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Course Descriptions

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  • CC100 - Fundamentals of Speech Communication (4 Credits)
    Introduces basic concepts, theories, and principles of oral communication applied to speaking situations. Develops competence in oral communication through performance and critical analysis of student skills in a variety of speaking formats. Audience analysis, content discovery, communication strategies, arrangement of ideas, use of evidence and reasoning to support claims, language and style, voice and other delivery skills and ethical considerations are covered.
  • CC160 - Interpersonal Communication (4 Credits)
    Introduces the practices and principles of interpersonal communication. Focuses on perception, creative/critical listening, nonverbal communication, emotions, power, and self-disclosure. Issues of ethics, technology, and culture are woven throughout class content and discussions. Stages of relationships are explored as well as the influence of communication within and between those stages. Numerous applications to a variety of situations, including those in the family, workplace, and romantic context are undertaken as students draw from their own experiences.
    Instructor: Richard West
  • CC200 - Communication and the Political World (4 Credits)
    Introduces the study of communication, power, and politics in contemporary life. Considers theory and research in communication that help understand how power relationships are constituted, negotiated, and changed.
    Instructor: Emily Cury
  • CC201 - Evolution of Expression (4 Credits)
    Covers the development of human communication from orality to literacy to "electrasy," or electronic orality, as a foundation for the exploration of issues and problems in contemporary culture concerning effective participation in society. Students learn how such development continues to revolutionize human consciousness, communication, and culture. They consider central concepts of voice and expression in forms ranging from embodied speech to dialogue to new media and technologies.
  • CC203 - Intercultural Communication (4 Credits)
    Analyzes readings in intercultural communication focusing on verbal and nonverbal customs of various cultures as information from both cultural and language perspectives. Each semester focuses on specific topics or cultures. Background in other cultures is helpful but not essential.
  • CC260 - Communication in Groups and Teams (4 Credits)
    Integrates the theory and practice related to discussion and deliberation in small groups and teams. Emphasizes the norms, rules, roles, climate, and leadership patterns in both personal and professional lives. Discussions center upon the communication implications of being a member of a group/team and participating in group/team decision-making. Applications of gender and culture are woven throughout classroom discussions.
  • CC262 - Professional Communication (4 Credits)
    Study and practice of rhetorical argument, proof, ethics, style, and delivery in performance and analysis of speeches. Projects include use of professional communication situations and video/audio aids and new technology to enhance rhetorical effectiveness in message preparation, development, and delivery.
  • CC263 - Argument and Advocacy (4 Credits)
    Studies the art of advocacy. Students develop logical, organizational, and research skills that debate and other forms of oral and written advocacy require. They participate in debates about current political and legal controversies and learn how critical thinking skills are used as tools both for advocates and audiences.
  • CC264 - Oral Presentation of Literature (4 Credits)
    Oral performance of literature (poetry, prose, and drama) is used as the art of understanding and communicating a text's meaning to an audience. Explores the aesthetic dimensions of literature and its performance. Students develop critical skills interpreting texts and evaluating performed literature.
  • CC265 - Professional Voice and Speech (4 Credits)
    Trains voice to develop wide range of controls in pitch, volume, and quality to meet voice and speech needs of journalism, public speaking, and interpretation. International students are encouraged to enroll if interested in accent reduction.
  • CC266 - Conflict and Negotiation (4 Credits)
    Studies conflict theory and principles and practices of dispute resolution. Includes everyday conflict, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution systems. Emphasizes interpersonal skills development.
    Instructors: Israela Brill-Cass, Ted Hollingworth
  • CC280 - Communication Theory for Leading Change (4 Credits)
    Investigates classical and contemporary theories of political communication with an emphasis on utility of theory in mass- and multi-mediated communication contexts. Discusses application of theory to these domains, including examination of how conceptions of the citizen, democracy, aesthetics, morality, and culture are established and maintained vis-a-vis different modes of communication.
    Instructor: Owen Eagan
  • CC303 - Politics, Advocacy, and Public Opinion (4 Credits)
    Studies the research process from problem definition to survey design, sampling, data analysis, and interpretation of results. Students develop skills in reading and interpreting social scientific research and conducting forms of research pertinent to public and political communication needs.
    Instructor: Spencer Kimball
  • CC304 - Communicative Informatics (4 Credits)
    Studies social-shaping communication technologies. Explores central role of communication in creating and sustaining social communities online and examines web-based technology and use by people in building social networks and organizational structures. Analyzes optimal use of information technology to create social presence and cohesion in multiple contexts. Individual and/or team projects explore human communication and intersection of information technologies.
    Instructor: Linda Gallant
  • CC310 - Campaign Management (4 Credits)
    Primary focus on electoral campaigns with attention to persuasive campaigns in general. Includes political advertising.
  • CC330 - Management and Communication (4 Credits)
    Introduces fundamental principles of management in profit, nonprofit, and government settings. Special emphasis is placed on humanistic and systems approaches, communication skills and theory, and national and global trends. Sample topics include planning, organizing, staffing, decision making, and leading. Case method is applied.
    Instructor: Ted Hollingworth
  • CC343 - Rhetorical Theory: Audience Analysis (4 Credits)
    Studies classical theorists of rhetoric on speaking and writing well. Practical application of classical theory to contemporary rhetorical situations. In-class oral performances and several written assignments are required.
  • CC344 - Rhetoric of Social Movements (4 Credits)
    Critically examines prominent rhetorical texts and events that shaped political processes and relationships. Applies insights to contemporary contexts and issues.
  • CC345 - Public Affairs Matrix: Media, Politics, and Advocacy (4 Credits)
    Advanced study of interplay of media, politics, policy, and advocacy. Through historical and contemporary case studies and research, students examine a variety of constituencies affecting politics and public policy and the role the media play in political, public policy, and advocacy debates. Propaganda is defined and its role in affecting public opinion is discussed. Studies the relationship between communicator, media, and key constituencies with a focus on ethical, effective use of public affairs.
  • CC357 - Leadership (4 Credits)
    Analyzes theory and practice of effective ethical leadership in contemporary political and organizational settings; theories for organizing and motivating people; cross-cultural applications; and issues of diversity and communication skills for leadership.
    Instructor:
  • CC380 - Political Communication Practicum (2 Credits)
    Explains political communication theories, policies, and practices as they relate to Washington, D.C., context. Integrates readings with speakers to fully demonstrate synergies of theory and practice in Washington political, government, and social advocacy arenas. Offered in conjunction with Washington Semester.
  • CC410 - Language, Symbols, and Political Communication (4 Credits)
    Provides overview of how political discourse and resources of language influence audiences. Uses theoretical insights of Kenneth Burke, Murray Edelman, Garry Wills, George Lakoff, and others to assess communication of diverse political figures and texts from Pericles to Ronald Reagan, from Gettysburg Address to Mein Kampf. Students produce political texts, speech drafts, "blog" designs, political advertisements, and press releases.
  • CC415 - Mediation, Facilitation, and Dialogue (4 Credits)
    Considers theory and practice of various forms of third-party-guided dispute resolution. Students learn to mediate conflicts, facilitate discussions, and promote dialogue among parties in conflict. Emphasis is on developing skills in leading groups.
    Instructor: Israela Brill-Cass
  • CC422 - Politics and Comedy: Subversive Laughter (4 Credits)
    Examines political comedy through lens of performance studies. Surveys history of political commentary by American platform humorists (Artemus Ward, Mark Twain), stand-up comedians (Lenny Bruce, Kate Clinton), comedy monologue artists (Spalding Gray, Margaret Cho), and talk-show hosts (Bill Maher, Jay Leno). Examines role of comedy in shaping social and political discourse. Emphasis is on developing performance skills.
  • CC423 - Crisis Communication (4 Credits)
    Details the importance of managing communication in crisis situations. Topics include definitions, types, classifications, phases, planning, publics, contingency events, time estimating, crisis teams, control centers, working with media, training, and follow-through. Crisis scenarios cover profit, nonprofit, and government organizations at the local, regional, national, and/or global level. Case examples are employed.
  • CC471 - Topics in Leadership, Politics, and Social Advocacy (4 Credits)
    Special topics in political communication. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Gregory Payne
  • CC472 - Topics in Communication Studies (4 Credits)
    Special topics in communication studies. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Richard West
  • CC475 - Capstone in Leadership, Politics, and Social Advocacy (4 Credits)
    Advanced theory, research, and practice in political communication. Students develop and enhance portfolios of political communication materials, including development of two communication campaigns.
    Instructor: Spencer Kimball
  • CC476 - Capstone in Communication Studies (4 Credits)
    Advanced theory, research, and practice in communication studies. As a key feature of the course, students complete a senior thesis or project.
    Instructor: Spencer Kimball
  • CC602 - Communication Theory (4 Credits)
    A critical examination of the historical roots, significant paradigms, current thinking/application of communication theory. Survey of the development of the field, emphasizing the theory-research connection. Additional topics include theory building, theory evaluation, and the assumptions and tensions in the communication field.
  • CC604 - Strategic Planning and the Managerial Process (4 Credits)
    Focuses on how organizations function as systems with special emphases placed on the basic principles of management, strategic planning, decision making, and implementation. Concepts covered include vision, mission, goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, and operations. Organizational communication, the humanistic perspective, ethics, and productivity, in both for-profit and nonprofit environments, are continuing themes throughout this course.
  • CC608 - Public Affairs: The Interplay of Influence in a Networked World (4 Credits)
    Students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to identify, analyze, and communicate with internal and external stakeholder groups for the purpose of persuasion. Rhetorical strategies are developed for ethical, effective issue advocacy campaigns and campaigns to build identity, and enhance and protect reputation of individuals and organizations. New media developments, diverse and global stakeholder groups, and the 24/7 media environment will be addressed. Students design and produce at least one original communication campaign for a client in the private or public sector.
  • CC626 - Crisis Communication (4 Credits)
    Students learn about the development of organizational and marketing communication strategies in crisis situations. Using case studies and fieldwork, students focus on the importance of internal communication and media relations during a crisis. Students also investigate preventive strategies that organizations should employ to avoid crises.
  • CC628 - Entrepreneurship and Creative Problem Solving (4 Credits)
    Entrepreneurship is the process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity. Students learn about the concepts and characteristics of entrepreneurship. Students will investigate the key dimensions of entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors that include: innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness. Case studies are utilized to help students employ concepts from the course and develop their own creative and critical thinking, as well as problem solving skills.
  • CC636 - Negotiation and Group Process (4 Credits)
    Students learn negotiation strategies in personal and organizational contexts. Students will apply negotiation strategies, including third-party conflict resolution, union-management settings, and other conflict management efforts to practical settings, and will also utilize role-plays.
  • CC638 - Human Resources, Employee Communication, Diversity, and Culture (4 Credits)
    Explores employee communication and diversity issues in the context of strategic communication in organizations. Emphasis is placed on understanding organizations and their multiple internal constituencies from the perspective of the human resources professional. Issues addressed include internal communication message development and delivery, including best practices in the use of technology and in workplace diversity initiatives. Students learn to design and implement communication strategies that recognize and adapt to diverse stakeholder groups.
  • CC640 - Web-Based Communication Strategies (4 Credits)
    Investigates the development and strategic management of web-based information using communication principles such as audience analysis and message construction strategies based on stakeholder analysis. Using systematic techniques to analyze the internal goals of the organization, students learn to produce an information design structure that maximizes outcome. The course examines the internal workings of information architecture to develop recognizable patterns that improve communication effectiveness. Students also learn usability testing strategies to determine website functionality from a communication outcome perspective.
  • CC643 - Global Communications: Organizations Operating Across Dissolving Boundaries (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the management of communication with stakeholders in a world defined by globalization. Case studies, role-play workshops, and ethnographic inquiry are employed to enhance and update the student's knowledge and awareness of best-practices in contemporary business negotiations and transactions, public diplomacy initiatives, and cross-sector partnerships. Examples from small business to multinationals and from local nonprofits to global NGOs are used.
    Instructor: Mohamed Khalil
  • CC645 - Communication Management Research Methods (4 Credits)
    Students engage in applied research in communication management. Students develop skills in assessing and formulating problems; designing research; gathering, synthesizing, analyzing, and interpreting data; and applying the results to comprehensive communication strategies. Students learn to apply the most appropriate quantitative and qualitative research methods to particular research problems in an effort to effectively address stakeholder audiences, oversee information management systems, and cultivate and manage intellectual capital. Students gain experience in surveys, polling, focus groups, interviews, communication audits, and learn how to optimize research conducted through the Internet-based research.
    Instructor: Angela Hosek
  • CC648 - Stakeholder Relations and Communication: Public Sector (4 Credits)
    Addresses in-depth the development of stakeholder relations and communication in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Topics covered include corporate relations, reputation management grassroots organizing, public policy and the media, political communication, social advocacy campaigns, and public diplomacy. Case studies of communication campaigns at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels are used. Students produce and present at least one communication campaign to affect behavior in diverse stakeholder groups.
  • CC651 - Persuasion (4 Credits)
    Examines how communicators in businesses, nonprofits, and government employ principles and techniques of persuasion to serve organizational goals. Uses persuasion theory, both classical and modern, to illuminate how strategic messages, both within organizations and to external stakeholders, are planned, composed, delivered, and evaluated. Surveys different forms and contexts of strategic communication and illustrates them with case studies.
    Instructor: Richard West
  • CC652 - Organizational and Political Culture in a Networked Society (4 Credits)
    Surveys the political, social, and economic trends of the 21st century with an eye on the effects and uses of information technology in the shaping and reshaping of institutions. Students develop a media literacy that informs their own consumption of mediated content. Through a series of exercises and collaborative projects, they use this literacy to guide their strategic use of media formats, applications, and technology in developing every aspect of organizational communication--from the narrowest internal communication to the broadest public communication campaigns.
  • CC653 - The Conversant Manager (4 Credits)
    Aims to integrate a theoretical and practical understanding of how interpersonal communication functions in the business context. Specifically, the course examines the role of communication and its relationship to a variety of key managerial and leadership experiences. Among the topics to be explored are creative and critical listening, emotional competency, cultural identity, perception, conflict and power, self-awareness, persuasion, and rumor, among others. Attention is paid to how theory informs practice and how practice leads to managerial effectiveness.
  • CC655 - Project Management and Communication (4 Credits)
    Develops skills in understanding, applying, and assessing the process known as project management in a variety of environments. This is accomplished by introducing and applying the following: systems theory and its philosophical underpinnings; project management theories, methods, vocabularies, and skills; organizational communication theories; team building theory, application, and trends; and global workplace implications and trends.
    Instructor: Ted Hollingworth
  • CC688 - Corporate Training and Education (4 Credits)
    Teaches students the theories, methods, and skills needed to become adult trainers in organizational and independent (consulting) settings. A major emphasis is placed on adult learning theories (andragogy). Topics covered include: needs assessment, strategic and tactical integration of training, identification of learning goals and behavioral objectives, program planning, training methods and skills, and outcomes assessments. Several opportunities to plan, train (teach), and assess learning modules are included. How to recognize, select, and manage high-quality training programs and operations are covered.
    Instructor: Angela Hosek
  • CC692 - Capstone Course in Communication Management (4 Credits)
    Students synthesize prior coursework and new learnings to address an important need in public or organizational life. Calling upon competencies in strategic communication planning and design, students produce and present a final professional-level project as the culmination of their course of study. Readings, case studies, and in-class activities support continued inquiry into the most current theoretical dimensions of the discipline.
    Instructor: Linda Gallant
  • CC694 - Seminar Topics in Human Resources & Employee Communication (4 Credits)
    Students have the opportunity to enroll in special topics courses that are offered by the Department of Communication Studies when contemporary ideas or new research findings in the area of human resources and employee communication emerge in the field of communication. This course number represents a new course offering that, if successful, will become a permanent course in the course roster.
  • CC695 - Seminar in Organizational Communication (4 Credits)
    Students have the opportunity to enroll in special topics courses that are offered by the Department of Communication Studies when contemporary ideas or new research findings in a chosen area of program study emerge in the field of communication. This course number represents a new course offering that, if successful, will become a permanent course in the course roster.
  • CC696 - Seminar Topics in Public Relations & Stakeholder Communication (4 Credits)
    Students have the opportunity to enroll in special topics courses that are offered by the Department of Communication Studies when contemporary ideas or new research findings in the area of public relations and stakeholder communication emerge in the field of communication. This course number represents a new course offering that, if successful, will become a permanent course in the course roster.
  • CD153 - Images of the Disabled (4 Credits)
    Studies how the disabled are portrayed in film, theatre, and literature in contrast with the realities of society. Examines the issue of disability as a culture.
    Instructor: David Kociemba
  • CD162 - American Sign Language 1 (4 Credits)
    Introduces American Sign Language and American deaf culture. Students learn commonly used signs and basic rules of grammar. The course also explores information related to the deaf community, interaction between deaf and hearing people, and deaf education.
  • CD193 - Introduction to Communication Disorders (4 Credits)
    Introduces the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology, and the variety of communication disorders affecting children and adults. Students learn to use clinical terminology to describe treatment sessions during in-class guided observations. Guest speakers include speech-language pathologists and audiologists who describe their various work experiences.
  • CD201 - Language Acquisition (4 Credits)
    Explores the theoretical and practical aspects of the language learning process and its relation to other aspects of cognitive and social development. Includes discussion of the development of speech and language skills throughout the life span, from birth to adulthood. Includes a required service learning component involving weekly participation in an area preschool program throughout the semester.
    Instructor: Julia Hayden
  • CD208 - American Sign Language 2 (4 Credits)
    Continues to expand on receptive and expressive skills in ASL with emphasis on developing use of classifiers and the role of spatial relationships.
  • CD233 - Phonetics (4 Credits)
    Studies the various aspects of speech sounds and their production with a focus on articulatory, acoustic, and linguistic bases. Students learn to discriminate, analyze, and transcribe speech sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The relevance of course content to clinical and other applications is discussed as students learn to use the IPA to transcribe the speech of individuals with communicative impairments and different social dialects and accents. This course may be of special interest to students interested in acting, radio, and/or television broadcasting.
    Instructor: Lisa Lavoie
  • CD234 - Speech and Hearing Anatomy and Physiology (4 Credits)
    Studies the structure of the biological systems that underlie speech, language, and hearing with an emphasis on the processes and neural control of respiration, phonation, resonance, and articulation. Clinical disorders are used to elucidate dysfunction of these normal processes as substrates for human communication.
    Instructor: Stephane Maison
  • CD309 - American Sign Language 3 (4 Credits)
    A continuation of American Sign Language II. Students continue to expand different grammatical features of time signs and some different forms of inflecting verbs. In addition, students continue to develop conversational strategies in asking for clarification, agreeing, disagreeing, and hedging.
  • CD312 - Survey of Speech Disorders (4 Credits)
    Provides students with a basic understanding of human communication in areas of articulation, fluency, resonance, and voice. Issues related to assessment and intervention are addressed. Students observe diagnostic and therapy sessions toward completion of the 25 hours required by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Students learn to abstract and integrate information from clinical observations into thoughtful, well-written clinical observation reports.
  • CD313 - Survey of Language Disorders (4 Credits)
    Provides students with a basic understanding of disorders of human communication associated with developmental and acquired language disorders in children and adults. Assessment and intervention are addressed. Students observe diagnostic and therapy sessions toward completion of the 25 hours required by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. This is a writing-intensive course in which students write a major term paper with revisions and learn to use the APA writing conventions.
    Instructor: Alisa Ruggiero
  • CD400 - Clinical Foundations (4 Credits)
    Introduces the clinical process and methodology that underlie observation, assessment, and treatment of communication disorders in children and adults. Students learn to plan and execute a therapy session with a selected client. Clinical writing skills are developed through a variety of written assignments such as treatment plans, data collection and analysis, and progress notes.
    Instructor: Shelley Lipschultz
  • CD403 - Speech Science (4 Credits)
    Examines the physiological, acoustic, and perceptual processes involved in speech production and perception. Students get exposure to instrumentation for the display and acoustic analysis of speech sounds. This course may be of special interest to students in radio and television broadcasting who want to better understand properties of speech.
    Instructor: Amit Bajaj
  • CD409 - American Sign Language 4 (4 Credits)
    A continuation of American Sign Language III. Students continue to expand knowledge and use of advanced grammatical features and further develop conversational abilities.
    Instructor: Richard Shupert
  • CD467 - Introductory Audiology (4 Credits)
    Includes detailed anatomy of the ear with an overview of the physics of sound and current medical and audiologic management of hearing loss. Covers pure tone and speech audiometry, site-of-lesion testing, and audiogram interpretation.
  • CD468 - Aural Rehabilitation (4 Credits)
    Examines theories underlying habilitation and rehabilitation procedures for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults. Covers the effects of hearing loss on an individual and family, education of children with hearing loss, use of sensory aids, and design of aural rehabilitation programs for various populations.
    Instructor: Cathy Bakkensen
  • CD497 - Topics in Communication Disorders (4 Credits)
    Focus on topics in the field such as current theoretical perspectives, particular pathologies, clinical methodologies or interdisciplinary issues between communication disorders and other fields.
  • CD600 - Intro to Clinical Methods (1 Credit)
    Required for graduate students from undergraduate fields other than communication disorders and introduces them to clinical practice. Through class discussion, required observation of clinical work, and community screenings, students begin to understand the dynamic interactions between clients and clinicians.
  • CD601 - Clinical Methods I (1 Credit)
    Following the completion of prerequisite coursework and observation hours, students are taught assessment procedures, treatment strategies, and clinical writing skills. The course covers policies and procedures required for on-campus clinical performance as part of pediatric group treatment experiences and/or individual treatment for persons of all ages. This course must be passed prior to enrolling in CD 602.
    Instructor: Betsy Micucci
  • CD602 - Clinical Methods II (1 Credit)
    Focuses on assessment, intervention, documentation, and legislation related to work with school-aged children. This course must be passed prior to enrolling in CD 603.
