.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3000 (3) Issues in Communication
Explores select issues in communication.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3210 (3) Communication Theory
Reviews multiple theories of communication and how they address a variety of personal, relational, group, organizational, and social problems. Develops new approaches to understanding and improving human communication.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of COMM 1210 and COMM 1600 (all minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors/minors or On-Track IUT students admitted to COMN.
COMM 3220 (3) The Art of Listening
Investigates the entwined phenomena of listening and sound as fundamental but overlooked dimensions of embodied experience, communication, culture, and the living and material environments of the world. The course explores ways to understand, critically analyze, and practice listening as an embodied process of human responsiveness, social leadership, unequal power differentials, and creative possibility. It aims to retune how we listen to people, places, technologies, and the world at large.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3300 (3) Rhetorical Thinking
Reviews the classical tradition of rhetoric and its relevance to current events and public issues. Students learn how rhetorical perspectives help us create new ways of thinking, speaking, and acting through practicing creative message design.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of COMM 1210 and COMM 1600 (all minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors/minors or On-Track IUT students admitted to COMN.
COMM 3320 (3) Persuasion in Society
Learn personal and professional skills to become more persuasive in a variety of communication contexts, and develop a broader and more critical understanding of the culture of persuasion that pervades all aspects of society.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors). Requires prerequisite of COMM 1210 and COMM 1600 (all minimum grade C-).
COMM 3330 (3) Social Movements
Introduces concepts in rhetoric and argumentation that are used to explain significant social and political changes in our society. The goal is to show how social actors use rhetoric to promote some social goals and hinder others. Formerly COMM 2360.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3340 (3) Political Communication
Explores the role of communication in politics, emphasizing how language drives policies and campaigns. Students learn communication strategies in order to craft innovative campaign messaging.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3370 (3) Environmental Communication
Introduces the growing field of environmental communication, including historical events, key concepts, legal landmarks, technological developments and public controversies at the intersection of the environment, economics and social justice. Focuses on persuasive communication in the public sphere, as well as the constitutive power of communication to name and redefine what has been and might become possible in our environmental imaginations.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3380 (3) Advanced Topics in Storytelling, Culture, & Climate Justice
Examines how we communicate about the intersections of climate change and social justice within specific cultural contexts, as well as how we can change narratives about climate justice through a culture-centered framework. Will focus on storytelling topics, such as food justice or energy justice.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
COMM 3410 (3) Intercultural Communication
Explores complex relationships between culture and communication processes from various conceptual perspectives. Considers the important role of context (e.g., social, historical, and cultural) in intercultural interactions. Recommended Prerequisites: COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-Global Perspective
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
COMM 3420 (3) Gender and Communication
Examines gender as a social practice that remains vital to identities, relationships, and institutions in contemporary society. Treats gender as something we do or enact through communication, rather than as something we are or have, and explores the implications of this shift in perspective. Investigates how gender interacts with sexuality, race, class, nation, age, ability, and other aspects of identity.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
COMM 3430 (3) Communication, Culture and Sport
Examines the communicative, historical and cultural aspects of sport in contemporary American society including the intersections of power, gender/sexuality, race and class.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3510 (3) Family Communication
Explores communication in families from various theoretical perspectives, such as social constructionism, systems theory, and dialectical theory. Communication patterns and processes created and sustained by family members are examined, including rules, roles, stories, rituals, myths, metaphors, themes, and cycles.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3610 (3) Communication, Technology, and Society
Examines how electronic media influence our communication in relationships and communities. Focuses on how we use technology to create shared meanings, express identities, and coordinate interaction, and why such efforts succeed and fail. Also focuses on political and ethical questions concerning the development of communication technology in a global society characterized by conflict and inequality.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3620 (3) Advanced Teamwork and Collaboration
Explores communication and collaboration in complex situations (e.g., extreme environments e.g., space travel; cross-sector collaborations). Reviews and applies key processes of team/group communication and collaboration to the context of extreme teams to identify communication issues and interventions relevant in complex organizing or dangerous situations.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3630 (3) Organizational Communication