    Instructor: Sandra Cohn Thau
  • CD603 - Clinical Methods III (1 Credit)
    Students learn about the role of the speech-language pathologist in clinical work with adults and issues pertinent to conducting effective assessment and treatment sessions with various communication disorders in this population. Additional topics include health care reimbursement and regulation, health literacy, and the role of other team members in adult settings. This course must be passed before enrolling in CD 604.
  • CD604 - Clinical Methods IV (1 Credit)
    Focuses on professional issues and the transition into professional practice.
    Instructor: Sandra Cohn Thau
  • CD605 - Clinical Practicum (1 Credit)
    As students progress through the program, they will be assigned to a variety of clinical opportunities both on and off campus. Students enroll in CD 605 for a minimum of five semesters.
    Instructor: Sandra Cohn Thau
  • CD609 - Research and Statistical Methods (3 Credits)
    Teaches fundamentals of data collection and interpretation in a clinical context. Students will learn about psychometric and normative data supporting diagnostic measures, how to select appropriate diagnostic tools and interpret the resulting data. Students will collect their own data sets, select and conduct statistical tests, and interpret results. A key component of the class is to understand what questions are clinically relevant to ask, what measures are appropriate to answer those questions, how to collect the relevant data, and the applications and limitations of statistical tests to interpret the results.
  • CD623 - Fluency Disorders (3 Credits)
    Explores the nature of stuttering from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Cluttering and neurogenic and psychogenic stuttering are also examined. Procedures for evaluating and treating/managing stuttering among children and adults are emphasized.
    Instructor: Amit Bajaj
  • CD635 - Speech Sound Disorders (3 Credits)
    Presents normative and theoretical perspectives on speech sound development as well as assessment and treatment of the disorders of articulation and phonology. General treatment strategies and specific treatment programs are emphasized. Research in evidence-based practice is highlighted.
  • CD641 - Dysphagia (3 Credits)
    Addresses feeding and swallowing mechanisms and processes, as well as current assessment procedures and management options that occur from infancy through adulthood.
  • CD645 - Language and Literacy Disabilities (3 Credits)
    Focuses on the relationship between spoken and written language and its role in language-based learning disabilities in school-age students. It addresses the characteristics of language, reading, and spelling impairments; the subtypes of these disorders; and the different intervention approaches used with them. Various models of language and reading development and their disorders are reviewed.
    Instructor: Elaine Geller
  • CD650 - Motor Speech Disorders (3 Credits)
    Students learn the etiology, assessment, diagnosis, and principles of rehabilitation of speech production disorders in individuals with acquired neuropathologies. Information is presented in the context of speech production theory and (where appropriate) of the neurological disease of which the speech disorder is a symptom.
    Instructor: Alisa Ruggiero
  • CD651 - Autism (1 Credit)
    This seminar provides a framework for determining appropriate speech and language assessment techniques, therapeutic objectives, and intervention strategies for children with autism and pervasive developmental disorders. It includes a review of current perspectives on differential diagnosis, etiology, and core challenges faced by this population of children at various developmental stages. The unique learning style characteristics of children with autism and pervasive developmental disorders are reviewed along with appropriate intervention/educational models and tenets of "recommended practice."
    Instructor: Amy Laurent
  • CD652 - Craniofacial Anomalies (1 Credit)
    This seminar reviews failures in craniofacial growth and development and the subsequent associated speech and language disorders. Communication and speech issues related to cleft lip and palate, dental malocclusions, and neuromuscular dysfunctions of the head and face are included. The role of speech-language pathologists in diagnosis and treatment within interdisciplinary models of case management is emphasized.
    Instructor: Kara Fletcher Larson
  • CD653 - Counseling and Family Systems (1 Credit)
    This seminar provides a survey of approaches to counseling with emphasis on application of counseling theories to persons with communication disorders and their families. Exploration of strategies for assessing and working with the family system are also included.
  • CD654 - Early Intervention (1 Credit)
    This seminar provides information regarding early intervention context. Emphasis is placed on understanding this population, the service delivery system, its consumers, and their special needs. The speech-language pathologist's role in providing direct assessment, treatment, and advocacy for children and their families is integrated into each topic area.
    Instructor: Betsy Micucci
  • CD659 - Special Topic Seminars (1 Credit)
    A range of current topics in the field will be selected and scheduled.
  • CD677 - Voice Disorders (3 Credits)
    Addresses the characteristics, etiology, evaluation, and clinical management of voice disorders and associated pathological conditions in both children and adults. Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of voice and speech production are reviewed.
  • CD680 - Neurologic Bases of Communication (3 Credits)
    Outlines the anatomy and functional neurophysiology of human communication and provides an overview of neurodevelopment and its processes and disorders. Although the organization of the human nervous system is presented, emphasis is placed on the relationship of this organization to the components of the various communicative, cognitive, linguistic, sensory, and motor processes that are central to human communication and to the treatment of its disorders.
  • CD681 - Topics in Communication Disorders (3 Credits)
    Focus on topics in the field such as current theoretical perspectives, unique pathologies, or in-depth discussions of methodological issues.
  • CD682 - Foundations of Language Acquisition (3 Credits)
    Surveys language learning and its neuropsychological underpinnings. Current theoretical perspectives are introduced and analyzed with respect to their clinical and educational implications. Selected methods for evaluating developing language are also reviewed, with special emphasis on the influence of cultural and linguistic diversity on language learning outcomes.
  • CD684 - Augmentative and Alternative Communication (3 Credits)
    Introduces the clinical considerations involved in the identification of candidacy for augmentative communication strategies, including domains of AAC assessment across disciplines and selection of AAC strategies as part of a total communication approach. Students become familiar with assessment and intervention considerations with persons who are nonspeaking, and develop an understanding of population characteristics, evaluation considerations, and feature matching within each domain/discipline and within varied intervention techniques.
  • CD686 - Preschool Language Disorders (3 Credits)
    Examines current perspectives in defining, assessing, and intervening with children with language disturbances from infancy through the preschool years. In addition, issues surrounding older individuals with language functioning in the preschool developmental age range are described. Particular attention is given to assessment and intervention techniques for children and individuals at pre-linguistic, emerging language, and conversational language levels. Additional considerations include multicultural issues, working with caregivers and peers, non-speech communication alternatives, and the diverse roles played by speech-language pathologists.
  • CD689 - Audiology in Speech-Language Pathology (3 Credits)
    Provides students with audiological information relevant to the scope of practice for speech-language pathologists. Basic testing and screening techniques, interpretation of audiometric results, and habilitative and rehabilitative methods are discussed with reference to the current literature.
    Instructor: Stephane Maison
  • CD690 - Aphasia (3 Credits)
    Pathophysiology, epidemiology, and prevention of aphasia, its nature, assessment, and diagnostic procedures, and approaches to intervention are presented. Issues surrounding recovery and prognosis, and treatment efficacy and outcome are also included. All areas are presented with reference to the current literature in the field and to its clinical application.
    Instructor: Joanne Lasker
  • CD692 - Cognitive Communicative Disorders (3 Credits)
    Communication disorders consequent to dementing processes, closed head injury, and damage to the right cerebral hemisphere are covered. Pathology, assessment, differential diagnosis, and treatment are addressed with reference to the current literature.
    Instructor: Amy Litwack
  • DA203 - Perspectives in World Dance (4 Credits)
    Focuses on learning to "see" and "hear" the form and music of the art of dance across world cultures. Students focus on specific dance ethnographies to understand cultural difference through a study of dance and human movement and to explore contemporary anthropological concerns about representation, globalization, history, and identity. Throughout their study, students focus on various theoretical models in anthropology for studying dance/performance. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective and the General Education Global Diversity requirements.
    Instructor: Kathy Hassinger
  • DA231 - Dance Composition I: Improvisation (4 Credits)
    Guides students in the discovery, development, and exploration of their own movement and imagery. The stimuli for dances include personal experiences, abstract ideas, relationships, emotions, and a variety of real or imagined materials. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
    Instructor: Marlena Yannetti
  • DA233 - Ballet I (2 Credits)
    Explores the fundamentals of ballet technique for beginning students. Through the traditional class sequence, students become familiar with ballet terms and technique. The class begins at the barre and progresses to center combinations, which emphasize the development of musicality, flexibility, strength, and control. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
    Instructor: Shawn Mahoney
  • DA234 - Modern Dance I (2 Credits)
    Presents the fundamentals of the concert dance form exemplified in the styles of Graham, Limon, and Cunningham for beginning students. It focuses on the development of technique, including floor work, center, and traveling components. Students explore a wide range of axial and spatial movement while developing flexibility, placement, control, and a concept of dance as a performing art. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
    Instructor: Nicole Pierce
  • DA235 - Tap Dance I (2 Credits)
    Explores the technique, style, and rhythmic structure of tap dancing. Students work toward expanding the movement vocabulary. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
  • DA237 - Jazz Dance I (2 Credits)
    An introduction to the American dance form of jazz, including blues and musical theatre dance. Utilizing East Indian and African-Cuban rhythms, this technique is based on exercises and movement developed by choreographer Jack Cole. Classes focus on the development of strength, flexibility, isolation, and control through a series of stretches, strengthening exercises, and center floor combinations. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
  • DA333 - Ballet II (2 Credits)
    Students at the intermediate level are encouraged to explore the technical and artistic aspects of classical ballet. Each class begins with a series of exercises at the barre and continues into center floor combinations, which may include pirouettes, beats, and jumps. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
    Instructor: Marlena Yannetti
  • DA335 - Tap Dance II (2 Credits)
    Students at the intermediate level concentrate on exploring more sophisticated levels of technique, style, and rhythmic structure of tap dancing. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the Dance faculty.
    Instructor: Kristen Quartarone
  • DA337 - Jazz Dance II (2 Credits)
    Training in American jazz dance integrates a number of jazz styles, including Jack Cole, Fosse, and African-Cuban, which are performed today in the musical theatre and in concert. Students work to develop control, strength, and speed, with an emphasis on movement isolation and a clear jazz style. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
    Instructor: Marlena Yannetti
  • DA430 - Dance Repertory (2 Credits)
    Offers students the opportunity to work with a choreographer in the creation and staging of a concert dance, musical theatre, or dance theatre piece. Led by faculty or guest artists, students work in a broad range of choreographic styles. In addition to developing the performance and physical skills necessary for the work, students are expected to engage in research and/or study materials necessary to the performance. The course culminates in a public performance of the work. May be repeated twice for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
  • DA434 - Advanced Dance Technique (4 Credits)
    Advanced dance students concentrate on further developing strength, flexibility, and control in a wide range of movement vocabulary drawn from the Graham, Limon, and Cunningham styles. Students explore dance phrasing, movement qualities, and develop a strong and focused dance style. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the dance area head.
  • EC203 - Principles of Economics (4 Credits)
    Introduces and focuses on the essential concepts and principles of microeconomics. Studies the allocation of resources under scarcity through decisions made by individual consumers, firms, and business. Students will examine, understand, and prioritize decisions and behaviors that affect many resources, whether financial, environmental, or human.
    Instructor: Nejem Raheem
  • GM601 - Marketing Management in a Global Environment (4 Credits)
    Introduces the economically integrated global marketplace that addresses the global economic environment, social and cultural environments, legal and regulatory considerations, foreign exchange and financial decision-making, marketing research, strategic alternatives for global market entry and expansion, and cooperative global strategies and strategic partnerships. Emphasizes differences between domestic and global strategies when applied to product development, pricing, and distribution, and focuses on the unique role of promotion within a global marketing framework.
  • GM603 - Global Multicultural Consumer Behavior (4 Credits)
    Grounded in theories of behavioral economics, this course examines human and consumer behavior within cultures, how members of diverse cultures differ, and the criteria upon which cultural members can and cannot be compared. Cultural value systems are highlighted as they provide insight into the impact of cultural differences on individual and group processes such as decision-making, verbal and nonverbal communication styles, and organizational structure. Models of decision-making and information processing are also explored.
    Instructor: Nejem Raheem
  • GM604 - Research Methods for Global Marketing Communication and Advertising (4 Credits)
    Provides students with an in-depth understanding of the research process, including formulation of research questions and determination of research design including data collection methods, sampling, data analysis, and interpretation. Introduces students to the world of networked information as well as the application of information technology to decision-making in a global business context.
  • GM605 - Financial and Strategic Context of Global Market Planning (4 Credits)
    Examines the financial environment surrounding marketing decisions in global enterprises. Financial and strategic tools essential in planning and evaluating marketing activities are examined in an overview of financial aspects of marketing decision-making such as forecasting, budgeting, optimizing, valuing, evaluating, and auditing results. Students apply these tools to marketing and communication decisions in strategic planning that addresses challenges of designing and implementing plans across a global enterprise.
  • GM606 - Global Marketing Communication Planning (4 Credits)
    Introduces disciplines within marketing communication and the concept and practice of integrated marketing communication planning. Describes fundamental theory and practice within advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, e-commerce, event planning, and sponsorships. Reviews global issues and institutions in the practice of these disciplines in multinational organizations.
    Instructor: Walter Mills
  • GM612 - Global Public Relations (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the role of public relations in a global setting, application of market research to public relations, the benefits and limitations of analytical frameworks applied to strategy development, and models of roles and ethical responsibilities of corporations engaged in public relations. Attention is given to the evolution and practice of public relations in major global markets.
  • GM614 - Global Advertising (4 Credits)
    Examines organizational and external environments surrounding global advertising decisions. The impact of business trends, regulatory environment, media management, agencies, and advertisers in global communication planning are discussed. Challenges such as standardizing communication strategy, choosing an agency, allocating decision responsibilities, localizing creative executions, assessing foreign buyers and media audiences, and media planning in multiple markets are examined.
    Instructor: Melissa Andretta
  • GM620 - Global Brand Management (4 Credits)
    Examines the challenge of branding in a worldwide context and provides a systematic approach to all aspects of creating and managing brands. Students are given a comprehensive framework regarding branding alternatives, issues for segmentation and brand research, communicating brand and corporate identities, managing the mix, and organizational and legal issues. Students explore the opportunities offered through line and brand extensions using case studies.
    Instructor: William Anderson
  • GM630 - Interactive and eCommunication in Global Environments (4 Credits)
    Students learn how organizations use the Internet and other interactive technologies to communicate with consumers and the public in global environments, and to examine the differences between traditional media vehicles and the Internet within the context of strategic communication. Students explore how communication has changed given media and delivery system convergence as well as market democratization. Ethical and legal parameters of technology-based communication are also covered.
    Instructor: Sebastian Gard
  • GM636 - Creative Thinking and Problem Solving in a Global Environment (4 Credits)
    The abundance of choices available to consumers for products and services, coupled with messages about them, necessitates that companies differentiate themselves creatively in global markets. Creativity and innovation are becoming cornerstones of business--qualities managers seek in employees and skills graduates must have to excel. This course explores the nature of creativity, creative thinking, and problem solving in a global environment. Interactive exercises, case analyses, discussions, and projects foster and enhance creativity.
  • GM668 - Global Marketing Communication Capstone (4 Credits)
    This intensive course integrates material from other GMCA courses and provides students an opportunity to experience the planning environment for global marketing communication decisions. Students design and present a global marketing communication plan for an organization serving as the class client. The project requires students to demonstrate their mastery of marketing communication disciplines studied during the fall and spring semesters. Client issues are cast in a global context. Special attention is given to promoting effective strategies for working within a team environment to execute the assignment.
  • GM694 - International Seminar/Practicum (4 Credits)
    An intensive, immersive opportunity to observe marketing communication practices in European, Asian, or Latin American enterprises. Students learn and apply global marketing perspectives in a host country with faculty advisors at affiliated universities through lectures, discussions, and activities. On-site visits with enterprises in one global region are arranged. An additional fee is required for enrollment to cover travel, accommodations, and arrangement costs. When offered, may fulfill GM 690 requirement.
  • HC200 - Principles and Practices of Health Communication (4 Credits)
    Introduces the study and application of principles and practices of health communication. This is a foundation for students in exploring what we know about our health due to the different components of communicating about health. Specifically, topics cover doctor-patient communication, the role of culture, social support, family health history, varied communication channels, technology, health campaigns, risk communication, and government policies. Case studies of health practices are used to illustrate these different topics.
    Instructor: Tanya Dubro
  • HC250 - Topics in Health Communication (4 Credits)
    Focuses on current topics in health communication such as those related to culture, diversity, and communication. May be repeated for credit it fopics differ.
  • HC400 - Health Communication Campaigns (4 Credits)
    "Just Say No." "This is your brain on drugs." "Live Strong." "Race for the Cure." Health campaigns have influenced our perception of issues related to health and health behaviors for decades. Students learn the process of health campaigns to obtain the skills to develop, implement, and evaluate their own health campaign for a community effort. The course also discusses the role of public health, perceptions of health, and the variety of communication channels available when creating these campaigns.
  • HC601 - Applications of Communication Theory for Health Communication (4 Credits)
    Explores the role of theory, research, and practice in health communication. Investigates provider-patient interaction, social support networks, medical ethics, mass media, and health promotion and disease prevention. Covers the role of communication in health, including the role it plays in individuals' social and cultural expectations and beliefs about health, how such information influences people to think about health and effect behavioral change, and how communication may be used to redefine and change public health policy. Includes readings, projects, exams, and class interaction.
  • HC602 - Media Strategies for the Health Professional (4 Credits)
    Students develop an understanding of the strategic use of the media by health communicators in message development and communication strategy execution. Students also explore the ethical concerns of healthcare professionals who utilize the media. Students learn how to develop effective health communication campaigns that bring about behavioral change among target audiences and influence health policy issues at the local, state, national, and international level. In addition, students learn how to develop evaluation techniques for health communication strategies.
    Instructor: Nancy Allen
  • HC603 - Research Methods (4 Credits)
    This course is organized around the research process in which students learn how to formulate a research question and define a research problem, decide upon a research design, assess data collection methods, define a sampling frame, determine types of data analyses, interpret data appropriately, and prepare a research report. Topics in both qualitative and quantitative research methods are included. Further, students gain an understanding of the importance of research in the development of health communication strategies.
  • HC604 - Social Marketing (4 Credits)
    Focuses on changing the voluntary behaviors of a society (e.g., smoking cessation, diet and exercise habits). Students learn how to apply marketing techniques and concepts to social contexts like preventive health, education, and politics. As part of their course requirements, students must complete a marketing audit of a nonprofit organization involved in social marketing. In addition, cases and exercises allow students to develop their skills and knowledge in this area.
  • HC605 - Special Topics in Health Communication (4 Credits)
    Occasionally, courses are offered that capitalize on trends in health communication or which address topics not covered in other courses in the program. May be repeated when topics vary.
  • HC610 - Applied Learning Experience (4 Credits)
    A capstone experience for students completing the Health Communication program. Students conduct research and develop and implement a communication plan to address the needs of a health-related organization in the Boston area. Projects may include the creation of training modules for health professionals, patient education, health information dissemination, policy advocacy, and the like. Students produce a final report.
    Instructor: Timothy Edgar
  • HC630 - Social Marketing Institute (4 Credits)
    Intensive one-week learning experience that brings together academics and professionals from a variety of disciplines to study how to use marketing principles and creative arts to influence change. Combines theory and practice. Participants work in teams on project with real-life client.
  • HI102 - Western Civilization and Culture (4 Credits)
    Studies the rise of civilization from its beginnings in the Neolithic Revolution through the classical empires, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the hegemony of European and American civilization throughout the world. Explores in greater detail the influence of Judaism and Christianity in this process.
  • HI201 - Non-Western World History (4 Credits)
    Examines history in a variety of non-Western contexts. The content will vary based upon the non-Western context selected for the semester. Students will focus upon historical events and the impact of these events for civilization in Asian, African, or Middle Eastern contexts.
  • HI203 - Social Movements in the U.S. (4 Credits)
    Examines political movements of industrial and agricultural workers, the unemployed, and the poor to gain power and economic rights since the Great Depression. Chronicles movements that shaped the policies of the New Deal and the Great Society, and analyzes the ways in which these movements fostered a conservative response late in the century. Explores history in the context of the ideals of democratic liberalism, the emerging power of corporate capitalism, and the modern conservative political coalition. Students study historical texts and a variety of cultural sources (literature, films, photographs, songs, and museum exhibitions).
    Instructor: Lester Lee
  • HI204 - Islam in the World (4 Credits)
    Pursues an interdisciplinary study of the origins of Islam and the role of Mohammed, the global expansion of the faith, the theology and thought of the Koran and Moslem traditions, and forms of art and architecture generated by the teachings of the prophet. Explores the impact of the renewal of Islam and its increasing role in the modern world.
  • HI205 - History of England (4 Credits)
    Studies the history of England from the Norman Conquest through the 20th century. Focuses on understanding the personalities of the rulers, the rise of parliamentary government, the interaction of England and other European nations, and the rise and decline of the British Empire. Included are discussions of how Shakespeare and Hollywood have depicted and often distorted English history.
  • HI208 - The World Since 1914 (4 Credits)
    Explores and develops an understanding of modern history by focusing on an examination of the Russian Revolution, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the origins and events of World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War.
    Instructor: Bradford Verter
  • HI211 - African-American History (4 Credits)
    Survey sub-Saharan history of the pre-colonial era, and the history of African Americans from the slave trade through the Civil War to the present.
    Instructor: Roger House
  • HI220 - Russian and Soviet History (4 Credits)
    Surveys Russian history from the 9th century to the present. Emphasis is placed on the growth and development of Muscovite and Imperial Russia; the revolution of revolutionary thought and action; the nature of Russian communism; the significance of the Bolshevik Revolution; and the growth, collapse, and aftermath of the Soviet state. Offered at Kasteel Well only.
  • HI223 - Renaissance and Reformation Thought (4 Credits)
    Explores the creativity of the Renaissance and Reformation through the new ideas of the great thinkers of the period, including the Italian Humanists Petrarch and Machiavelli and the Protestant Reformers Luther and Calvin. Offered at Kasteel Well only.
  • HI235 - History of the United States (4 Credits)
    Studies the history of the United States from its colonial beginnings to the present, focusing on the Civil War and its consequences.
    Instructor: Bradford Verter
  • HS101 - First-Year Honors Seminar 1 (4 Credits)
    Introduces the interdisciplinary study of literature and cultural theory, addressing issues of power and ideology in various multicultural contexts.
  • HS102 - First-Year Honors Seminar 2 (4 Credits)
    Introduces the interdisciplinary study of literature and cultural theory, addressing issues of power and ideology in various multicultural contexts.
  • HS103 - Honors Writing Symposium (4 Credits)
    Taken in conjunction with HS 102, develops skills in research, critical thinking, and writing. Stresses revision, relies on frequent workshops of student writing, and aims to sharpen ability to research, evaluate, and use evidence in a reasonable and convincing way. Write an extended research paper on a topic related to HS 102.
  • HS201 - Sophomore Honors Seminar 3 (4 Credits)
    Engages critical thinking and research about philosophical, cultural, and scientific methods of generating knowledge and their ethical implications. Different areas of inquiry are examined each year. Recent topics include environmental ethics, evolution, astronomy, and epistemology.
  • HS202 - Sophomore Honors Seminar 4 (4 Credits)
    Engages critical thinking and research about philosophical, cultural, and scientific methods of generating knowledge and their ethical implications. Different areas of inquiry are examined each year. Recent topics include environmental ethics, evolution, astronomy, and epistemology.
    Instructor: Elizabeth Baeten
  • HS302 - Junior Honors Colloquium 2 (1 Credit)
    A one-credit series of workshops and special events that provide mentorship while students develop proposals for Honors theses.
    Instructor:
  • HS402 - Senior Honors Colloquium 2 (1 Credit)
    A one-credit series of workshops and special events that provide mentorship while students complete Senior Honors Theses/Projects. In both terms, students share their works-in-progress with the Honors Program Director and other Honors Program students.
    Instructor:
  • HS490 - Honors Thesis (4 Credits)
    At the end of junior year or after completing the Junior Honors Seminar, students file an Honors Thesis Proposal with the Honors Program director. The proposal includes a description of the overall topic in terms of the general issue or project, the specific question or questions formulated, and the general ways in which the student will address the question(s) and accomplish the project. After a successful defense of their proposal, Honor students produce an Honors thesis in their senior year. Students work independently, but consult regularly with the thesis faculty advisor to evaluate and revise the work in progress. The final thesis represents the student's abilities and a commitment to serious intellectual work. At the time the student writes the thesis, he/she will be enrolled in and have previously taken the Honors Program Colloquia.
  • IN106 - Minds and Machines (4 Credits)
    What is a mind? Does it set humans apart from machines? Twentieth-century views of computers as primitive kinds of minds and human minds as neurological machines has origins in modern philosophical, scientific, and popular views of nature as law-like, rational, and predictable that accompanied social and technological changes. The course examines the implications of this history for contemporary humans and machines, and how we understand and negotiate human-machine relationships. Topics include evolution, the industrial revolution, the brain, robotics, and virtual reality.
  • IN107 - Forbidden Knowledge (4 Credits)
    Addresses basic philosophical questions posed by Western civilization accustomed to unshakable faith in power of knowledge to provide solutions to fundamental challenges facing humanity. Addresses problem equating knowledge with power from its origins in Greek Judeo-Christian cultures to the quintessential modern story of Frankenstein. Sources drawn from poetry (Goethe and Shelley), drama (Aeschylus), literature (Mary Shelley and Voltaire), and philosophy (Descartes and Rousseau) provide an introduction to the heritage of textual and visual material for contemplating the meaning of knowledge for human existence.
    Instructor: Roseanne Montillo
  • IN108 - Love and Eroticism in Western Culture (4 Credits)
    Love and eroticism were once the epicenter of philosophy. Yet, since the 19th century, love and eroticism have been secondary to "desire," which suggests more of a structure than an individuated experience. Many theorists repeatedly state that one cannot know desire. Course explores the relationship between this alienating structure and the ego-validating interpersonal encounters we call love so as to rethink the roles that love, desire, and eroticism play in our lived experiences.
  • IN111 - The City (4 Credits)
    Explores the development of the modern city and the impact of urbanization on politics, perception, and spiritual dimension of human life. Examines conceptions of the postmodern city that emerged in the late 20th century and collapse of modernist ideals of architecture and urban life. Primary texts from sociology, urban planning, and architecture are explored. Requires weekly assignments and a group project involving fieldwork in Boston.
  • IN115 - Digital Culture (4 Credits)
    Introduces theory and practice of digital communication and new media technology. Topics include: history of media and impact of digital technology on work, contemporary culture, knowledge creation and acquisition, and creative process. Offers online training in Internet navigation, information retrieval, multi-user interactive environments, hypertext, and hypermedia authorship. Students gain practical understanding of technologies that provide critical tools for evaluating social, political, and aesthetic decisions in digital media.
  • IN116 - Ways of Knowing: Philosophy in Literature (4 Credits)
    Provides introduction to reading literature by asking how literature can be used to reflect on human experience and generate new and established ways of responding to the world. Interprets philosophical and literary texts, evaluates aesthetic style, reconstructs historical context, and develops skills to respond effectively by writing about literature from a variety of perspectives.
    Instructor: Pablo Muchnik
  • IN123 - Visiting Scholar Topics (4 Credits)
    Topics address the expertise of visiting Scholars-in-Residence in the Institute. These topics are offered on a rotating basis. Past topics include: Rethinking Race, Power and Privilege, Ethics and Communication, and Africana Diaspora.
  • IN124 - Truth and Narrative (4 Credits)
    Origin and history of Western literature and philosophy stem from common concern with truth of human existence and drama of questioning in word and deed. Critically reflect on five books that have historically and conceptually influenced how the correlation between living in search of one's truth and narrative of one's self-discovery has been understood in Western civilization. Explore stories or narratives individuals need to tell and "live" about oneself in order to confront the truth of one's existence. Is finding the truth of existence the basic "plot" that gives life drama-opening life to equal possibility of tragedy or comedy?
  • IN125 - Topics in Gender Studies (4 Credits)
    Examines the intersection of gender and other areas of study, including literature, politics, sociology, economics, among others. Gender identity and gender representation are central to classroom discussions. Examines history, science, culture, and society from multiple gendered perspectives. The course allows students to clarify the transformative power of gender in their lives. Topics may differ from year to year.
  • IN126 - Literature of Extreme Situations (4 Credits)
    How are human identities shaped, transformed, distorted, and annihilated, or transformed by extreme personal and social experiences? How and why do people make meaning of such experiences through the creation of art, film, and literature? Reading/viewings include tales of obsession, addiction, and adventure, as told through memoir and fiction. Historic and journalistic accounts of genocide, natural disasters, cults, and other mass experiences are also explored. Primary thematic emphasis is on the integrity of the individual and the continuity of the community. Perspectives from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and philosophy provide the conceptual framework for discussion.
  • IN127 - Representing the Real: Documenting History in the United States (4 Credits)
    Moving from the micro-history of the family to the global history of war, this course examines multiple ways societies remember the past. While public memorials and monuments may tell national stories about Civil War battles, the trauma of the Holocaust, or Vietnam, students also study how personal memoirs, graphic novels, or poetry create counter-memories. Students approach these and other questions using the rich historical resources of Boston, looking for material history. Explores emergent new technologies of memory, asking how they may shape a future archive. Students produce their own creative historical projects at the end of the course
  • IN130 - Exoticism in Literature and Art (4 Credits)
    Explores the history of exoticism, the "charm of the unfamiliar" in literature and art, the specific relationship between the artist or author, the subject, and the intended audience that creates the essence of the "Other" and the fascination with the foreign. Explores colonial fascination with the exotic -- foreign landscapes, customs, cultures -- in 18th- and 19th-century fiction, nonfiction, painting; contemporary representations of exoticism, including photography and auto exoticism. Students discuss film, television, pornography, and performance art through interdisciplinary written and visual media (literature, painting, photography, advertising).
    Instructor: Alden Jones
  • IN134 - Local Action/Global Change (4 Credits)
    Investigates and analyzes theories and practices that surround key social issues, local issues, and cross-cultural contexts to strengths of community involvement, local resources, and potential for enacting change on global scale. Provides a forum for social problems through a variety of disciplinary lenses, including anthropology, philosophy, political science, and human geography. Project utilizes ethnographic methods to identify issue of interest related to surrounding community. Students engage in participant observation, practice visual and written documentation, critically analyze the problem, and make recommendations for an action plan.
  • IN135 - Ways of Seeing (4 Credits)
    What does it mean to see? How is meaning made in visual culture? How do paintings, photographs, films, advertising, and new media reflect and shape how we define ourselves and interact with others? Looks at visual experience, representation from perspectives of philosophy, contemporary cultural studies, interaction between media and global cultures, aesthetics and politics of "seeing" in contemporary society. Combines creative, critical approaches to study of visual culture. Explores classical and modern ways of seeing, language of film and television, advertising, hyper-reality, spectatorship and the gaze, surveillance, and culture of technology.
    Instructor: Mirta Tocci
  • IN136 - Behind the Headlines: The Culture of International News (4 Credits)
    Examines how news media present the world to the public and affect how the public sees the world. Looks at cultural representation and history through international news as well as the political, technological, and cultural forces behind the shape-making and dissemination of international news. Delineates principles that guide news media in determining the type of information to provide the public. Students learn how public perception of international issues is shaped by words, images, and stories disseminated by news media organizations, and how historical and political context of key international issues is ever-present in the news media today.
    Instructor: Melinda Robins
  • IN138 - Staging American Women: The Culture of Burlesque (4 Credits)
    Investigates and traces roles and images of women in vaudeville and burlesque of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and their offshoots. Cultural contexts, performance contents, ideas about gender performed in burlesque genre and powerful role they played in shaping dominant ideologies. Parodies, gender roles and relationships, and the highly controlled social and cultural power of the female form and demeanor forecasted a range of interwoven performative and visual arts designed to elaborate, explore, and exploit American ideologies of sex and gender. Ziegfeld girls, pin-up art of Alberto Vargas, early sexploitation films of Sonney and Freidman.
    Instructor:
  • IN139 - Art? History? (4 Credits)
    What have history and art to do with our sense of ourselves? Can histories end? Can art? Philosophers have recently argued that art and its history are over, in the wake of Modernism. These questions and this thesis will be examined and the course will ask "If art and its history have ended, then...what?" Readings will be drawn from diverse fields, including the philosophy of art, historical theory, art history, psychology, ethnology, and sociology/anthropology.
  • IN142 - African Civilizations (4 Credits)
    What is Africa? Where is Africa? Who is African? Does Africa end at the coast or include the Islands and the Diaspora? What is the meaning of a white Africa and a black Africa in relation to Western civilizations? If Africa is the cradle of humanity, are we all Africans? Introduces interdisciplinary African studies, considering history, archaeology, anthropology, politics, literature, religion, culture, economics, diasporas, and post-coloniality. Topics include African civilizations, West African writers, filmmakers as African public intellectuals, and critics of colonialism and post-colonialism.
  • IN146 - Making Monsters (4 Credits)
    From origins of Western literature to contemporary blockbuster films, the monster has been a cross-genre mainstay of storytelling. Monsters represent culturally specific fears in forms from prehistoric beasts running rampant in the modern world to the terrifying results of scientific experiments gone wrong. Through a broad sampling of fiction, poetry, academic writing in anthropology, history, cultural studies, and narrative and ethnographic films, students develop the understanding that monsters do not emerge from thin air, but are manifestations of racial, sexual, and scientific anxieties. Discusses cultural and historical roots of monsters from Beowulf to Frankenstein.
    Instructors: ,
  • IN148 - Politics, Film, and Literature in Latin America (4 Credits)
    Course covers Latin American writers and filmmakers from Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and Brazil who counteract the forces of censorship and political repression within their countries to create their own versions of national literatures and film industries. Their works deal with the topics of revolution, gender, and the place of intellectuals and creative minds in construction of history not dominated by censorship. Course also presents a history of development of literacy and film genres that engage issues of local and national concerns at specific times of crises in the 17th (colonialism) and 20th (post-colonialism) centuries. Fulfills General Education Global Diversity requirement.
  • IN149 - The Myth of the American Frontier (4 Credits)
    Explores the American myth of the "frontier" as "free land," "new beginnings," and a source of antagonism and heartbreak. This mythology of the frontier is a part of our daily lives, from Hollywood movies to the Marlboro Man, SUVs, and Las Vegas. Looks at the shifting conception of "the frontier" in American life in the 19th and 20th centuries through literature, film, visual arts, advertising, popular and academic histories, historical construction of race, ethnicity, gender, and national identities as they are related to the myth of the American frontier.
  • IN150 - Creativity in Context (4 Credits)
    Why do people create? Literature, film, art, and psychology provide the conceptual framework for solving the mystery of the creative impulse. What are the hallmarks of the creative personality? Is there a causal relationship between mental illness and artistry? How does the larger community of artists -- muses, collaborators, and competitors -- inspire an individual creator? Must artists be motivated by a sense of duty to society? Orwell's Why I Write, Hemingway's A Movable Feast, Plath's journals, and interviews with artists from the Beatles to Joan Didion to Francis Ford Coppola further illuminate the inspirations, motives, and processes of great artists.
    Instructor: Meta Wagner
  • IN151 - Ritual and Performance Studies (4 Credits)
    Explores the role of ritual and performance in our lives and in our communities through a variety of modes of inquiry, including reflective and critical reading, journal writing, and ethnography. Students work in groups to gain in-depth knowledge and firsthand experience of ritual and performance in community sites they select for intensive study. Links theory with practice by introducing rich, eclectic, and interdisciplinary theoretical material and applying it to students' practices in ritual and performance.
  • IN152 - Cultural Constructions of Identity (4 Credits)
    Explores the complex relations among different modalities of identity, focusing on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and nationality. Many individual groups assert their identities without articulating convincing arguments. Indeed, it is often assumed that such individuals need not defend their rights; that one's own identity is a private matter that does not tolerate any intrusion. Bases of belief systems are examined through a variety of interdisciplinary texts that span the fields of literature, cinema, history, sociology, philosophy, and popular culture.
  • IN200 - Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies (4 Credits)
    Introduces the interdisciplinary field of women's and gender studies. Topics include "common differences" uniting and dividing women and men; how womanhood has been represented in myth, literature, and media; how gender inequalities have been both explained and critiqued; how gender acquires meaning when connected to race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality; and how to address feminism's historical role in promoting gender studies. Explores central paradox of contemporary thinking: the necessity to make gender both matter and not matter.
    Instructor:
  • IN201 - Community Involvement/Service Learning (4 Credits)
    Students volunteer time and skills from their major to a nonprofit community organization. Engage in critical reflection about experiences through readings, discussion, and reflective analysis. Readings provide concepts, theories from psychology, and social and political science to analyze on-site experiences. Different modes of inquiry include the case study method in psychology, statistical analysis of survey research in political science, and ethnographic fieldwork. Examines the value of different forms of literary and analytical writing in representing and reflecting on service-learning experience and its relationship to social activism.
  • IN202 - Performance as Cultural Criticism (4 Credits)
    Performance is a mode of communication within and across cultures. Performance is considered from multiple disciplinary perspectives while focusing on ethnographic performance and performance art. Examines a variety of performances that construct and critique culture. Theories of performance are applied to the analysis of a canon of contemporary performance and through the development of performances for class.
  • IN203 - Post-Colonial Cultures (4 Credits)
    Investigates the historical, socioeconomic, and ideological contexts within which 20th-century post-colonial cultures have been produced and are negotiated. Providing geographical coverage and theoretical frameworks, it examines cultural production from formerly colonized nations. Analyzes primary material and critical contexts within which these materials can be read and understood.
  • IN204 - Minds, Media, and Technological Change (4 Credits)
    Interrogates the roles communication media (from etchings on cave walls to full immersion virtual realities) play in formation of personal identity, self-consciousness, and consciousness of individuals as social actors. Cognitive skills and habits necessary for gaining fluency or "literacy" in print, radio, television, computers, Internet, cell phones, and personal and mass communication technologies will be considered. Conceptions of self, society, aesthetics, morality, and "culture" are established and maintained vis-a-vis different modes of communication. Critical understanding of ways communication technologies have altered and continue to change conceptions.
  • IN205 - Exile and Global Citizenship (4 Credits)
    Multiple interdisciplinary approaches to current debates about exile, citizenship, and tangled identities that result from post-colonial/post-war migrations. Explore unstable continuum between location and identity and discuss impact of independence, war, and globalization on national, cultural, social, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual identities. Through post-colonial, psychoanalytic, global perspectives examine issues of agency and responsibility alongside plurality of (re)visions and (re)configurations that experiences of belonging, unbelonging, ambivalence, and in-betweenness make possible using key theoretical texts.
  • IN210 - Topics in Global Studies (4 Credits)
    Providing geographical and historical coverage as well as theoretical frameworks, these interdisciplinary courses examine contemporary issues in post-colonial and global studies through local, national, and regional contexts. Courses focus on such issues as globalization, cultural production, politics and power, multiculturalism and identity, and migration and immigration. Past topics include: Arab Uprisings; Race, Class, and Culture in South Africa; and Borders in Contemporary Latin America. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Cara Moyer-Duncan
  • IN212 - Topics in Interdisciplinary St (4 Credits)
    Rotating topics explore interdisciplinary fields such as cultural studies, women's and gender studies, and urban studies/civic engagement. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Sam Binkley
  • IN220 - Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Identity (4 Credits)
    Addresses issues of national identity and multiculturalism in the contemporary United States and well as other parts of the world. Perspective that is interdisciplinary and comparative in attempt to question leading assumptions underlying cultural pluralism.
  • IN221 - Film and Postmodernity (4 Credits)
    Cultural study of relationship between film and postmodern conditions of social order on how films construct images about social reality and ways in which these images present and interpret this relationship from the standpoint of postmodernism. View films analytically and apply cultural analysis to postmodern conditions of social order. Explore shifting and interdisciplinary relationships between film, film criticism, cultural analysis, and between writing and film as contemporary media forms.
  • IN223 - Blacks, Whites, and Blues (4 Credits)
    Looks at U.S. social history, race relations, and blues culture as a reflection of social change. Explores historical and literary materials relevant to African American social and economic development and white American cultural and oral-expressive nature of African American culture, relationship to social experience, and influence on mainstream American culture. Topics include American social/musical culture, the plantation South, migration, urban adaptation, experience of women, New Deal and 1960s counterculture politics, and influence of blues culture internationally.
  • IN225 - Media for Social Change (4 Credits)
    Students will use this course to hone their specialties as artists and communicators to collectively build a new voice using combined skills to contribute to specific social change objectives. The goal of the course will be to engage students in studying specific social issues and conducting research to design effective media projects for social good. Students will learn how to identify and address health problems and social issues in tangible ways through projects that might include finding specific audiences with whom students will attempt to communicate specific behavioral, informational or attitudinal messages.
  • IN226 - Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Identity (4 Credits)
    Surveys debates and controversies about the changing contours of nationalism, multiculturalism, ethnicity, and diaspora in the contemporary world. It familiarizes students with contemporary debates about nationalism by exploring the articulations between nationality, gender, class, and ethnicity in various geographical locations. Drawing on current theories and concepts, students examine the making and un-making of national identities in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
  • IN303 - Poetry and Song (4 Credits)
    Integrates two of the most often combined areas of expression: words and music. Brings together perspectives of poetry and musical composition to introduce ways in which these two disciplines combine in theory, history, and practice of classroom exercises. Ends with a concert or "musical evening" presentation of songs written by students. Open to anyone who writes, or aspires to write, songs and/or poetry.
    Instructor: Scott Wheeler
  • IN306 - Masculinities (4 Credits)
    Adopting critical/cultural studies, sociological and media studies approaches, explore and problematize how forms of masculinities are signified in and through popular culture, how nationalist discourses are gendered and bound up in masculine identities, how gender of the audience is implicated in such processes, and how constructions and representations both shape and are shaped by larger social, cultural, racial, economic, and political contexts. Through theoretical critiques and practical interpretations of masculinities, examine media and film, video games, Japanese anime, wrestling (including sumo), sports, music, and television genres.
  • IN308 - Invisible Cities (4 Credits)
    Studio-oriented course brings artists into a practical workshop, tutorial, and critique environment. From the flaneur of Paris in the late 19th century through European and American Conceptual Art interventions of the 1960-70s to contemporary Boston, a trajectory of theory and practice utilizes the city as subject, material, workspace, and presentation forum. Workshops by visiting artists focus on interventions into the city. Read and discuss selected texts on contemporary art and urban theory. Tutorials introduce digital imaging and remote file sharing. Group projects will entail collecting, editing, and presenting images, sound files, and text. The city will be used as a workspace and presentation forum for public projects.
  • IN311 - Identity and Modern Life (4 Credits)
    Considers many of the most important domains of life-from career, marriage and sexual life, religion, politics, and consumer lifestyles-for the ways in which they post the dilemma of freedom and insecurity. Discusses commodification, postmodernism, individualism, and race/racism through readings of theory, history, and literature, and through biographical interviews with a research subject of the student's choice.
  • IN312 - Visual Culture: Communications in Context (4 Credits)
    Introduces visual communications theory and design process through history, theory, and studio projects. Analyzes culture of design and complex interrelationships between graphic design and culture at large, and an analytical and critical approach to visual communications. Covers basic communications theories, application to communications problems, evaluation of design solutions, principles of composition in two-dimensional media space, historical context of contemporary design, vocabulary to articulate ideas about visual communication, and process of design and communication problem solving. Semester's work culminates in final portfolio project.
  • IN313 - Highbrow Meets Lowbrow: James and Faulkner on Stage and Screen (4 Credits)
    The fiction of Henry James and William Faulkner, viewed through the lens of interdisciplinary theories of narrative and cultural capital, reveals how popular performance media are reflected in and shape the work of these literary giants. James and Faulkner are "highbrow" canonical authors in the high art tradition, who also worked in "lowbrow" popular performance genres: James as a playwright and Faulkner as a screenwriter. The fiction of both writers has often been adapted for stage, film, and television.