Learn to understand and critique organizations and organizing from a communication perspective. Addresses topics such as organizational theory, organizational culture, power, technology, decision making, teamwork, leadership, diversity, gender, socialization, and ethics.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 3700 (3) Communication and Conflict Management
Examines interdisciplinary concepts and theories enabling students to better understand different types of conflict, sources of conflict, and communication patterns that serve to create, maintain and transform conflict. Teaches practical skills in conflict management areas such as bargaining, facilitation, mediation and negotiation.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: PACS 3700
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
COMM 3740 (3) Qualitative Research Methods
Learn to collect and analyze qualitative data (interviews, observations, focus groups) in order to answer research questions about communication and society. Focuses on research that investigates meaning, understanding, process, and interpretation in order to enhance our knowledge of human interaction.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors or minors only.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3750 (3) Quantitative Research Methods
Introduces empirical communication research. Students develop skills in collecting data and analyzing statistical research. Students conduct an original research project applying numerical analysis to communication behavior.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors or minors only.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 3760 (3) Rhetorical Research Methods
Considers what it means to do rhetorical research. Explores various methods for analyzing all forms of public discourse, such as political speeches, advertising, activist campaigns, and popular entertainment, to better understand their effects and influence.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors or minors only.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 1210 and COMM 1600 and COMM 3300.
COMM 4000 (1-6) Advanced Topics in Communication
Analyzes special interest areas of communication theory, research, and practice. Course format involves lecture, discussion, investigative analysis, and practical application.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 15.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 3210 and COMM 3300.
COMM 4100 (3) Seminar in Honors Thesis Writing and Research
Provides the opportunity for students writing an honors thesis to develop their understanding of the research process and to improve their research and writing skills.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 80-180 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
Additional Information: Arts Sciences Honors Course
COMM 4220 (3) Senior Seminar: Functions of Communication
Topical seminar on the functions of communication across interpersonal, group, organizational, and public contexts. Reviews current theory and research on topics such as communication and conflict, persuasion, and ethical dimensions of communication practices.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of COMM 3210 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 80-180 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
COMM 4300 (3) Senior Seminar: Rhetoric
.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of COMM 3300 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 80-180 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
COMM 4510 (3) Senior Seminar: Interpersonal Communication
Requires students to synthesize and demonstrate what they¿ve learned in the major. Please refer to the specific description listed for the current semester. Each seminar will vary greatly in format and content.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of COMM 3210 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 80-120 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
COMM 4600 (3) Senior Seminar: Organizational Communication
Reviews current theory and research on topics such as communication and organizational decision making, organizational culture, gender relations, communication technology, and power and control in organizations.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: COMM 5600
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of COMM 3210 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 80-120 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
COMM 4610 (3) Senior Seminar: Communication Studies of Science and Technology
Requires students to synthesize and demonstrate what they¿ve learned in the major. Please refer to the specific description listed for the current semester. Each seminar will vary greatly in format and content.
Requisites: Requires prerequisite course of COMM 3210 (minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 80-180 credits (Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
COMM 4840 (1-6) Undergraduate Independent Study
Note that the 14-hour limit in the major applies to any combination of independent study and internship credit. This course does not count toward the 36 credit hours required for the major.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only.
Recommended: Prerequisites COMM 3210 and COMM 3300.
COMM 4930 (1-6) Internship
Studies are pursued in communication-related work experience projects that generally require 40 hours on the job per credit hour and evidence (e.g., journal, paper and employer evaluation) of significant learning. The 14-hour limit in the major applies to any combination of independent study and internship credit and does not count toward the 36 hours required for the major.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior) Communication (COMM or COMN) majors only. Requires 2.5 or higher cumulative GPA
Recommended: Prerequisite 57 hours of overall course work, 18 hours of communication course work completed, 2.50 overall GPA and a faculty sponsor.
COMM 4950 (1-6) Senior Thesis: Honors
For exceptional communication majors who wish to graduate with department honors and receive credit for writing an honors thesis. For students accepted into COMN Honors program and currently completing COMN Honors Thesis project.
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Additional Information: Arts Sciences Honors Course