  • IN314 - Documenting Visual Culture (4 Credits)
    Introduces anthropology of visual communications through photography, films, documentation of performance, and texts; evaluate sites of exhibition (museums, theatres, television, cinema, and the web) that are also sites of cultural and social reproduction; incorporates ethnographic methodology, specifically participant observation and field writing into artistic production. Investigates how "culture" is produced in/through variety of locales and media. Analyzes activities/products of both senders (authors/artists/makers) and receivers (viewers/audience members/users).
  • IN318 - Women, Media, and Globalization (4 Credits)
    Looks at the status of women around the world, especially the effects of globalization on their lives, their access to information, and their ability to make their voices heard in the digital age. Investigates some of the relevant economic, political, and cultural landscapes of globalization, and how these affect women in particular. Readings, expert speakers, and documentaries put a human face on topics covered during the semester.
  • IN319 - Feminist Cultural Theory (4 Credits)
    Considers feminist theoretical engagements with culture. Addresses issues that have become central to feminist theorizing, including "the body," "identity and difference," "technoscience," and "the gaze." Through close readings of key texts paired with uses in further theoretical work of these texts, students become familiar with feminist cultural theoretical work, learning how to read and understand it, as well as how to make use of its interdisciplinary and diverse offerings. The reading, discussion, and writing practices incorporated into the course provide students with a feminist theoretical "toolkit" for engaging with different aspects of culture -- from popular culture to technoscience to everyday life.
    Instructor:
  • IN320 - Topics in Key Contemp Thinkers (4 Credits)
    Focuses on a contemporary thinker (the thinker in focus will rotate each semester) chosen for his or her significance in contributing to theory, promoting new interdisciplinary perspectives, and/or deepening our understanding of key contemporary issues. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor:
  • IN321 - Asian/Pacific Rim Film and Literature (4 Credits)
    Once upon a time, the East conjured images of snake charmers and kung-fu masters. The South Pacific summoned images of endless sun-drenched beaches. These days, Asia and the Pacific Rim also evoke images of IT help, Mumbai Terror attacks, an unstable nuclear arsenal in Pakistan, and the ruined Japanese economy. This course addresses literary and filmic texts that provide new ways of thinking about how transnationalism and cosmopolitanism constitute these spheres. Students consider the possibilities for identities that are transgressive across national, sexual, gendered, ethnic, and racial lines and what this might mean in our globalized and interconnected world.
  • IN322 - Global Identity, Local Consumption (4 Credits)
    Globalization is a universal topic of discussion in contemporary politico-economic issues, but it is often one of the most misunderstood terms in debate on an almost daily basis. Students question what globalization means'a more prosperous lifestyle and the spread of Western commodities, culture, and values or "cultural imperialism"-through a discussion of foods, identity, society, and migration. How does the food we eat shape our understandings of the global and the local? What is politico-economic solvency in such a globalizing world?
  • IN323 - Global Cities (4 Credits)
    Globalization trends have increasingly influenced the way cities operate. The dispersal of production, expansion of cross-border networks, and extension of telematics integration combine with the concentration of political, economic, and cultural power within places designated "global cities." Recent economic "shocks" to these central nodes of trade, finance, and worldwide government reverberate in the actual experiences of individuals and social groups whose everyday lives are connected to these "global cities." Taking lived experiences, subjugated voices, and spaces of resistance as focal points, this course aims to examine these particular cultural and political productions of "global cities."
  • IN374 - Topics in Interdiscipl Studies (4 Credits)
    Rotating topics explore interdisciplinary fields such as European studies, women's and gender studies, and urban studies/civic engagement. May be repeated for credit if topic varies.
    Instructors: , Kathryn Ramey
  • IN401 - The Media and the Holocaust (4 Credits)
    Explores mainstream and alternative media's responses to information about the Holocaust and its aftermath through film, radio, television, and print media. Students speak with Holocaust eyewitnesses and survivors and pursue individual areas of interest with research projects. They consider what the media should be doing today to prevent continuing genocide.
    Instructor: Stephen Glantz
  • IN402 - Living Art in Real Space: Multidisciplinary Art and the Collaborative Process (4 Credits)
    Examines the development and language of multidisciplinary art from the early 20th century to the present day, with reference to specific artists, trends, and movements. Lectures, slide and video presentations, museum visits, student research, reading, writing, and in-depth experiential processes address how different artistic disciplines inform one another and come together in visual art performance and installations. Culminates in final presentations of multidisciplinary work by student groups documenting and mapping the sources, methods, and process of their collaborations.
    Instructor: Mirta Tocci
  • IN403 - The Shock of the Old: Representations and Renaissance Culture (4 Credits)
    Themes of identity and difference, meaning and paradox, and accommodation and strife are traced through Renaissance drama, poetry, painting, music, other visual media, and the speculative essay. Explores "period" attempts within these media to formulate vocabularies of representation and affect. Relates one's own interpretive practices and assumptions to the thematics of Renaissance representation through written and oral exercises and examination of modern critical and artistic representations and (re)interpretations of Renaissance texts.
  • IN404 - The Evolution of Queer Identity: History, Literature, Theory (4 Credits)
    Explores the evolution of queer (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) identity and culture through the lens of historical, literary (fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography), theoretical readings, films, and audio/visual media. Investigates the relationship between these fields and how they intertwine around the complex questions of queer identity and cultural representation. Is homosexuality, as stated by theorists such as Butler and Foucault, primarily a social construct, or is it something more essentialistic, as Dyer and Fuss suggest? Considers the role the arts in general have served in the queer liberation movement worldwide.
  • IN405 - Moving Out, Moving In (4 Credits)
    Explores process of ethnogenesis, of "becoming American," common to all immigrants in the United States. Analyzes the questions provoked by "moving out" of one's own country and "moving in" to another, the psychosocial journey of moving out and into one's self, one's culture, and one's community. What is identity? What does it mean to be visible? What are the real and imaginary journeys that comprise individual and collective maps of experience? Explores questions in interdisciplinary study and expresses discoveries through multidisciplinary art in a real artistic interaction with children in Boston's Latino community.
  • IN406 - Queer Dreams: Politics, Culture and Difference (4 Credits)
    Who or what is queer? How is the term being used to identify ways of living, political goals, social practices and cultural productions? Is queer a new identity, or does it question the terms of identity itself? How do questions of difference - of race, class, gender, sexuality, embodiment, and geo-cultural location - shift or inflect the meaning of this term, and the ways it is mobilized politically and culturally? Just as the term "queer" has been reclaimed from its negative usage, it has also been taken up and revised in a variety of ways that both extend and transform its meanings. Taking up of theory as a way of dreaming, this course focuses on theoretical work in queer studies, offering students the opportunity to explore new possibilities for thinking and living "queer."
    Instructor:
  • JR101 - Discovering Journalism (4 Credits)
    Explains how journalism has changed America and the world. Considers the role of journalism as a public service in a democratic society. Students read, view, and listen to the finest and most influential stories. They chart the news in U.S. history, from the American Revolution to today's digital revolution. Students analyze how print, broadcast, and online news have evolved and examine media from other parts of the world. They also explore ethical issues confronting the contemporary journalist and develop knowledge of the First Amendment principles.
  • JR102 - Foundations of Journalism (4 Credits)
    Students appraise and apply the fundamentals of reporting, writing, and producing news. They cover stories in the Greater Boston community and learn how to develop story ideas, define the focus, and identify and evaluate sources. Students also examine and implement reporting strategies for print, broadcast, and online news stories. They incorporate journalistic standards and practices in all newsgathering and news story presentation. Students write and organize basic news stories with skill, accuracy, and clarity and develop a disciplined use of form and style in news writing.
  • JR103 - The Digital Journalist (4 Credits)
    Covers the use of audio and visual media to tell news stories. Examines modern media, analyzes still and moving images, sound, and best web practices. Students learn how to use photography, videography, and audio to tell compelling stories. They develop and report multimedia stories in and around Boston. Image and sound manipulation and other ethical challenges in the digital age are discussed.
  • JR202 - Beat Reporting Across Media (4 Credits)
    Students learn to cover a geographic or community beat, developing and producing stories in text, audio, and video about a community in Boston. Lectures emphasize the role and function of major institutions in public life, from courts to city hall to Congress; basic public records and research; interviewing; and story origination. Students are assigned to a neighborhood beat and must develop stories in specific areas of civic life, from public safety to demographics change and its impact on community.
  • JR211 - Law for Journalists (2 Credits)
    Examines the American legal system and its relationship to the press. Students gain an understanding of journalists' rights and legal responsibilities and study case law that sets legal limits for journalists. Examines ethical decision-making in gray areas. Covers basic structure and processes of federal and state courts.
    Instructor: Marc Cantor
  • JR212 - Ethics for Journalists (2 Credits)
    Considers journalists' ethical responsibilities, in relation to professional standards and legal limits. Examines ethical decision-making and current ethical questions using case studies.
    Instructor: Jerry Lanson
  • JR216 - Advanced Audio-Video Journalism (4 Credits)
    Provides intense writing for visual and audio news. Students continue to develop news judgment as it relates to video and audio. They produce and write radio newscasts and reporter packages, as well as organize a video news brief and reporter packages. Students shoot, write, and edit video and audio voiceovers and soundbites for storytelling.
  • JR220 - Interactive News (4 Credits)
    Introduces the history and theory of the news media on the Internet and web and to the reporting, writing, and designing of online news. In the first half of the semester, students analyze best practices of online news publications and write their own blogs. In the second half, they report, write, and design a multimedia website.
    Instructor: Tim Riley
  • JR221 - Photojournalism (4 Credits)
    Explores photography as a journalistic storytelling medium by teaching how to communicate news visually in a variety of situations. Develops skills such as shooting pictures on deadline, writing concise and compelling cutlines, and editing for impact. Through historical and contemporary examples, students learn about the power of photojournalism to document, inform, entertain, persuade, and provoke emotion. Examines the ethical and legal challenges of photojournalism.
  • JR240 - Sports Reporting (4 Credits)
    Provides real-world basis for sports coverage in print, broadcast, and online media. Students produce a range of stories in each media, learn the basics of sports beat reporting, learn the necessity of research and reporting for sports stories, deepen knowledge of sports as it appeals to media consumers, and learn how to compete for positions in the job market.
    Instructor: John Rooke
  • JR261 - Feature Writing (4 Credits)
    Students learn to research, organize, and write feature articles for newspapers, magazines, and online media. They develop techniques for finding and focusing stories, interviewing in-depth, improving observation, structure writing, and storytelling. Students understand the variety of feature writing approaches.
    Instructor: Mark Leccese
  • JR292 - Public Affairs Reporting (4 Credits)
    Introduces the structure and functions of state, local, and federal government from a journalist's perspective. Students report and write in-depth stories on proposed legislation, campaign finance, and current issues in government. Students also become familiar with and make use of public records and open meeting laws, learn advanced reporting skills through readings and class lectures, and review and critique each other's stories.
    Instructor: Mark Leccese
  • JR318 - TV News Producing (4 Credits)
    Students experience deadline-driven television newsroom operations by producing newscasts and rotating through newsroom jobs such as tape editor, writer, producer, anchor, reporter, and videographer. They write news scripts, edit video to tell a news story, organize and produce a newscast, coordinate video elements for a newscast, and work together as a broadcast news team.
    Instructor: Stephen Iandoli
  • JR352 - Opinion: Columns, Reviews, Editorials and Blogs (4 Credits)
    Explores the content and approach of persuasive writing styles used in reviews, editorials, columns, and blogs. Students write, produce, and publish a variety of pieces of journalism criticism.
  • JR353 - Reporting and Writing Complex Stories (4 Credits)
    Students move beyond straight news, inverted pyramid, and short features to understand longer features, narratives, analysis, profiles, investigative, and other forms of in-depth writing. They learn to look for ideas, how to organize reporting, and how to pursue the serious reporting needed for these stories, as well as how to structure a longer, complex story to produce exemplary, stand-out journalism.
  • JR354 - News Editing and Design (4 Credits)
    Students develop and practice the craft of editing: refining news copy and choosing how and where it will run in a newspaper or on a website. They learn to edit stories for content, structure, word usage, and story flow. Students write headlines and learn appropriate software needed to design pages. Explores issues of style, bias, stereotyping, fairness, and taste.
    Instructor: David Richwine
  • JR364 - Specialized Reporting (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of journalism. Topics may include politics, blogs and the media, the media and the presidency, war reporting, and impact and Pulitzer stories. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • JR365 - Topics in Cultural Afairs (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of culture, arts, entertainment, or sports. Topics may include music journalism, food/fashion reporting, or performing arts reporting. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Cindy Rodriguez
  • JR366 - Topics in Science, Technology, and Health (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of science, health, or technology. Topics may include environmental journalism, science reporting, health and medical reporting, or reporting on new technologies. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Doug Struck
  • JR367 - Top in Business/Consumer News (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of reporting on business, the economy, or consumer topics. Topics may include business reporting or consumer news/reporting. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • JR368 - Topics in Advanced Multimedia (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of advanced multimedia. Courses focus on producing journalism across media or the web. Topics may include investigative journalism, telling narrative or complex stories across platforms, computer-assisted reporting or multimedia editing, web design, and production. May be repeated for credit if topics differ. Students are encouraged to have completed JR 220 prior to enrolling in this class.
  • JR419 - ENG/TV News Reporting (4 Credits)
    Students work in the field to research, shoot, write, and edit video news stories. They develop reporting and interviewing skills, visual acuity, writing for the eye and ear, and general TV performance abilities. Students also learn and utilize the technical aspects of video shooting and editing.
  • JR450 - Metro News Service: Collaborative Project (4 Credits)
    Students cover local news stories and a local news beat to produce on-deadline stories in all media, to be published in collaboration with the Our Town sections of the Boston Globe, a city news bureau, or some other college-professional collaboration.
    Instructor: Mark Leccese
  • JR482 - Berkeley Beacon Management (4 Credits)
    Available only to students appointed to top editorial positions at The Berkeley Beacon newspaper. Does not apply to the Journalism major. Assignments include journal writing, critiques of the paper, and discussions of problems in management.
  • JR485 - Journalism Topics (4 Credits)
    Develop background knowledge, understanding, and expertise in a specialized area of journalism. Topics vary from semester and year and explore various aspects of journalism theory and practice. This is reserved for courses being introduced on a one-time or developmental basis.
    Instructors: Paul Niwa, Maria Stenzel
  • JR490 - Online Publishing Capstone (4 Credits)
    Students create a series of multimedia stories for a personal portfolio of online journalistic work. They use advanced tools for creating interactive stories to produce immersive journalistic stories. Text, video, audio, and photos are used to produce journalistic stories that are difficult to tell in print or broadcast alone.
  • JR491 - Broadcast Jour Capstone (4 Credits)
    Refines and further develops ENG or producing skills at an advanced level with the goal of putting together a professional portfolio by semester's end. In addition to completing a body of work, students are expected to engage in in-depth research and critical analysis.
  • JR492 - Deep Reporting Capstone (4 Credits)
    In this project-based course, students pitch, research, report, write, and revise a single long-form story or a series. Work might range from long-form narrative magazine articles or mini-documentaries to multiple-part series on a topic of public importance.
    Instructor: Kevin Rothstein
  • JR493 - Backpack Journalist Capstone (4 Credits)
    Students carry out a project from start to finish, learning skills of self-employment, multimedia, marketing, self-editing, and pitching stories. They learn the basics of budgets, taxes, benefit, and legal implications of freelance and sole-proprietor journalism. Students learn about the risks and benefits of practicing journalism without the shelter, and restrictions, of a newsroom. They discover how to juggle technology, reporting, and entrepreneurial skills.
  • JR495 - Multimedia Jour Capstone (4 Credits)
    Students learn to produce all facets of the Journalism Students' Online News Service (JSONS). They use the city and the College as a news laboratory to write news in text form and produce audio and video news stories. They also work as editors to process the news for the daily news site. Students work individually and in teams, utilizing state-of-the-art Internet-ready equipment to produce journalism in a "newsroom without walls" environment.
  • JR555 - Reporting Issues of Diversity (4 Credits)
    Develops the knowledge and critical thinking skills needed to function and thrive as a journalist in America's culturally diverse society. Analyzes media coverage of a wide spectrum of underrepresented groups, and challenges personal and societal stereotypes. Students learn from guest speakers, readings, and videos about the realities of different groups as well as the job of journalists trying to cover them.
    Instructor: Carole Simpson
  • JR561 - TV News Magazine & Documentary (4 Credits)
    Takes a behind-the-scenes look at TV news magazines and documentaries with a focus on research, reporting, and production techniques. Explores how to put together longer-form stories from the initial pitch to the final product. Examines the importance of character development and dramatic storytelling. Covers effective management practices from controlling budgets to directing personnel.
    Instructor: Marianna Edmunds
  • JR562 - The Magazine (4 Credits)
    Students learn about the magazine as a journalistic form. They originate, research, and write articles and, if suitable, attempt to market them to professional outlets. Students critique the magazine industry, from analyzing editorial decisions to understanding the importance of niche and audience.
  • JR570 - Global Journalism (4 Credits)
    Students learn about the mass media in other countries. What are they like? What are their differing philosophies? How do their practices differ? Examines concepts of press freedom, media conglomeration and globalization, and the use and impact of new media technologies. Students go online to communicate with other journalists around the world and to monitor international news and issues.
  • JR574 - The Press and Propaganda (4 Credits)
    Examines the history of propaganda and its relationship to journalism. Looks at propaganda during war, in political campaigns, and in coverage of business and entertainment.
  • JR585 - Journalism Topics (4 Credits)
    Develops background knowledge and expertise in a specialized area of journalism. Topics vary from semester and year and explore various aspects of journalism theory and practice. Course category is reserved for courses being introduced on a one-time or developmental basis. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Ebony Reed
  • JR590 - Online Publishing (4 Credits)
    Create a series of multimedia stories for a personal portfolio of online journalistic work. Learn advanced tools for creating interactive stories to produce immersive journalistic stories. Use text, video, audio, and photos to produce journalistic stories that are difficult to tell in print or broadcast alone.
    Instructor: Paul Niwa
  • JR591 - Broadcast Journalism Practicum (4 Credits)
    Refine and further develop ENG or producing skills at an advanced level with the goal of putting together a professional portfolio by semester's end. In addition to completing a body of work, students are expected to engage in in-depth research and critical analysis.
  • JR600 - Writing, Reporting Across the Media (8 Credits)
    Students develop fundamental reporting and writing skills to cover and produce stories for a variety of news media. They craft news reports that are tightly written, sharply focused, and manageable in scope for any type of journalistic writing. They also learn research and interviewing skills to infuse news stories with a voice of authority provided through sound, accurate information. Students develop a sense of news judgment and an ability to produce stories quickly, efficiently, and accurately in print, broadcast, or online. They participate in a weekly lab to understand a range of tools for multimedia storytelling.
  • JR601 - News and Society (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the history and principles of journalism. Traces the roots of journalism back to Gutenberg, the colonies, industrialization, and follows the history of journalism up to today's new media. Students view critically the political, economic, social, legal, and ethical dimensions of the mass news media, and develop the context from which to view the profession, its standards, and its practices.
  • JR606 - News Theory and Research Methods (4 Credits)
    Reviews communication theories used in the analysis of news dissemination processes and the performance and role of journalists in a contemporary society. Reviews the qualitative and quantitative research methodologies used to assess media and media messages as well as their impact on news consumers.
    Instructor: Melinda Robins
  • JR608 - Interactive News (4 Credits)
    Students understand and learn reporting, writing, and producing online news. They explore, evaluate, and analyze "best practices" of online news publications, online technologies, and their use in digital storytelling and delivery of breaking news. Students configure and maintain a blog to critique news sites and learn to work in a team or individual environment to produce basic multimedia stories.
  • JR610 - Advanced Print/Multimedia Reporting (4 Credits)
    Students cover a geographic beat in the city of Boston, developing, reporting, and writing stories for community newspapers and Emerson's Journalism Students' Online News Service. Class time is spent critiquing student work, discussing reporting and writing techniques, and reporting and writing stories in the city on deadline.
    Instructor: Jerry Lanson
  • JR611 - TV News Producing (4 Credits)
    Students gain real-time experience of working in a television news operation by putting together a newscast in each class and rotating through newsroom jobs such as tape editor, writer, producer, anchor, reporter, and videographer. They write news scripts, edit video to tell a story, organize a newscast, and coordinate elements for effective storytelling. Students learn to work together as a broadcast news team.
    Instructor: Shannan Adler
  • JR613 - ENG/TV Reporting (4 Credits)
    Students work in the field to research, shoot, write, and edit television news stories. They develop reporting and interviewing skills, visual acuity, writing for the eye and ear, and general TV performance abilities. They also learn the technical aspects of television news shooting and editing.
  • JR615 - Law for Journalists (2 Credits)
    Examines the American legal system and its relationship to the press. Students gain an understanding of journalists' rights and legal responsibilities and study case law that sets legal limits for journalists. They examine legal decision-making in gray areas. They study the basic structure and processes of federal and state courts and earn how to conduct research within the legal system.
  • JR616 - Ethics for Journalists (2 Credits)
    Students gain an understanding of journalists' ethical responsibilities, in relation to professional standards and legal limits. They examine ethical decision-making and current ethical questions using case studies.
  • JR640 - News Editing and Page Design (4 Credits)
    Students develop and practice the craft of editing: refining news copy and choosing how and where it will run in a newspaper or on a website. They learn to edit stories for content, structure, word usage, and story flow. Students write headlines and learn appropriate software needed to design pages. They explore issues of style, bias, stereotyping, fairness, and taste.
    Instructor: Joseph Pereira
  • JR660 - Feature Writing (4 Credits)
    Students research, organize, write, and market feature articles for publication in newspapers and magazines. They learn techniques for finding and focusing stories, interviewing in-depth, observation, and storytelling. Students analyze and apply a variety of approaches, from the personal essay to the dramatic narrative.
  • JR664 - Specialized Reporting (4 Credits)
    Print and broadcast students enroll in a variety of specialized and beat-reporting classes such as sports reporting, investigative reporting, cultural affairs reporting, science and health reporting, political reporting, and business reporting.
    Instructor: Paul Niwa
  • JR693 - Cross-Media Journalism Capstone (4 Credits)
    Students produce individual and group cross-media projects that demonstrate ability to do professional work in reporting, writing, editing, and producing. They produce a reporting project using some combination of print, broadcast, and online elements. They also report and produce news stories that demonstrate competency in an area of specialization in print, broadcast and/or online journalism.
    Instructor: Janet Kolodzy
  • JR694 - Journalism Topics (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of journalism theory and practice, developing background knowledge and expertise in a specialized area of journalism. Topics vary from semester and year. This course category is reserved for courses being introduced on a one-time or developmental basis.
  • LF101 - Elementary French 1 (4 Credits)
    Stresses mastery of essential vocabulary and primary grammatical structures through a situational approach. Students perceive that language is "living" and they discover by the third week of the semester that they can already communicate in French. Class time is devoted to interactive practice. Conversational skills, pronunciation, and understanding are verified through regular oral exams.
  • LF102 - Elementary French 2 (4 Credits)
    Continuation of LF 101, this course also incorporates reading skills and exposes students to a wider range of cultural materials.
    Instructor: Pierre Hurel
  • LI120 - Introduction to Literary Studies (4 Credits)
    Gives students intensive practice in literary analysis, critical writing, and related research. In discussing primary texts, considerable attention is given to elements of the different genres (e.g., narrative point of view, narrative structure, metrical and free verse), as well as to issues relevant across literary genres (e.g., form and content, voice, contexts, tone). Readings are chosen from the following genres: poetry, drama, narrative modes, and also include selected literary criticism.
    Instructors: Jessica Cole, Robin Fast, Christopher Hennessy, Daniela Kukrechtova
  • LI201 - Literary Foundations (4 Credits)
    Surveys foundational works of Western literature in poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and drama in order to familiarize students with literary history as well as the history of our ideas of love, duty, the afterlife, virtue, and vice. Authors studied may include Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Boccaccio, the Beowulf poet, and Chaucer.
  • LI202 - American Literature (4 Credits)
    Introduces representative works of American literature in several genres from the colonial period to the modern by writers such as Bradstreet, Franklin, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Douglass, Melville, Dickinson, Whitman, Chopin, Twain, Crane, Hurston, Faulkner, Williams, and Moore.
  • LI203 - British Literature (4 Credits)
    Historical overview of several genres of British literature from the Renaissance to the 20th century, focusing on writers such as More, Spenser, Milton, Defoe, Bronte, Eliot, Joyce, and Beckett.
  • LI204 - Topics in Literature (4 Credits)
    Courses focus on specific themes or topics, such as literature of the city, artists in literature, or coming of age. All topics include literature in at least three genres (selected from poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama).
  • LI208 - US Multicultural Literatures (4 Credits)
    Introduces poetry, fiction, and other genres produced in the multicultural U.S.A. Explores ways writers from disparate communities use various literary forms to articulate resistance, community, and citizenship. Literary texts are situated in their historical contexts and examine the writing strategies of each author. Also includes essays, journalism, and films to learn how diverse cultural texts work to represent America.
    Instructors: Michelle Graham, Christopher Hennessy, Daniela Kukrechtova
  • LI209 - Topics in US Multicultural Literature (4 Credits)
    Courses focus on literature produced by historically oppressed peoples in the United States and on specific themes or topics, such as slavery and freedom, American Indian multi-genre life-stories, or border identities. All topics include the study of literature in at least three genres (selected from poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama). May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • LI210 - American Women Writers (4 Credits)
    Examines fiction, poetry, and other genres by 19th- and 20th-century American women such as Jacobs, Dickinson, Chopin, Kingston, Welty, Rich, and Morrison.
  • LI211 - Topics in Global Literature (4 Credits)
    Courses focus on literature produced outside the United States in locations affected by imperial expansion. Specific themes or topics might include Literatures of the Asian Diaspora, Latin American Literature and Cinema, or Literature of Europe's Borders. All topics include literature in at least three genres (selected from poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama). May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • LI303 - The Art of Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Examines a broad range of literary nonfiction works, present and past, paying particular attention to the craft within the nonfiction work but identifying relationships and similarities that literary nonfiction has with the novel and short story. Includes readings from such diverse forms as historical narrative, adventure travel and survival, memoir and the creative nonfiction essay, and other forms of factual writing artfully constructed.
    Instructor: Anthony D'Aries
  • LI305 - Modern Poetry and After (4 Credits)
    Explores modern and postmodern traditions of poetry in the works of such 20th-century poets as Eliot, Stevens, Auden, Moore, Lowell, Bishop, Plath, Larkin, Rich, Ashbery, and, in translation, Neruda, Rilke, Herbert, Kazuk, and Tsvetaeva.
    Instructor: Christine Casson
  • LI306 - Literatures of Continental Europe (4 Credits)
    Explores seminal works in the European literary tradition, with a particular focus on close reading, textual and rhetorical analysis, and aesthetic criticism. The course may include works by Montaigne, Rousseau, Flaubert, Holderlin, Novalis, Heine, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Proust, Rilke, Kafka, Borges, Bachmann, and Bernhard. Students write short responses to each work and discuss their ideas in class.
    Instructor: Yu-jin Chang
  • LI307 - The Art of Poetry (4 Credits)
    Through reading and discussion of poems from different historical periods, students learn the technical aspects of poetry (such as meter, rhyme, and structure) and how poets use these techniques to create meanings and effects, giving students a critical vocabulary for reading and practicing poetry. For students who want to enhance their ability to discuss and write about poetry by learning the essentials of the poet's art.
  • LI308 - The Art of Fiction (4 Credits)
    Explores a broad range of short stories and novels by American and international authors. Teaches students to look at fiction from the perspective of the writer's craft, and emphasizes such elements as structure, narrative, characterization, dialogue, and the differences between shorter and longer forms. Students gain an appreciation of the fiction writer's craft and an enhanced sense of the drama inherent in effective storytelling.
  • LI313 - Novel into Film (4 Credits)
    Studies the adaptation of novels into films, and the narrative conventions that govern each medium. Texts include the works of such writers as Kesey, Burgess, Kundera, Walker, Nabokov, and Puig; films include the work of directors such as Kubrick, Forman, Spielberg, and Babenco.
  • LI323 - The American Short Story (4 Credits)
    Acquaints students with the changing thematic and stylistic concerns of the American short story and develops students' critical writing and reading skills. May include authors such as Chopin, Poe, Parker, Hemingway, Faulkner, Stafford, Bambara, Paley, Ford, Oates, and Updike.
  • LI339 - British Novel 1 (4 Credits)
    Engages in social and cultural analysis of the "rise" of the novel in England with representative works from the Restoration (1660) through the end of the 19th century. May include authors such as Behn, Defoe, Sterne, Richardson, Austen, Bronte, Shelley, Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy.
  • LI340 - British Novel 2 (4 Credits)
    Studies representative works of 20th-century British fiction. May cover Modernist authors from the first half of the century such as Forster, Joyce, Ford, Lawrence, Woolf, Waugh, O'Brien, Durrell, Greene, Beckett, Lessing, Murdoch, Golding, and Fowles as well as more contemporary writers from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland such as McEwan, Barnes, Amis, Crace, Kelman, and Carter.
    Instructor: William Donoghue
  • LI361 - Native American Literature (4 Credits)
    Studies works in several genres, including consideration of how traditional myth, story, and ritual contribute to contemporary fiction and poetry, and how the literature reflects and responds to historical and contemporary conditions. May include such authors as Silko, Momaday, Ortiz, Harjo, and Erdrich.
    Instructor: Robin Fast
  • LI371 - Shakespearean Tragedy (4 Credits)
    Carefully examines selected tragedies from Romeo and Juliet to Antony and Cleopatra, emphasizing the development of the tragic form.
  • LI372 - Shakespearean Comedy (4 Credits)
    Detailed study of selected comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to The Winter's Tale, emphasizing Shakespeare's development of the comic form.
    Instructor: DeWitt Henry
  • LI381 - Global Literatures (4 Credits)
    Surveys contemporary world literature written in English by writers from such places as India, Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
  • LI382 - African-American Literature (4 Credits)
    Surveys African American literature (prose, poetry, and drama) from Olaudah Equiano through Toni Morrison and examines African American literature as part of the field of Diaspora studies. Also explores connections between African American and Caribbean American literatures conceived as literatures of the African Diaspora.
  • LI385 - American Drama (4 Credits)
    Explores the development of American drama in the 20th century from O'Neill, Williams, and Miller to contemporary writers such as Shepard, Mamet, Rabe, and Henley.
  • LI393 - American Novel 1 (4 Credits)
    Studies representative American novels written before the 20th century, including works by such authors as Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Twain, Chopin, Wharton, and James
  • LI394 - American Novel 2 (4 Credits)
    Studies representative works of 20th-century American fiction. May cover authors from the first half of the century such as Anderson, Cather, Faulkner, James, Hemingway, Dreiser, Wright, Ellison, and Bellow as well as more contemporary writers such as Roth, Coover, Nabokov, Morrison, DeLillo, Burroughs, Momaday, and Silko.
    Instructor: William Donoghue
  • LI396 - International Women Writers (4 Credits)
    Explores works by contemporary international women writers within their social and political contexts. Readings include work by such writers as Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, Mawal El Saadawi, Bessie Head, Luisa Valenzuela, and others.
    Instructor: Maria Koundoura
  • LI401 - Topics in Poetry (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in the study of prominent and emerging poets and schools of poetry. Emphasis on exploring the intersection between individual technique and aesthetic traditions, from the formal to the avant-garde to culturally and politically conscious expressions of the art. The course is principally concerned with poets writing in the English language, though important figures from other language traditions may be read in translation. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Peter Shippy
  • LI410 - British Romanticism (4 Credits)
    Introduces one of the most significant and revolutionary periods in British literature. Writers such as William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Blake dominated the literary landscape, and their poetry and prose captured this remarkable period of history. This course considers such writers as these in their historical and aesthetic context, and pays particular attention to the ways in which the legacies of the Romantics survive and inform even contemporary modes of literature.
  • LI411 - Topics in European Literature (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in European Literature may include such topics as the Romantic Age, Russian Short Fiction, Absurd and Avant-Garde Theater, and the 19th century-European Novel, or topics related to special interests and expertise of the faculty. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Yu-jin Chang
  • LI413 - The Forms of Poetry: Theory and Practice (4 Credits)
    Students study forms of poetry as used by historical and contemporary poets, and then write original poems in those forms (such as the sonnet, villanelle, haiku, sestina, syllabic, and renga), and genre forms (such as Surrealist, Expressionist, Anti-poem, Open Field, and Language poetry).
  • LI421 - Topics in American Literature (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in American Literature that concentrate on the study of particular authors, genres, or themes, or on topics related to the special interests and expertise of the faculty. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • LI423 - Topics in Global Literature (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in Global Literature that include such topics as Latin American Short Fiction, Postcolonial Literature, and the Hispanic Caribbean, or on topics related to the special interests and expertise of the faculty.
  • LI436 - Cultural Criticism (4 Credits)
    Surveys the dominant theoretical approaches to the study of culture. The course traces their main arguments and helps students develop a sense of what it means to be a producer and a consumer of culture today.
  • LI481 - Topics in African-American Literature (4 Credits)
    Studies traditions of African American literature, such as the Harlem Renaissance, Depression Poets and Novelists, or Neo-slave Narratives. Courses may focus on Political Plays of the Sixties, The Blues as Poetry, Spirituals and Jazz as Literature, and include such authors as Wright, Petry, Baraka, Himes, Naylor, and Smith. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Wendy W. Walters
  • LI482 - Topics in Fiction (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in the novel, novella, and other modes of short fiction from various periods. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Kevin Miller
  • LI487 - Topics in Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in autobiography, biography, travel writing, nature writing, and other belletristic work from various periods. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • LI523 - Topics in Literature (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in Literature. Offered in Summers only.
  • LI526 - Topics in American Literature: LA Stories (4 Credits)
    Los Angeles has inspired writers and communicators like few other cities. This course will explore a variety of narrative representations of Los Angeles across different media and genres and will offer students a chance to create and workshop their own L.A. stories - be it in fiction, the essay, literary journalism, or their video equivalents. By reading or viewing and then discussing the works of Nathaniel West, Joan Didion, Roman Polanski, and many others, students will develop not only a deeper knowledge of the city in which they now find themselves, but will also learn about the creative processes and the themes and theses through which L.A. has come to be most widely understood. Offered by the Los Angeles Program only.
  • LI612 - Topics in Poetry (4 Credits)
    Intensive study of poetry, which may focus on an individual poet, a small group of poets, or a school of poetry, and/or may be defined by a single form, theme, region, or period. Topics have included Bishop and Lowell, American Narrative Poetry, Dickinson and Whitman, modern and contemporary Eastern European Poets, and Visionary Poetry.
    Instructors: , Peter Shippy
  • LI615 - Topics in Multiple Genres and Hybrid Forms (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in topics that range over two or more genres, and/or focus on combining generic forms. Topics have included The Harlem Renaissance, Native American Literature, Writing on War in the 20th Century, Literature and Violence, The Writer in the Archive, and Hybrid Forms in Literature.
    Instructors: Roy Kamada, Pablo Medina
  • LI616 - Topics in Drama (4 Credits)
    Various offerings in drama including such areas as Contemporary European Theatre, Contemporary British Drama, Contemporary American Drama, World Drama, Women's Drama, The Absurd and the Avant-Garde, and Drama Criticism.
  • LI617 - Poetry and Poetics (4 Credits)
    Historical survey that looks at influential writings by poets on the art of poetry. Course considers how their ideas and arguments have helped shape key aesthetic movements in English and American poetry. Additional writings by important critics and philosophers may supplement the course texts.
  • LI625 - Topics in Fiction (4 Credits)
    Course focusing on fictional narrative. Depending on the instructor, the class may examine texts defined by geography, chronology, culture, and genre. Possible topics of discussion include such issues as craft, theory, mechanics, form, aesthetics, literary movements, and themes. Topics have included Latin American Short Fiction, Diaspora Novelists Between History and Memory, Alienation and the Modern European Novel, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, and Novel into Film.
    Instructor: Steve Yarbrough
  • LI636 - Literary Theory and Criticism (4 Credits)
    Survey of the dominant theoretical and critical approaches to the study of literature. Working with the genealogical model, the course traces the main arguments found in these approaches and develops a sense of what it means to consume and produce literature today.
    Instructor: Maria Koundoura
  • LI637 - Construction of Taste (4 Credits)
    Course explores the problem of aesthetic judgment and the relation between aesthetics, ethics, and politics. Through a series of readings across periods (from the 18th century to today) and across disciplines (from philosophy to film, to fiction, to poetry, to art), the course examines what it means to be a member of an aesthetic community, as well as how such communities shape aesthetic values and impact political responsibilities. Course will look at how taste constructs us as we construct it.
  • LI638 - Theory of the Novel (4 Credits)
    Study of the novel from a theoretical and philosophical perspective. Course might look at a particular aspect of the art of the novel, a subgenre (romance, gothic, etc.), historical period (ancient, Modernist, etc.), national tradition, or at the relationship of the novel at a particular time to movements like existentialism, postmodernism, or changes in contemporary language philosophy. Course examines primary works of literature together with theoretical texts on narrative art.
  • LI650 - Seminar in the Novel (4 Credits)
    Course examines particular narrative strategies in storytelling. Students examine such practices as multiple points of view, chronology, indirect discourse, focalization, etc., as well as historical and cultural contexts. Reading might include works by Nabokov, Proust, Woolf, Faulkner, Sterne, Bernhard, Bowles, among others.
  • LI651 - Seminar in Poetry (4 Credits)
    Analytical and critical study of a variety of poets and/or schools of poetry, modern and contemporary, that explores their approaches to craft, form, and theme, as well as their aesthetic, cultural, and historical assumptions for and about the art.
  • LI652 - Seminar in Short Fiction (4 Credits)
    Analytical and critical study of a variety of recent American short stories, mostly modern and contemporary, exploring their approaches to form, theme, and technique.
  • LI653 - Seminar in Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Course focusing on the nonfiction narrative, including memoir, personal essay, biography, travel writing, nature writing, and other nonfiction writing from various periods, with particular attention paid to issues of craft and structure, as well as historical and cultural contexts.
  • LI687 - Topics in Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in autobiography, biography, travel writing, nature writing, hybrid forms, and other nonfiction writing from various periods. Recent topics include the Twentieth Century in the First Person, Latin American Women's Autobiography, and the Literary Essay.
    Instructor: Megan Marshall
  • LM100 - Beginning Mandarin Chinese I (4 Credits)
    Introduces modern Mandarin pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and writing, using Chinese characters and Chinese pinyin system, with an emphasis on developing basic skills to read and write modern colloquial Chinese on essential topics such as greetings, dates and times, family, and shopping. The reading and writing skills are taught on the basis of fundamental grammatical patterns and vocabulary in functional contexts. About 350 characters are taught in the first semester.
  • LM102 - Beginning Mandarin Chinese 2 (4 Credits)
    Continues to introduce modern standard Chinese (Mandarin) with an emphasis on developing basic skills to speak, read, and write modern colloquial Chinese. The speaking, reading and writing skills are taught on the basis of fundamental grammatical patterns and vocabulary in functional contexts in order to help learners build communicative skills as they discuss everyday topics and learn useful sentence structures. Classes are conducted mostly in Mandarin. Work on CD or on the Internet is coordinated with class work. About 350 vocabulary items are introduced in this semester.
  • LS101 - Elementary Spanish 1 (4 Credits)
    Stresses mastery of the essential vocabulary and primary grammatical structures through a situational approach. Students perceive that language is "living" and they discover by the third week of the semester that they can already communicate in Spanish. Class time is devoted to interactive practice. Conversational skills, pronunciation, and understanding are verified through regular oral exams.
  • LS102 - Elementary Spanish 2 (4 Credits)
    Continuation of LS 101, this course also incorporates reading skills and exposes students to a wider range of cultural materials.
    Instructor: Michelle Abadia
  • MB200 - Principles of Business (4 Credits)
    Analyzes information related to business trends, strategies, opportunities, and operations and critically assess alternatives. Through lecture, discussion, case videos, and in-class assignments, students consider external and internal factors driving contemporary business decisions. Topics include: pricing, supply and demand, the management of people, processes, resources, and organization; the globalization of business; the use of information systems to support business efforts; and basic concepts of marketing, sales, business ethics, law, accounting, and finance.
    Instructor: Catherine Flanagan
  • MB300 - Marketing, Sales, and Logistics (4 Credits)
    Explores the necessity of positioning, selling, and delivering products and services to customers in a creative, cost-effective, and customer-focused manner. Through case studies, articles from the field, and in-class simulations, students work with concepts related to personal selling, differentiation and branding, customer relationship management, and distribution systems. The course provides the essentials of internal and external business communications, and student deliverables are structured accordingly.
    Instructor: Norman Martin
  • MB310 - Finance and Accounting (4 Credits)
    Students become familiar with the language of accounting and learn to create, interpret, analyze, and evaluate financial statements (e.g., balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement). Armed with this knowledge, students then use case studies and in-class exercises to analyze how managers use data presented on financial statements to make decisions about budgeting, cost allocation, and overall company performance.
    Instructor: Stanley Miller
  • MB371 - Topics in Business Studies (4 Credits)
    Various topics offering opportunities to examine contemporary and historic business issues, trends and events across the spectrum of business and entrepreneurial studies.
  • MB400 - Business Policy and Strategy (4 Credits)
    Serves as the Business minor's capstone course by introducing new levels of complexity to broad concepts learned in previous classes. Uses case studies, trade articles, and time-honored academic frameworks, as well as in-class lectures, group exercises, and discussions to challenge students to apply how legal frameworks, business and government regulations, organizational structures, diverse workforces, and customer and stakeholder expectations influence the way contemporary companies conduct business.
    Instructor: Frederic Chartier
  • MB472 - Entrepreneurship I (8 Credits)
    Introduces and immerses students in the process of creating and launching a new venture. Students learn the history and process of entrepreneurship as they explore creative problem solving, innovative thinking, and ethics. Relevant marketing and public relations strategies are presented in addition to basic financial, business, and human resource issues. Experts in the business world provide additional mentoring and practical knowledge.
  • MB473 - Entrepreneurship II (8 Credits)
    Provides an advanced immersion in the process of creating and launching a new venture. Students learn about business planning, marketing research, sales and marketing, legal issues, negotiation practices, and business conduct and further develop public speaking and interpersonal communication skills relevant to starting and managing a business. Students prepare for the business competition at the annual E3 Exposition. Students have the opportunity to learn from experts in the business world.
    Instructor: Karl Baehr
  • MK120 - Communication, Media, and Society (4 Credits)
    Introduces communication theory and the fundamental relationships that exist between communication systems and society. Emphasis is placed on the social, political, and economic context in which marketing communication emerged and evolved, and the role it plays in maintaining, expanding, and articulating our way of life. Majors are required to complete this in the first year.
    Instructor: Paul Mihailidis
  • MK121 - Marketing and Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    Explores the key types and core functions of contemporary organizations and the multiple roles marketing plays among them. Marketing's 5Ps and the "marketing mix" are examined in depth so as to understand the context in which marketing communication is practiced. Cases are introduced to acquaint students with the notion and essential elements of "strategy."
  • MK220 - Understanding Consumers (4 Credits)
    Examines people in the context of their role as contemporary consumers. Surveys theories of consumer decisionmaking and behavior and the dominant approaches used to understand consumers today. Emphasis is placed on the role and application of understanding consumers in marketing communications campaign strategy, planning and management.
    Instructor: Paul Hackett
  • MK221 - Messages, Media & Channels (4 Credits)
    Provides a comprehensive overview of modern media and how they are utilized for messaging in marketing communications. Media are treated at the channel (newspaper, radio, TV, magazine, web, Facebook, etc.) and practice area (non-paid PR, mass paid advertising, direct and digital) levels. Attention is also devoted to how the various media aggregate audiences and finance themselves, as well as recent changes in the ways they are purchased for use by marketing communicators.
  • MK222 - Brands, Organizations and Strategies (4 Credits)
    Establishes the notion of the brand and brand platform as the central organizing principle of contemporary marketing communications. Examines how the brand platform operates at the corporate and product, agency and campaign, and customer journey levels. Introduces the different types and dimensions of strategies used by the various players in marketing communications to link targets, media and messages in service to the brand.
  • MK332 - Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods (4 Credits)
    Introduces the scientific method and the processes of primary quantitative and qualitative research in marketing communications. Marketing problems are identified, research objectives formulated, research design determined, questionnaires developed, sampling methods designed, data analyzed and interpreted. The various uses of research in targeting, positioning, product decision-making, messaging, and media utilization are demonstrated.
    Instructor: Seounmi Han Youn
  • MK333 - Ethnographic Methods & Cult An (4 Credits)
    Explores the tools and techniques of ethnography and their uses in defining and solving marketing research problems. Drawing from the traditions of participant observation in the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, and market research, the course applies ethnographic methods to the analysis of subcultures and behavioral minorities as well as transnational marketing communication. The focus throughout is on how to fathom the cultural differences that inform and impact consumer decision-making and marketing communication campaigns.
    Instructor: Paul Hackett
  • MK334 - Online Behavior & Web Analytics (4 Credits)
    Introduces the proliferating services and tools available to capture, measure and assess online behavior, information-gathering, decision-making, shopping patterns, and social groupings. Among these, emphasis will be placed on developing the skillful use of Google Analytics as it can be applied to optimize digital marketing communications efforts and initiatives.
    Instructor: Paul Pereira
  • MK335 - Marketing Performance Measurement and Dashboards (4 Credits)
    Explores ways to measure the performance of integrated campaigns within and across segments, channels, and platforms to inform decisions about where to spend "the next marketing dollar." The use of different software applications and database providers are introduced, and students become acquainted with marketing dashboards as these both facilitate decision-making and promote the marketing function in organizations.
  • MK342 - Breakthrough Thinking and Marketing Communications (4 Credits)
    Explores the nature of creative and critical thinking, as well as the increasing importance of creative problem solving in the context of organizations, product development, and marketing communications. Students practice critical thinking skills with written and visual communication materials. Creative thinking skills, methods, and processes are then used to think differently about original and innovative solutions to various organizational, product, and communication challenges.
  • MK343 - Global Brand Strategies and Portfolio Management (4 Credits)
    Examines how the notion of the brand can be taken to scale. Explores the uses of different types of brand architectures by different types of organizations as they grow and expand internationally. Considers the values of the brand to the conglomerate organization as it manages its portfolios of companies, products, and customer segments. Heavy use is made of case analysis.
    Instructor: Anthony Lowrie
  • MK344 - Marketing and Sales, Distribution and Service Relationships (4 Credits)
    Analyzes and addresses how to advance the critical customer-facing relationships within an organization between marketing and the sales force, distribution networks, and customer service. Discusses the different types of arrangements that prevail among these functions in b-b and b-c organizations, and in large and small organizations. Special attention is devoted to customer service policies and to the provision of teleservices.
  • MK345 - Organizations & Brands Online (4 Credits)
    Examines the enduring elements of online presence required of companies and brands today: website(s), search profile, e-commerce capabilities, and e-crm. How are these driven by bricks-and-mortar identities established previously; what opportunities and requirements do they generate; how do they function to establish frameworks for digital marketing communications campaign activities?
    Instructor: James Moore
  • MK346 - The Corporate Communications Function and Social Responsibility (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the scope and tasks of the communications function in large organizations. These include the intersection with sales, establishing and maintaining the corporate identity, customer intelligence and advocacy, executive coaching, and constituency relations -- carrying, or supporting, all the outward-facing activities of the organization. Often, the chief communications officer also works to align the organization with broader social trends. The leading contemporary example of this is the Social Responsibility movement, which will be analyzed in detail.
    Instructor: Carol Yelverton
  • MK347 - Managing Marketing Investments (4 Credits)
    Addresses three critical points of intersection between finance and marketing communications: how to define and communicate marketing budgets to senior executives inside the organization, how to strategically deploy budgets against goals and targets on behalf of the organization, and how to plan, manage, and optimize media spend outside the organization. Issues such as aligning marketing needs with the larger mission of the organization, buy vs. build, and sourcing and managing external capabilities also are considered.
  • MK352 - Creative Concepts and Storytelling (4 Credits)
    Focuses on "the message" in marketing communications, as both the distinctive idea conveyed in a campaign and the many forms in which it is expressed. Advertising copywriting for broadcast and print is practiced, as is writing for blogs and long-form digital formats. Developing and growing stories, and provoking user-generated content to engage consumers across media platforms, is considered as well.
    Instructor: Peter Seronick
  • MK353 - Visual Literacy (4 Credits)
    Explores the importance and meaning of visuals in business and marketing communications, from the choice of typeface and layout to the use of images, color, symbols, style, and art direction. The application of these and related elements in logos, print, broadcast, and digital media campaigns are considered. Also discusses the mechanisms companies use to maintain consistent visual identities in their persuasive messaging, and the resources available when they consider changing their visual portrayals.
  • MK354 - Writing for Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    A survey and workshop that takes up the many forms of writing practiced in public relations. These include news releases and media kits, editorials and newsletters, brochures, white papers, stockholder and employee communications. The notions of voice and personality as well as consistency and style are emphasized.
    Instructor: Yeonsoo Im
  • MK355 - Sales Promotion and Events Management (4 Credits)
    Addresses the uses, value, and mechanics of special offers and non-recurring events in commercial and nonprofit marketing communication. Trade promotions like price and volume discounting, feature and coop advertising, and in-store displays are covered, as are consumer tactics like coupons, memberships, giveaways, and value-added offers. So too are trade shows and placed-based gatherings. Considers both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications.
    Instructor: Jeffrey Myers
  • MK356 - Media Relations (4 Credits)
    Exposes students to a broad range of media management concepts and practices including basic marketing and management communication documents, sources, interviews, spin, crisis communication, ethics, international media relations, interactive media strategies, and analyses of current media-related issues.
  • MK357 - Media Planning and the Customer Journey (4 Credits)
    Focuses on how channels are used in marketing communications to connect audiences with messages. The tools of media research and audience analysis are explained to inform construction of media plans, as are the skills of buying and negotiation that guide implementation of plans. The concept of "customer journeys" is introduced; it is coming to be used by the large media firms created by marketing services holding companies to guide the integrated media plans they provide.
  • MK358 - Social Media: Connectivity, Interactivity, Buzz (4 Credits)
    Social media have captured the imagination of the millennial generation, marketers, Hollywood, and now Wall Street since they emerged several years ago. This course focuses on the strategic uses of Facebook, Twitter, and the Next New Thing. It also considers how the connectivity and interactivity social media represent alter traditional concepts like "companies," "customers," "shopping, buying, and selling," what effect this has had on the strategic marcomm landscape, and why revolutions in communication often turn out to be evolutionary instead.
  • MK359 - Data-driven Acquisition and Retention Marketing (4 Credits)
    Develops an operating understanding of the rudiments of database marketing and its evolution from direct mail to customer relationship management. The roles of lists, data operations management, testing, and modeling are examined, as well as the importance of "business rules," "customer permissions," "closed loop systems" and marketing technology. The economics of loyalty marketing are explored and related to ideas about "the brand."
  • MK401 - Strategic and Creative Planning for IMC (4 Credits)
    Shows how marketing, advertising, and public relations work together in an integrated communication campaign. Examines issues in managing campaigns, with an emphasis on how strategy guides other decisions in integrated plans. Attention given to creative concepts and strategy as part of communication planning. Practical experience is gained by developing objectives, strategies and tactics through the use of cases, exercises, and conceptual readings.
  • MK404 - Campaign Planning (4 Credits)
    Provides a unique and challenging opportunity to develop and execute integrated marketing communication strategies for an existing client, organization, and/or brand. The spring semester course is designed around the American Advertising Federation's annual competition.
  • MK432 - Database and Customer Base Analysis (4 Credits)
    Acquaints students with why, how, and from where to gather, analyze, and apply data relevant to the marketing communications decision-making process. Examines a variety of secondary databases used by practitioners to understand industries, sales, market share, trends and consumer profiles. Particular attention is paid to segmentation applications, and to the use of tools and techniques to extract insights from an organization's own customer information to combine with secondary data to develop deeper, proprietary insights.
  • MK433 - Advances in Understanding Decision-Making and Consumer Behavior (4 Credits)
    Explores advanced concepts and emerging theories in consumer decision-making and behavior, such as network effects and behavioral economics, and includes investigation of the techniques available to support them. The concepts, theories, and techniques considered are assessed in the context of their potential contribution to both marketing science and their practical applications in the marketplace.
    Instructor: Thomas Tominac
  • MK442 - Sector Application: Healthcare Marketing (4 Credits)
    Healthcare represents a challenging frontier for marketers: instead of manufacturers/sellers and buyers/payers, "solutions" are prescribed by doctors, provided by hospitals and pharmacies, paid for by insurance companies, to patients who often spend more to stay healthy than to get well. And the government has just changed the rules of the entire game! This course addresses how healthcare providers, payers, and consumers are, and are not, turning to marketing as they negotiate the changes in this vital sector.
  • MK443 - Sector Application: Entertainment Marketing (4 Credits)
    Contemporary entertainment industries present special circumstances and opportunities for marketers because they are organized around "properties" that provide differential returns-on-investment for various "media expressions" across orchestrated channels over extended periods of time. This course covers recent developments in major arenas like movies, cable, games, theater, and sports, taking up issues that cut across all of them, like intellectual property, licensing, personal branding, and the life cycle of blockbusters.
    Instructor: Kristin Lieb
  • MK452 - Emerging Concepts and Options in Digital MarComm Campaigns (4 Credits)
    Marketing increasingly relies on new technologies and concepts to generate excitement and competitive advantage for products and services. This course focuses on the strategic uses and development of concepts and prototypes for branded applications, experiences, and toolsets that can be delivered via new platforms, from smartphones to iPads, 3D to geo-locator devices. Students learn about human interface and navigation design, information architecture, and the roles of prototype development and project management.
  • MK453 - Advanced Campaign Planning (4 Credits)
    Concentrates on issues in bringing together advertising and public relations, direct and web marketing into an efficient, effective integrated campaign plan. Emphasizes the key roles of prospect analysis, creative messaging, channel orchestration, and customer and resource management in forming the strategy that drives the marketing communications plan.
  • MK471 - Topics in Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    Offers opportunities to examine cutting edge issues in marketing communications. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • MK480 - Capstone: The Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign (4 Credits)
    Provides a culminating, integrative experience for majors. Students are organized into teams and challenged to develop and execute a complete integrated marketing communications strategy and campaign plan for an existing client, organization, and/or brand. The work is presented both live and in writing, as it would be in a commercial context. The spring semester course is designed around the annual competition of the American Advertising Federation, in which a team of Emerson majors has traditionally played a significant role.
  • MK604 - Introduction to Research Methods (4 Credits)
    This course is organized around the research process in which students learn how to formulate a research question, define a research problem, generate a research design, establish data collection methods, define a sampling frame, determine data analyses, interpret data appropriately, and prepare a research report. Topics in both qualitative and quantitative research methods are included. Students gain an understanding of the importance of research in the development of communication strategies.
    Instructor: Steven Kalter
  • MK610 - Marketing Management (4 Credits)
    Introduces the marketing management process of making decisions about products, brands, price, distribution channels, and communications plans to deliver value to consumers. Marketing concepts include research methods, consumer behavior, business marketing, customer analysis, competitive strategy, market segmentation and targeting, and product development. Students use analyses to justify managerial recommendations. Integration is emphasized - developing marketing strategies that are consistent from conception through execution. Case studies from a variety of industries are used in class.
    Instructor: Cathy Waters
  • MK612 - Direct/Database Marketing (4 Credits)
    Examines the communication, database management, and physical distribution aspects of direct marketing. Students learn how to mine databases, use them for segmentation analysis, and merge external and internal databases for gap analysis purposes. Students manipulate databases in traditional areas of direct marketing and investigate how e-commerce has changed direct marketing from a promotional function to one that triangulates communication, marketing, and delivery systems. Students develop a direct marketing plan and an evaluation mechanism to measure results.
  • MK617 - Consumer Behavior (4 Credits)
    Students investigate comprehensive multidisciplinary, theoretical views of consumer behavior, and apply them to marketing communication contexts. Integrated marketing communication plans require sophisticated consumer behavior analyses that facilitate segmentation, targeting, and positioning efforts. Students learn about the determinants of consumer behavior through the application of theories from disciplines such as communication, marketing, cultural anthropology, economics, sociology, and psychology. Case studies, exercises, and research help students to understand the complexity of consumer behavior given intrapersonal, interpersonal, and situational influences.
  • MK618 - Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a cross-functional process for creating profitable relationships with customers and publics by strategically controlling all messages sent to groups and encouraging dialogue. Students learn to integrate marketing communication elements (e.g., advertising, public relations, publicity, sales promotion, event marketing, direct marketing, e-communication, and selling) to advance an organization's success and brand equity. Case studies and exercises help students learn how to develop effective IMC plans.
  • MK620 - Public Relations Management (4 Credits)
    Students explore the role of public relations in IMC, and learn how to construct a public relations plan by analyzing and interpreting public opinion, develop communication programs to achieve public understanding (e.g., financial, media, or government relations), detail a budget, and describe evaluation techniques for measuring impact. Students develop all aspects of the plan, including constructing press releases and developing public service announcements using case studies or field applications.
  • MK621 - Writing for Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    Exposes students to a comprehensive survey of writing techniques for integrated marketing communications. Students learn how to develop and refine their writing of communication such as news releases, brochures, speeches, organizational publications (e.g., annual reports), copywriting, and public service announcements. Intensive writing exercises are employed to help students achieve their goals.
  • MK627 - Interactive and e-Communication (4 Credits)
    Students learn how organizations use the Internet to communicate with consumers and the public, and to examine the differences between traditional media vehicles and the Internet within the context of strategic communication. Explores how communication has changed given media and delivery system convergence as well as market democratization. Ethical and legal parameters of technology-based communication are covered.
    Instructor: Paul Mihailidis
  • MK630 - Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Publicity Management (4 Credits)
    Explores the roles of advertising, sales promotion, and publicity in IMC. Students learn to develop, manage, and evaluate advertising campaigns. In addition, they investigate how to use sales promotion to bring about behavioral change in the contexts of consumer and trade promotion. Further, they learn how to generate and manage publicity. Students evaluate the legal and ethical issues surrounding these marketing communication efforts.
  • MK636 - Creative Thinking: Copy and Design (4 Credits)
    Consumers have an abundance of product and service options, so companies must use creativity to develop differentiated and relevant communications plans. Creativity and innovation are cornerstones of business and qualities that managers expect from their employees. This course explores the nature of creativity, creative thinking, and problem solving. Interactive exercises, case analyses, discussions, and projects foster and enhance creativity.
  • MK639 - Communicating Brands and Brand Management (4 Credits)
    Stresses the importance of the role of the brand in IMC strategies. Students learn why brands are important, what they represent to consumers, and what should be done by organizations to manage them properly. Students learn how brand equity can be created, how to measure brand equity, and how to use brand equity to expand global business opportunities. Brand simulations, readings, and discussions facilitate learning.
    Instructor: Anthony Lowrie
  • MK648 - Media Management Strategies (4 Credits)
    Offers an introduction to strategic decision making in advertising media planning. Provides an understanding of the challenges involved in making media decisions and executing media plans. Students are introduced to media planning tools and study the impact of changing media trends.
    Instructor: Geoffrey Klapisch
  • MK649 - Measuring and Communicating Investments in Marketing (4 Credits)
    An important function of the IMC manager is to optimize investments across different aspects of the marketing and communication mix. This course reviews fundamental tools of analysis used by managers, such as budgeting, forecasting demand, market and segmentation analysis, return-on-investment valuations, media expenditure planning, and evaluation of marketing communication efforts. Exercises, cases, and readings are used to provide students with exposure to the concepts and practice in applying them.
    Instructor: Stanley Miller
  • MK653 - Web Page Development and Management (4 Credits)
    Presents the website as an important venue for communicating with various publics and organizations, and as an integrated part of a strategic communication plan. Topics such as principles of web design, evaluation of website effectiveness, tracking user perceptions, and consolidating web page information into overall database management are covered. Topics are organized around website development, maintenance, and assessment.
    Instructor: Jason Fields
  • MK695 - Special Studies in Marketing Communication (4 Credits)
    Occasionally, courses are offered that capitalize on trends in the communication industries or address topics not covered in other courses in the program. May be repeated when topics vary.
  • MT102 - College Mathematics (4 Credits)
    Applies mathematical methods to topics including set theory, mathematical logic, plausible and heuristic reasoning patterns, probability theory, and investment theory including simple interest, compound interest, basic annuities, and amortization.
  • MT106 - Business Mathematics (4 Credits)
    Applies mathematical methods to a wide variety of business decisions including reconciliation, taxation, property and casualty insurance, cash and trade discounts, simple interest, simple discount, compound interest, basic annuities, and amortization.
    Instructor: Eiki Satake
  • MT207 - Statistics (4 Credits)
    Prepares students to use, understand, and evaluate basic statistical techniques. Introduces the most common topics and procedures in descriptive and inferential data analysis, such as measures of central tendency and variability, shapes of distributions, correlation and simple linear regression, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, effect size, statistical power, t-tests, and chi-square.
  • MU137 - Listening to Music (4 Credits)
    Intended for students with little or no experience in music who want to develop their listening skills and musical understanding. Emphasis is on a non-theoretical study of the elements and compositional principles of music, and careful listening to selected works of master composers in the context of a brief survey of classical music in its historical and social context. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor: Fredericka King
  • MU139 - History of Jazz (4 Credits)
    A study of the evolution of jazz, a continuously evolving form synthesizing many different music styles. Attention is given to its African American origins, historical identifications, antisocial tendencies, political aspects, and subjective effects that have effected cultural change. Emphasis is placed on listening to the works of Armstrong, Ellington, Davis, Gillespie, Parker, Monk, Coltrane, and Mingus. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective and the General Education U.S. Diversity requirements.
  • MU201 - History of Music: European (4 Credits)
    A survey of European music from Greek beginnings through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Classical, Baroque, and Romantic periods up to and including contemporary musical forms. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
  • MU202 - History of Music: American (4 Credits)
    A survey of American music from the first American settlers to the present including the development of such forms as folk, regional, religious, ethnic, jazz, musical theater, and various popular styles. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor: Fredericka King
  • MU203 - Perspectives in World Music (4 Credits)
    Investigates music-making within a variety of cultures, including societies from Africa, the Caribbean, India, the Far East, and Native Americans. Musical experience is examined from both the sonic and social perspectives, including musical form, instruments, and style, as well as music's role as a vehicle for defining and representing social values. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective and the General Education Global Diversity requirements.
    Instructor: Mehmet Sanlikol
  • MU204 - Music Analysis I (2 Credits)
    An introduction to the analysis of music, especially as it appears in musical theatre. Topics include song structure, dance forms, and identification of the features in various genres and historical styles. Required for BFA Musical Theatre majors.
  • MU205 - Music Analysis II (2 Credits)
    A continuation of Music Analysis I, this course focuses on the music and lyrics of songs and shows in the musical theatre repertoire. The focus moves from basic terminology to a more detailed connection between analysis and performance. Other topics include the structure of entire shows, detailed analysis of duets and other ensemble pieces, and an increased focus on recent musical theatre repertoire. Required for BFA Musical Theatre majors.
    Instructor: Scott Wheeler
  • MU233 - History of Opera: Passionate Music, Dangerous Meanings (4 Credits)
    Introduces the musical and aesthetic conventions of opera. Emphasis is placed on listening to representative works and on a historical survey of opera from its birth to the present. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
  • MU256 - Deconstructing Twentieth-Century Art Music (4 Credits)
    Introduces Western art music of the 20th century to non-music majors. Students chronologically explore diverse styles and genres of music as composed by a panorama of vibrant musical personalities in the 20th century. Students' goal will be to demystify some of the construction techniques and resulting sounds that have currently expanded our definition of "e-music." Included in their discovery will be discussions on the interplay of music, literature, and the visual arts as reactive and motivating forces on current 21st-century aesthetics. Students close the course by investigating current trends in art music. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
  • MU257 - The Musical Premiere: Beauty and the Artist (4 Credits)
    Explores several noteworthy musical premieres in modern European history beginning with the shocking debut of opera in 17th-century Italy to the shocking popular music premieres of the 21st-century United States. Students examine the preparation, actual performance of the work, and the often-revolutionary impact on the broader cultural milieu, as these new works help us to broaden and redefine our concept of beauty. Frequently composed by controversial figures in their day, our methodology will include a recurrent assessment quantifying the effect of the "persona" on the outcome of the premiere. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
  • MU353 - Applied Music: Voice (2 Credits)
    Advanced work in vocal technique and development of a repertoire, consisting of ten weekly 60-minute lessons with a private instructor. Required for BFA Musical Theatre majors. No more than 8 credits of Applied Music: Voice may be counted toward credits required for graduation.
  • MU354 - Applied Music: Piano (2 Credits)
    For students for whom the study of piano is relevant to their professional goals. Students have a weekly 60-minute individual lesson. No more than 8 credits of Applied Music: Piano may be counted toward credits required for graduation.
    Instructor: Scott Nicholas
  • PA101 - Languages of the Stage (4 Credits)
    Introduces students to the various means of expression available to the art of the stage. In addition to an exploration of the techniques of the written script, students are introduced to the visual forms of artistic communication, their history, and the conventions of all theatrical forms. (Performing Arts students only)
  • PA472 - Production Projects (2 Credits)
    Students with senior standing may define project work in acting, directing, design technology, stage and production management, arts and business management, musical theatre, theatre education, dance or dramaturgy. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor and department chair.
  • PB207 - Introduction to Magazine Writing (4 Credits)
    Introduces writing for commercial markets. Students develop, research, and write nonfiction articles and learn where to market them. May be repeated once for credit and may be substituted for one 200-level WR (writing) workshop.
  • PB302 - Copyediting (4 Credits)
    Practical course about the process of editing and preparing manuscripts for publication. Together with hands-on assignments, the course considers the relation of editor to author, the nature of copyediting in various publishing environments, and other topics.
  • PB307 - Intermediate Magazine Writing (4 Credits)
    Requires students to research and write an article or magazine feature. Students learn terms, concepts, and techniques to improve both writing and critical thinking. May be repeated once for credit and may be substituted for one 300-level WR (writing) workshop.
    Instructor: Delia Cabe
  • PB380 - Magazine Publishing Overview (4 Credits)
    Provides an understanding of the magazine field from the perspective of writers and editors. Looks at the similarities and differences between general interest magazines and more focused magazines, and how magazines compete with each other and with other media for audiences and revenues. Topics include how magazines carve out niches, the relationship between the business and editorial departments, and the editorial operations of magazines. The course also looks at the history of the magazine industry.
  • PB383 - Book Publishing Overview (4 Credits)
    Examines the acquisition and editing of a manuscript, its progress into design and production, and the final strategies of promotion and distribution of a finished book.
  • PB395 - Applications for Print Publishing (4 Credits)
    Students master the page layout and image creation software used in the publishing industry. Students also learn related computer-based skills, such as type and image sourcing, image acquisition, including scanning, and copyright issues. Although some design issues are addressed, the primary focus is on software skills. Course assumes students have basic Macintosh skills.
  • PB401 - Advanced Seminar Workshop in Column Writing (4 Credits)
    This magazine publishing course covers the process of researching, writing, and revising magazine columns with an understanding of the importance of audience. Draws on both the published writing of seasoned columnists from a variety of genres as well as weekly columns written by students. May be substituted for one 400-level WR (writing) workshop.
  • PB402 - Book Editing (4 Credits)
    Book editing, or substantive editing, is a highly subjective, visceral skill informed by flexibility, judgment, life experience, grammatical grace, signposts, caution lights, road maps, respect for the author, and subtle diplomacy in the author/editor relationship, all directed toward helping the writer to the intended creative goal. In other words, book editing is an art, not a science. However, an exploration of the foundations of constructive shaping, development, organization, and line-editing may release the inner shepherd/wrangler in you.
  • PB403 - Electronic Publishing (4 Credits)
    Explores various methods of digital publishing including e-books and web site creation. The course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the planning, development and management of digital content.
    Instructor: Ken Gagné
  • PB481 - Book Design and Production (4 Credits)
    Covers book and book jacket design fundamentals: design, typography, image research and assignment, and prepress and manufacturing. This is not a software instruction course.
    Instructor: Rebecca Saraceno
  • PB482 - Magazine Design and Production (4 Credits)
    Course covers magazine design fundamentals: typography, image research and assignment, prepress and manufacturing, and traditional and computer-based tools and equipment. Each student produces a sample magazine through a workshop process of presentations and revisions. This is not a software instruction course.
  • PB491 - Topics in Publishing (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in book, magazine, and electronic publishing. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • PB676 - Magazine Writing (4 Credits)
    Magazine publishing course gives students experience in developing magazine feature stories. Students brainstorm, report, and write their own magazine-style stories, with emphasis on the shaping and editing stage. They also read and discuss published work by professionals. Class is conducted as a writing workshop in a style that mimics a magazine atmosphere. This course may count for one workshop credit for nonfiction students.
  • PB677 - Professional Ethics in Magazine Publishing (4 Credits)
    Course about the ethical decisions editors and writers face in magazine publishing today. Course draws on current issues in magazine publishing and focuses on these as well as historical readings and class discussions as a means of understanding the ethics behind the decisions and actions that take place in magazine publishing.
  • PB678 - Magazine Editing (4 Credits)
    Course about the magazine editing process. Covers topics ranging from focus, direction, topicality, structure, sense of audience, and voice, and explores the practical application of editing skills as well as historic examples of editors and their magazines.
    Instructor: William Beuttler
  • PB679 - The Editor/Writer Relationship (4 Credits)
    Course examines the magazine writing and editing process, and covers topics ranging from idea generation and story selection to the mechanics of editing and how the editorial process works.
  • PB680 - Magazine Publishing Overview (4 Credits)
    Course examines the magazine field from the perspective of writers and editors, and covers the editorial and business operations of magazines, the editorial mix, and magazine geography.
  • PB681 - Magazine Publishing: Rotating Topics (4 Credits)
    Topics may include a study of editorial positioning, marketing and business strategies, idea generation and development, and the development of a prospectus for a viable new magazine, among others.
  • PB682 - Magazine Design and Prod. (4 Credits)
    Course covers magazine design fundamentals: design, typography, image research and assignment, and prepress and manufacturing. Students produce sample magazines through a workshop process of presentations and revisions. Course assumes students have necessary computer skills.
  • PB683 - Book Publishing Overview (4 Credits)
    Introduction to the book publishing industry, including a detailed examination of the editorial, marketing, and design and production stages of the book publishing process. Course also looks at important developments and issues within the field, such as online publishing, and at various jobs in book publishing.
  • PB684 - Book Publishing: Rotating Top (4 Credits)
    Topics may include examination of book marketing and sales, literary publishing, specific publishing genres, among others.
  • PB685 - Book Editing (4 Credits)
    Course considers book editing skills, tasks, and responsibilities from initial review and acquisition of a book manuscript through project development. Course emphasizes trade book editing, but also considers editorial work at scholarly and professional presses.
    Instructor: David Emblidge
  • PB686 - Book Design and Prod. (4 Credits)
    Course covers book and book jacket design fundamentals: design, typography, image research and assignment, and prepress and manufacturing. Students design a book through a workshop process of presentations and revisions. Course assumes students have necessary computer skills.
    Instructor:
  • PB687 - Column Writing (4 Credits)
    Magazine publishing course explores the process of researching, writing, and revising magazine columns, and examines the importance of audience. This course may count for one workshop requirement for nonfiction students.
    Instructor: Delia Cabe
  • PB688 - Copyediting (4 Credits)
    Practical course covers the process of editing and preparing manuscripts for publication. Together with hands-on assignments, the course considers the relation of editor to author, the nature of copyediting in various publishing environments, and other topics.
  • PB689 - Book Publicity (4 Credits)
    Book publishing course familiarizes students with trade book promotion to the media. Course begins with an overview of book publicity and then covers the publicity process, the type of freelance help available, crafting press material, the author/publicist dynamic, how to secure and promote bookstore events, the art of the interview, and the art of the pitch. All assignments and classroom activities are based on real-world publishing tasks so that students leave the class thoroughly prepared to promote their book or someone else's.
    Instructor: Lissa Warren
  • PB691 - Applications for Print Publish (4 Credits)
    In this course, students master the page layout and image creation software used in the publishing industry. Students also learn related computer-based skills, such as type and image sourcing; image acquisition, including scanning; and copyright issues. Although some design issues will be addressed, the primary focus is on software skills. Course assumes student has basic Macintosh skills.
    Instructor: Melissa Gruntkosky
  • PB692 - Electronic Publishing Overview (4 Credits)
    Introduction to electronic and new media publishing formats, including but not limited to the web, online publishing, CD-ROM, and DVD. Course assumes the student has basic computer skills.
  • PB694 - Topics in Writing and Publishing (4 Credits)
    Topics may include offerings in genre nonfiction writing, review and criticism, literary editing, alternative publishing, online editing and writing, business and legal issues, among others. Some topics may require a prerequisite or permission of instructor.
  • PH105 - Introduction to Ethics (4 Credits)
    Introduces important theories on nature of the good in human conduct. Theories belong to Western philosophical tradition and include works of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and others.
  • PH110 - Ethics and Justice (4 Credits)
    Considers ethical theories and theories of justice, especially those related to questions of economic, criminal, political, and social justice.
    Instructor: Eric Dale
  • PH112 - Religion in Eastern Cultures (4 Credits)
    Studies the origin and development of Hinduism in India; Buddhism in India, China, and Japan; Taoism and Confucianism in China; and Shintoism in Japan. Students read original texts; development of doctrine in each religious tradition; and literary, artistic, and cultural impact of each religion on Eastern civilizations.
    Instructor: Eric Dale
  • PH200 - Contemporary Ethics (4 Credits)
    Examines contemporary ethical issues of abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and affirmative action in light of major theories of ethics and morals from the history of Western philosophy.
    Instructors: Robb Eason, Sarah Farkas
  • PH203 - Special Topics in Ethics or Value Theory (4 Credits)
    Topics announced prior to each term may include: Art and Politics, Media Ethics, Feminist Ethics, Political Philosophy, or Judaism. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructors: Albert Axelrad, Deonnie Moodie
  • PH204 - Environmental Ethics (4 Credits)
    Considers philosophical ethics in relation to environmental issues. Topics include: religious beliefs as a foundation for environmental commitments, duties, and obligations toward other species; "deep ecology"; ecofeminism; economic imperatives versus environmental concerns; and disproportionate burden of environmental problems borne by certain groups.
    Instructor: Charles Oliver
  • PH210 - Narrative Ethics (4 Credits)
    Provides overview of classical and modern approaches to ethical theory using examples from fiction and film to show how ethical theories can be applied. Connects abstract theory with "real life" through storytelling and story analysis to understand and evaluate moral issues.
    Instructor: Robb Eason
  • PH300 - Community, Communication, and Public Policy (4 Credits)
    Topics in political theory vary by semester and may include: Art and Politics; Community, Communication, and Public Policy; Liberalism and Communitarianism; Censorship, Privacy, and the Public Good. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Pablo Muchnik
  • PH303 - Citizenship as Civic Engagement (4 Credits)
    What does it mean to be or become a citizen? Readings and discussions will include what it means to be a citizen in a local community, a national community, and, perhaps, a world community. What are the responsibilities involved in being an engaged citizen? This is a philosophy course, and we will be examining these issues on a theoretical and on a practical level. All students will be placed n a local non-profit for approximately 2-3 hours a week.
  • PL225 - U.S. Government and Politics (4 Credits)
    Develops knowledge and understanding about the American political system including national, state, and local government. Examines constitutional foundations, citizenship, civil liberties, public opinion, political parties, the electoral system, and the legislative process as well as the judicial history of these issues.
    Instructors: Michael Brown,
  • PL231 - Personality, Power, and Politics (4 Credits)
    Studies historical personalities (such as Napoleon, Bismarck, Lenin, Hitler, Gandhi, Mao, Mandela, and Gorbachev) whose political ideas have contributed to the contemporary debate concerning the origins of the modern world. Students learn about leadership concepts, models, and techniques as they apply to the formation of mass political movements. Examines films, journalistic accounts, and historical commentary for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of political issues and events.
  • PL240 - Communication, Politics, & Law (4 Credits)
    Develops an interdisciplinary understanding of the political-legal communication field with emphasis on the U.S. Constitution and the legal system as well as constructing and communicating political-legal arguments.
  • PL300 - Compaigns and Elections (4 Credits)
    Students use theoretical and empirical analysis to learn about the ways Americans elect their leaders. Examines several themes such as electoral systems, political parties, primary and general elections, the role of money, and the role of the media as they relate to the American system of campaigns and elections.
  • PL328 - Political Thought (4 Credits)
    Analyzes the evolution of political theory from early Greece to the present. Studies the formation of the Western political tradition and the relationship of political theory to the development of absolutism, constitutional monarchy, liberal democracy, and socialism. Looks at the issues of idealism and realism in political thought, individual rights versus the needs of the collective, and the relation of these considerations to the emergence of totalitarian political ideologies.
  • PL332 - Civil Rights (4 Credits)
    Reviews and develops an understanding of the U.S. Constitution, congressional legislation, and Supreme Court cases affecting and controlling minority rights from 1776 to the present.
    Instructor: Michael Brown
  • PL333 - The First Amendment (4 Credits)
    Engages in in-depth study of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws as they relate to communication. Develops an understanding of the First Amendment, the Federal Communication Commission, and political speech.
    Instructor: Michael Brown
  • PL334 - Development of the U.S. Welfare State (4 Credits)
    Examines how Americans have cared for themselves and others in times of need. Students take a long view, starting with the Puritans, at the debate in America regarding the proper way to deal with epidemics, poverty, old age, infirmity, and unemployment. They explore causation, focusing heavily not simply on what has existed, but more importantly, why. Students use the analytical tools needed to understand American social policy and the welfare state.
  • PS101 - Introductory Psychology (4 Credits)
    Presents topics across the range of sub-disciplines that make up the field, including the history of psychology, research methods, attention and consciousness, learning, memory, language, motivation, emotion, social perception and interaction, child and adult development, and mental illness. Students engage in discussions, presentations, and demonstrations centered on key ideas in the field.
  • PS200 - Social Psychology (4 Credits)
    Introduces the discipline of social psychology. Examines how the behavior of individuals is influenced by their social environment. Topics include impression formation, persuasion, conformity, interpersonal attraction, helping behavior, aggression, and prejudice.
    Instructors: Tracy McLaughlin-Volpe, David Shim
  • PS201 - Abnormal Psychology (4 Credits)
    Provides an introduction to the nature, etiology, and classification of abnormal behaviors and therapeutic methods used to treat them. An explanation of the relation between mental disorder and the social and cultural setting is also provided.
    Instructor: Eileen McBride
  • PS202 - Developmental Psychology (4 Credits)
    Explores the stage/age-related physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development of individuals. Topics include physical maturation and sensory-motor development; thinking, reasoning, and language processes; personality growth; social cognition; and interpersonal interaction. Attention is also given to the discussion of contemporary issues in developmental psychology.
  • PS203 - Cognitive Psychology (4 Credits)
    Studies the mental mechanisms and processes involved with perception, learning, memory, and thinking. Topics may include perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, decision-making, mental representation and knowledge, reasoning, creativity, and intelligence. Highlights the close relationship between modern cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience that ties cognitive processes to brain systems.
  • PS301 - Personal Growth and Adjustment (4 Credits)
    Examines means and methods of adaptation to life, with a focus on psychological development across the life cycle. An applied psychology course with a heavy emphasis on self-reflection and the means of effective functioning. Topics may include stress, adaptive and maladaptive coping, identity and the self, as well as specific lifestyle issues such as relationships, health, values, working, aging, gender, and sexuality.
    Instructor: Eileen McBride
  • PS306 - Psychology of Prejudice (4 Credits)
    Explores the psychological causes and consequences of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination through an analysis of psychological theory and empirical research. By focusing on the experiences of a wide range of groups, the course examines themes such as group identity and intergroup conflict; the nature of categorization; why stereotypes persist; the personal and societal impact of prejudice; and how prejudice might be overcome.
  • PS380 - Topics in Psychology (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in psychology focus on important questions in contemporary psychology. Each course uses theory and methods within major psychological perspectives such as cognitive, biological, evolutionary, developmental, social, and clinical psychology to demonstrate how psychology addresses and responds to concerns of individuals and groups in real-world contexts. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • PS405 - Advanced Seminar in Psych (4 Credits)
    Involves comprehensive study of a sample of topics at the forefront of psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Topics extend across cognitive, developmental, social, clinical, biological, and evolutionary psychology. Approaches each of the topics with in-depth historical perspectives, a wide interdisciplinary scope, theoretical detail, and the current state of research on the subject matter. Active student participation and discourse are integral to the format of this seminar.
  • SC210 - Human Health and Disease (4 Credits)
    How is our human body designed and maintained and how is the intricate balance of this system disrupted in illness? This course explores the structure, function, and interrelationship between several body systems through the study of human disease. Several major non-infectious diseases are selected (for example, diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and lung cancer) as a platform for discussing the chemistry and anatomy of the body. Study of these diseases informs discussion on mechanisms of drug action, the nature of disease risk factors, ethics and politics of healthcare, and the role of mind-body relationships in health and disease.
    Instructor: Robrecht Thoonen
  • SC211 - Food and Nutrition (4 Credits)
    Introduces food systems, diet, and nutrition. Helps students become informed consumers of food by discussing what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from, how it is processed, and how it affects our health. Students learn principles of nutrition, including the function of nutrients, food composition and diet analysis, the workings of the digestive system, and the nutritional roots of disease. The environmental, sociological, and psychological implications of food are discussed, and emphasis is placed on dispelling common myths about food and on questioning information presented in the media.
    Instructor: Kimberly Dong
  • SC212 - Evolution of Human Nature (4 Credits)
    Introduces the field of evolutionary biology and its application to all species, including humans. Major topics include natural selection, adaptation, and sexual selection, as well as genetics. Focuses particularly on the ancestral legacies of primate and human evolution that continue to influence modern-day society, including topics such as cooperation, jealousy, aggression, and health.
    Instructor: Diana Sherry
  • SC213 - The Brain and Behavior (4 Credits)
    Discusses the general structure of the human brain and perceptual, cognitive, and neurologic functions and disorders tied to various brain systems. Covers neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, basic sensory functions, brain development, mechanisms of drugs and hormones, sleep, consciousness, and investigative methods used to study the brain. Higher neurocognitive functions, including language and memory and a range of neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders are also explored.
    Instructor: Vinoth Jagaroo
  • SC214 - Plagues and Pandemics (4 Credits)
    Infectious diseases are a leading worldwide cause of human death. This course describes and discusses the role, origins, spread, and impact of infectious diseases. By examining how the human immune system guards against infectious disease, students gain an understanding of the complex interaction between host and pathogen. This foundation is a launching point for discussion of topics such as the rise of drug-resistant microbes, advances in diagnostic and vaccine development, the socioeconomic and political factors involved in disease progression, food preservation and safety, and the use of microbes and microbial products in bioterrorism.
  • SC215 - Personal Genetics & Identity (4 Credits)
    As it becomes increasingly possible to obtain personalized versions of our individual human genomes, it behooves us to consider how much weight this information carries in generating our physical uniqueness and individual identity. This course introduces the biological basis of inheritance and human variation while considering the personal and public implications of accessibility to one's genetic information. In particular, students explore what our DNA can and can't tell us about appearance, disease, ancestry, and behavior. Students consider the marketing of genetic tests, the use of DNA databases in forensic science, regulation of the personal genomics industry, and genetic privacy.
  • SC216 - DNA and Society (4 Credits)
    Explores the structure and function of DNA and the role of the genetic code in shaping the basic cellular units of life. Covers the molecular biology necessary to understand science developments that have garnered the attention of the media and the scientific community, including those relating to biotechnology, stem cells, and genetic engineering. Students discuss this science at its intersection with art, policy, marketing, medicine, and human experience. They gain an appreciation of how molecular biology impacts our society and obtain the tools necessary to make informed decisions about the science we encounter.
    Instructor: Jamie Lichtenstein
  • SC220 - Energy and Sustainability (4 Credits)
    Energy has emerged as one of the most important issues facing our society, as it is increasingly clear that our current patterns of energy use are not sustainable. The course examines the ways in which we use energy, as individuals and as a society, and discusses available and future energy technologies in terms of their environmental impact and technical, economic, and political viability. Students explore various energy sources, beginning with traditional fossil fuel-based technologies, then focusing on emerging technologies, such as hydropower, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, oceanic, fuel cell, and nuclear.
    Instructor: Jon Honea
  • SC221 - Meteorology (4 Credits)
    Introduces the basic concepts involved in the analysis of weather phenomena and climate patterns at global and local scales. Major topics of discussion include: atmospheric composition and dynamics; solar radiation; temperature, moisture, and condensation; optical phenomena in the atmosphere; weather patterns; severe weather; and weather forecasting techniques.
    Instructor: Benjamin Papandrea
  • SC222 - Earth Science: Natural Disasters (4 Credits)
    Focuses on natural disasters to introduce students to a range of earth-science fields, including geology, meteorology, ecology, and hydrology. Explores a variety of natural processes, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, landslides, wildfires, tornadoes, and climate change. Particular attention is paid to the impacts of natural disasters on human populations, the built environment, and natural resources.
    Instructor:
  • SC223 - Climate Change (4 Credits)
    Climate change is a complex topic of enormous scientific interest, societal importance, and political debate. This course introduces the science of climate change and global warming, focusing in particular on: past environmental change, including abrupt changes and past intervals of warmth; the response of physical and biological systems to recent and ongoing changes in climate; future climate scenarios, forecasting uncertainties, and public-policy options; and critical evaluation of media coverage of climate-change issues.
    Instructor: Cascade Sorte
  • SC224 - Ecology and Conservation (4 Credits)
    Engages students in an exploration of ecological principles and environmental issues having scientific, economic, and social dimensions of global significance. Emphasis is placed on the application of population and community ecology toward the conservation of species in the face of natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Promotes the informed and critical interpretation of results reported in ecological studies and their coverage in the media.
  • SC225 - Science and Politics of Water (4 Credits)
    Explores the confluence of fundamental ecological, hydrological, and other environmental processes with policy and law at the watershed scale. Emphasis is placed on how natural pathways of the flow of water support vital freshwater ecosystem services such as clean drinking water and healthy fish populations. Students also seek insight toward improved management by weighing the trade-offs required for other valued uses such as recreation, agriculture, hydropower, and industrial uses.
  • SC226 - Plants and People (4 Credits)
    Introduces plant biology, botany, and ecology, with a particular focus on the importance of plants to humans. Explores the basics of plant structure, growth processes, and reproduction; plant diversity and evolution; the use of plants for food, medicine, and other products; the interactions between plants and the environments they live in; and the role of plants in global environmental change.
  • SC290 - Topics in Science (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in science focused on theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, contemporary questions in human biology and the physical sciences, and interdisciplinary issues involving science and other fields.
  • SC310 - Science in Translation: Health and Genetics (4 Credits)
    Refines and broadens students' ability to interpret scientific language and communicate critical scientific content to others. This course examines popular representations of molecular biology in various outlets such as film, fiction, and journalism. Conversation about any scientific inaccuracies provides motivation for delving deeper into the science, and discussion of creative intent provides a mechanism for discussing ethical, social, and political impact of related research. Students then apply such interpretative understandings to their own craft as they put scientific translation and communication into practice in select scenarios.
  • SC311 - Sensation and Perception (4 Credits)
    Examines human sensory and perceptual processes relating mainly to visual and auditory perception. The course first describes basic processes of neural functioning and neural pathways of perceptual systems. It then covers object-, form-, depth-, size- and motion-perception, and sound-, pitch-, and tonal-perception. Lastly, high-level neurocognitive processes such as mental imagery, speech perception, and multisensory integration are discussed. Attention is then given to gustatory, olfactory, and cutaneous senses. May be of special interest to students of psychology and visual media as well as those interested in fields involving audio design, radio and television production. Encourages discussion of the course's practical applications in graphic design, advertising, and other forms of media production.
    Instructor: Vinoth Jagaroo
  • SC320 - Science in Translation: Environmental Science (4 Credits)
    Refines and broadens students' ability to interpret scientific language and communicate critical scientific content to others. This course examines popular representations of environmental issues in various outlets such as film, fiction, and journalism. Conversation about any scientific inaccuracies provides motivation for delving deeper into the science, and discussion of creative intent provides a mechanism for discussing ethical, social, and political impact of related research. Students then apply such interpretative understandings to their own craft as they put scientific translation and communication into practice in select scenarios.
    Instructor: Jon Honea
  • SC390 - Advanced Topics in Science (4 Credits)
    Features special offerings in science focused on theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, contemporary questions in human biology and environmental science, and interdisciplinary issues involving science and other fields. Material is presented and discussed at an advanced level, assuming students have some knowledge and understanding of the scientific method. Course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • SO150 - Principles of Sociology (4 Credits)
    Introduces key sociological concepts, methodologies that provide pivotal tools for critical analysis of structures, agents of power focusing on roles shaping relationships, and institutions in local and global communities. Explores historical biographies that shape worldviews. Brings history to bear on present to identify and shape sociological imagination. Hands-on approaches extend learning beyond classroom, ensuring theory linked to practice. Students learn and live sociology as an integral aspect of individual and community identities.
    Instructor: Paul Anskat
  • SO200 - Communities and Race Relations (4 Credits)
    Studies the history and sociology of racial and ethnic groups in United States, including consideration of group tensions and aggressions. Gives overview of social experiences of major ethnic groups that entered the United States and selected Native American societies. Modern issues of inter-group relations are examined.
    Instructor: Darrin Korte
  • SO206 - Gender in a Global Perspective (4 Credits)
    Examines gender in a comparative and global context framed by interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. Studies social construction of gender across cultures and globalization as a web of complex forces shaping gender-construction activities and institutions. Students compare experiences with other cultures and analyze work, play, and intimacy and institutional structures, including religion, politics, military, media, and the economy.
    Instructor: Mary Mulderig
  • SO208 - Visual Society (4 Credits)
    Social theories of economic cultural change describe increasing significance of visual images and decline of texts, oral communication, and face-to-face interactions. The visualization of culture is considered in connection to economic globalization and the shift from production to consumption economies examined in television, websites, billboards, clothing, and window displays. Visual-ethnographic studies explore effects of visual culture (electronic and digital images, video, film, photography, magazine images) on identity, race, sexuality, politics, opportunity, community, and tradition.
    Instructor: Paul Anskat
  • SO300 - Community, Identity, and Social Advocacy (4 Credits)
    Theory and practice of effective, ethical communication on behalf of constituent groups. Needs assessment, resource identification, development (including grant writing), public advocacy, and program review.
  • SO303 - Culture and Power (4 Credits)
    Examines production of culture and meaning in everyday life, employing perspectives from sociology of culture and cultural studies. Looks at subjectivity and agency relation to social structure. Investigates the formation and expression of individual and collective identities, and contestation of ideology in life activities such as eating, dressing, dancing, watching television, and shopping. Ethnography explores everyday activities that define sense of selves and power and give meaning while organizing social institutions and processes.
  • SO360 - Deviance and Social Control (4 Credits)
    Examines various forms of social control, the use of power constructing normative boundaries that differentiate normal and deviant perspectives. Media roles within popular culture, and overviews of differing academic perspectives include specific grand theories evidenced through sociological imagination; varieties of violent forms; sexual configurations; mental disorders; substance usages; white-collar dysfunctions; governmental-economic forms. Ethical dimensions of choice change through personal self-critique or examination of career roles in chosen media specialties.
    Instructor: Sam Binkley
  • TH121 - Introduction to Acting 1 (4 Credits)
    Introduces the acting process to the non-performance major. Group and individual exercise work develops a relaxed instrument able to respond freely, in the body and the voice, to emotional and external stimuli. The course moves from fundamental explorations through improvisation to work on scripted material.
  • TH122 - Introduction to Acting 2 (4 Credits)
    Building on the work of TH 121, this course proceeds to careful study of acting craft through the vocabulary of intentions, actions, obstacles, subtext, and objectives.
    Instructor: Joseph Antoun
  • TH123 - Acting 1: Movement (4 Credits)
    An intensive exploration of movement and improvisation. A variety of improvisatory approaches are employed to tap into individual creativity and to discover the power of group creation. Physical demands increase as the body is emphasized as the instrument of communication. The work includes exploration of space, energy, dynamics, rhythm, and sensory response. Actors learn to channel their physical and emotional energy into dramatic action. Prerequisite: by audition only.
  • TH124 - Acting 2: Voice and Text (4 Credits)
    Bases the actor's work in the experience of voice and language. The goal is a free voice in a free body and the ability to express thought and emotion with openness and truth. The course guides students through awareness of and release from habitual tensions and into body alignment, breathing, resonators, sound and movement, group interaction, and the exploration of individual and group creativity. Students use both scripted and improvised material as they discover the two to three octaves of the speaking voice and its connection with thoughts and words. Prerequisite: by audition only.
  • TH130 - Improvisation I (2 Credits)
    Introduces performance majors to improvisation, developing listening skills, spontaneous playing, and the art of presence. Required for all students enrolled in the Actor Training Program. Prerequisite: by audition only.
  • TH131 - Improvisation II (2 Credits)
    Continues the study of improvisation begun in Improvisation I, developing skills from Johnstone, Spolin, and others. Required for all students enrolled in the Actor Training Program. Prerequisite: by audition only.
  • TH140 - Rendering (2 Credits)
    Structured to develop fundamental skills in observation, drawing, painting, and modeling, with an emphasis on the application of these skills to the theatrical design process. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. This is the first course required of students in the Design/Technology concentration.
    Instructor: Timothy Jozwick
  • TH141 - Stagecraft: Special Topics (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
  • TH142 - Stagecraft: Electrics (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
    Instructor: Nicole Cerra
  • TH143 - Stagecraft: Properties Construction (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
    Instructor: Ronald De Marco
  • TH144 - Stagecraft: Costume Contruction (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
  • TH145 - Stagecraft: Scenic Construction (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
    Instructor: Sarah Spollett
  • TH146 - Stagecraft: Scene Painting (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
  • TH147 - Stagecraft: Crafts (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
    Instructor: Mary Ellen Adams
  • TH148 - Stagecraft: Masks (2 Credits)
    Offers experience in standard technical craft practices for the theatre. Students study fundamental techniques in selected technical/craft areas including, but not limited to, scenic construction and handling, scene painting, sculpture for the stage, costume and properties construction, make-up prosthetics, masks, electrics, and lighting. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Students may complete different Stagecraft units to a total of 8 credits. The Performing Arts core curriculum requires completion of two laboratory units, or 4 credits.
    Instructor: Brynna Bloomfield
  • TH150 - History of Fashion & Décor: Design Research (4 Credits)
    Explores the development of styles of Western architecture, furniture, and clothing as a demonstration of the human need to express the social, cultural, and psychological ideals of the period in which it occurs. From the Greeks to the 17th century, the period is presented within its historical-sociological context. The period visual elements are examined according to shape, style, construction, function, and evolution of appearance.
  • TH203 - Perspectives in World Theatre (4 Credits)
    Looks at theatre and performance as an essential component and expression of culture. Surveys material in select time periods and global settings to demonstrate how the various elements of theatre work to reflect and shape culture on issues such as nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexuality, class, and age. In order to do so, this course examines the roles and practices of directors, designers, dramaturges, and playwrights throughout the world from the classical to the postmodern period, and of varying theatrical styles. Readings include plays and historical material, as well as dramatic theory and criticism. Students attend lectures, participate in group work, view theatrical performances and videos, and talk to professionals in the field. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor: June Guertin
  • TH204 - Theatre into Film (4 Credits)
    Explores the artistic languages of theatre and film. Dramatic material written for the stage is read and analyzed and the process of adaptation of that material is explored. Texts include the works of such playwrights as Shakespeare, Strindberg, Williams, and Albee. Film texts include the work of directors such as Lumet, Cukor, Solberg, and Nichols. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor:
  • TH205 - Dress Codes: American Clothes in the Twentieth Century (4 Credits)
    Examines American clothes and fashion in the 20th century, with a primary focus on the visual elements of everyday dress. Six distinct periods are studied according to the silhouette and decorative details of each. Further, each fashion period is studied within the context of its indirect influences (social, cultural, historical, technological, economical). Particular focus is given to concepts of masculinity and feminity, and gender ambiguity; challenges to gendered clothes (such as trousers on women, long hair on men); and anti-fashion (zoot suits, beatniks, hippies, punk, goth). Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor: Mary Harkins
  • TH215 - World Drama in Its Context 1 (4 Credits)
    Surveys theatre and drama from the Greeks through the Restoration, with a focus on the major periods of Western theatre and dramatic literature: the Greeks, Roman theatre and drama, Medieval theatre, Elizabethan drama, Italian Commedia Dell'arte, Spanish Golden Age, French Neo-Classicism, and Restoration. In addition, students survey Eastern classical theatre and drama with a particular emphasis on the Sanskrit theatre, the Chinese drama and the Peking Opera, and the classical theatre of Japan, including Kabuki, No, and the puppet theatre. There are selected readings of plays in their historical context with particular attention paid to theatrical styles of plays and production.
  • TH216 - World Drama in Its Context 2 (4 Credits)
    Surveys theatre and drama from the late 17th century to the present. The major periods of world theatre and drama, Romanticism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism are studied with particular emphasis on 20th-century theatre and drama throughout the world, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Attention is given to the work of both women and men. Theatrical conventions, innovations, and techniques developed in the Western and non-Western theatres are explored.
  • TH221 - Acting III; Basic Scene Study and Acting Craft (4 Credits)
    Intensive scene study builds on TH 123 and TH 124 (movement, improvisation, and voice) to ensure a personal commitment in the way students approach and experience scene work and acting technique (Meisner, Michael Chekhov, etc.) from the canon of various plays. Emphasizes the text, context, subtext, and the given circumstances of each play studied. Actors' scene breakdown, intentions, actions, obstacles, objectives, and moment-to-moment work are some of the tools used to bring scenes from these plays to life.
  • TH222 - Acting 4: Ensemble Acting and Performance (4 Credits)
    Students combine and deepen the creative work accomplished in TH 123 and TH 124. Along with imagination, intelligence, and emotional availability, they form the actor's instrument and are put into service of a playwright's scripted material. This amalgam is the basis of work on a scripted ensemble play, which is performed at the end of the semester. Ensemble techniques that explore the theatre's collaborative nature are used.
  • TH240 - Drafting (2 Credits)
    Through weekly projects, students learn graphic techniques in drafting for theatrical production. The focus is on conventional symbolization, development of ground plans, sections, elevations, orthographics, isometrics, and construction drawings. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Janie Howland
  • TH242 - Lighting Design I (4 Credits)
    Basic principles of stage lighting design are introduced, including the mechanics and optics of lighting instruments, electrical theory and practices, control systems, basic design concepts, and color theory. Controllable qualities of light are investigated and demonstrated through students' participation on a lighting crew for a department production. Design techniques are developed through a complete lighting design project. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor:
  • TH243 - Sound Design (4 Credits)
    Introduces the basic principles of theatrical sound design and the practices and skills required to develop a production's sound design and supportive technical documentation. Students are introduced to script analysis, system layout, effects development, source researching, and organization. The combined hands-on presentations and class assignments allow students to develop a working knowledge of the sound designer's responsibilities and skills. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Benjamin Emerson
  • TH244 - Costume Construction (4 Credits)
    Introduces basic costume patterning and construction methods. Students not only study draping, drafting, and flat-patterning, but also learn terminology, equipment usage, and the skills necessary to the entire costuming process. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Laurie Bramhall
  • TH245 - Scene Design 1 (4 Credits)
    Introduces the fundamental principles of design. Students learn how proficiency in a core set of design skills can lead to effective performance in a variety of theatrical and commercial production situations. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH247 - Make-Up: Theatre (2 Credits)
    Presents a comprehensive study of the art of traditional make-up for the stage. Through the use of cosmetics and prosthetics, students learn to execute corrective, character, and age make-up. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. Co-requisite: TH 347.
    Instructor: Mary Ellen Adams
  • TH248 - Costume Design 1 (4 Credits)
    Students develop an understanding of the basic principles of costume design, character analysis, and costume design presentation. Lectures and class discussions prepare students to confront specific problems in design projects. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH250 - Design Essentials (4 Credits)
    Introduces the theatrical design process and personnel within the regional theatre model. Emphasis is placed on the interconnection between the various design areas and their function in the process of making theatre. Students explore script analysis from the designer's point of view, review various production styles and venues, and experience current production design approaches. This course exposes students to some of the basic skills and processes employed by theatrical designers. Students are expected to supply appropriate materials as needed and attend selected theatrical productions.
  • TH265 - Foundations of Education (4 Credits)
    Examines the basis of public education and the teaching process from a theoretical and methodological viewpoint. Multiple perspectives are employed to investigate these issues, including, but not limited to, the philosophical, historical, sociological, psychological, economic, and political. Required course for initial licensure as a Teacher of Theatre.
    Instructor: Bethany Nelson
  • TH275 - Arts Management I (4 Credits)
    Explores the theory and practice of arts management, with particular focus on theatre management. Extensive readings in arts management provide a foundation for further work in the field.
    Instructor: Julie Hennrikus
  • TH277 - Stage Management I (4 Credits)
    The fundamentals of stage management explored through readings, discussion, written exercises, and appropriate hands-on experience.
  • TH304 - Development of the American Musical (4 Credits)
    The development of American musical theater from the early minstrel shows to the works of Stephen Sondheim is studied with a critical examination of representative musicals. Slides and recordings of Broadway productions will supplement the lectures.
    Instructor: Leonidas Nickole
  • TH313 - African-American Theatre and Culture (4 Credits)
    African-American drama and theater in Africa and America are studied from their origins in African ritual and in early 19th-century America to the present. Lectures and discussions focus on traditional and modern drama and theater, as well as significant periods of dramatic activity such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Federal Theatre Project, and the Black Arts Movement, and on representative works by major contemporary African and African-American dramatists. Fulfills the General Education U.S. Diversity requirement.
  • TH315 - Topics in Contemporary Theatre (4 Credits)
    Covers various topics in the aesthetics of contemporary theatre with particular focus on the history, theory, and criticism of selected contemporary performers and directors, such as Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Anne Bogart, Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Julie Taymor, and Tadashi Suzuki, and groups such as Open Theatre, Living Theatre, and Mabou Mines. May be repeated for credit if topics differ. Prerequisite: junior standing. Fulfills the Aesthetic Perspective of the General Education requirements.
    Instructor:
  • TH325 - BFA Acting Studio 1 (4 Credits)
    Intensive discovery of acting technique that builds on the first two years of voice and movement/improvisation work to ensure a personal commitment in the way a student studies and experiences scene work through the vocabulary of intentions, actions, obstacles, subtext, and objectives. This studio course integrates experiences in voice, movement, and acting work through team teaching. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class time. At least four additional hours per week are protected in the schedule of all students to facilitate this important work. May be repeated once for credit. Prerequisite: BFA Acting majors only who have successfully completed a faculty review, audition, and TH 222. Co-requisite: TH 326.
    Instructor: Benny Sato Ambush
  • TH326 - BFA Acting Studio 2 (4 Credits)
    Continuation of the intensive studio training work of TH 325 students in the BFA program in Acting. This studio course integrates experiences in voice, movement, and acting work through team teaching. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class time. At least four additional hours per week are protected in the schedule of all students to facilitate this important work. May be repeated once for credit. Prerequisite: BFA Acting majors only who have successfully completed a faculty review, audition, and TH 222. Co-requisite: TH 325.
    Instructor: Kathleen Donohue
  • TH327 - Advanced Musical Theatre Technique I (4 Credits)
    Intensive technique work in acting and musical theatre repertoire. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class. Semester includes specific instruction in "clean singing." Prerequisite: BFA Musical Theatre majors only who have successfully completed a faculty review, audition, and TH 222. Co-requisite: TH 329 or TH 429.
  • TH328 - Advanced Mus Th Technique II (4 Credits)
    Continuation of the intensive studio training work of TH 327 for students in the BFA program in Musical Theatre. Scenes from musical theatre and plays as well as advanced musical solo work are considered. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class. Semester includes specific work in dialects. Prerequisite: TH 327. Co-requisite: TH 329 or TH 429.
    Instructor: Scott LaFeber
  • TH329 - Musical Theatre Dance Repertoire I (2 Credits)
    Students are assigned to class by skill level as determined by musical theatre and dance faculty. Students explore various styles of musical theatre dance and hone their audition and performance skills. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: BFA Musical Theatre majors only who have successfully completed a faculty review, audition, and TH 222. Co-requisite: TH 327, TH 328, TH 427, or TH 428.
    Instructor: Margaret Gorrill
  • TH340 - AutoCAD (4 Credits)
    Students learn to use the technology of computer assisted drafting (CAD) to communicate common graphical information required in theatre design and technology. This includes the creation of ground plans, elevations, section views, orthographic views, technical details, and light plots. Students produce both electronic files and printed documents that conform to accepted theatre graphics standards. The techniques of 3D modeling and rendering are also introduced.
    Instructor: Keith Cornelius
  • TH342 - Lighting Design II (4 Credits)
    Presents approaches to lighting design and poses specific design problems for students to solve. Attention is also given to color, composition, cueing, and production through presentations and discussions in class. Students participate in department productions as assistant designers and electricians. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor:
  • TH345 - Scene Design 2 (4 Credits)
    Builds on the experience of fundamental level coursework. Students develop methods for solving the practical and aesthetic problems that a professional designer, working in theatre and allied fields, will encounter. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Timothy Jozwick
  • TH346 - Scene Painting (4 Credits)
    Students will practice with a variety of scene shop paint media and surfaces while they learn how to depict both natural and architectural forms. Both large-scale backdrop painting and more detailed faux finish techniques will be studied. Students are expected to supply appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH347 - Make-Up Effects for Film and Television (2 Credits)
    2 credits This basic course in the art of film and television make-up effects includes the use of refined cosmetics and prosthetic techniques to execute character, age, and casting molds to create appliances for extreme stylistic character make-up on a studio partner. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.Corequisite: TH247.
    Instructor: Mary Ellen Adams
  • TH348 - Costume Design 2 (4 Credits)
    Explores advanced design principles and processes in all areas of costume design. Students experience the complete process of designing costumes for a given project, including (a) creating and presenting the design concept; (b) developing appropriate paperwork for counting, building, and running costumes; and (c) budgeting specs and rendering final sketches. Students produce a portfolio of work and learn to communicate professionally with other members of the theatrical production team. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Rafael Jaen
  • TH350 - Topics in Design Presentation (4 Credits)
    Various topics provide design students with the opportunity to develop specific skills in the presentation of design concepts including, but not limited to, the areas of costume design, scenic design, lighting design, museum exhibition and installation, and/or design for film and television. Work focuses on design research, conceptualization, and methods of artistic presentation appropriate to the specific design area. Students may study model building, advanced rendering technique, drawing, computer graphics, collage, mixed media, and/or portfolio presentation. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH375 - Arts Management II (4 Credits)
    A detailed exploration of the theory and practice of arts management using current case studies from within the field. Exploration will include extensive readings, guest speakers, research, group discussions and writing exercises.
  • TH376 - Production Management (4 Credits)
    Explores professional production management in theatre, ranging from commercial and nonprofit regional theatre models to touring and special events management.
  • TH377 - Stage Management II (4 Credits)
    Addresses the students' needs for comprehensive intermediate instruction, primarily focusing on the position of the assistant stage manager and how he or she functions not only within the stage management team but also as a collaborator/facilitator on plays and musicals.
    Instructor: Debra Acquavella
  • TH381 - Directing I: Fundamentals of Directing (4 Credits)
    Major principles of play directing are studied. Through comprehensive script analysis, students become familiar with the structure of a play as a basis on which the various elements of theatre can be organized to achieve dramatic unity. Laboratory application of directing practices introduces students to the techniques employed by a director to communicate with actors and audience, including principles of composition, movement, stage business, and rhythm.
  • TH388 - Playwriting I (4 Credits)
    Working from the reading and analysis of contemporary plays, from discussions of contemporary theatrical techniques, and from exercises through which the student writer gains access to personal material, the major focus of the semester is the writing and revision of several drafts of at least 1 one-act play suitable for production on stage. Pieces, scenes, and whole plays are read in class and active participation in the workshop process is a required component of the course.
    Instructor: Andrew Clarke
  • TH410 - Principles of Dramaturgy (4 Credits)
    Provides theoretical and critical background to the profession of dramaturgy. Explores the history of dramaturgy as well as different professional venues and the variety of tasks that dramaturges perform within a particular venue. Introduces students to the areas of dramatic criticism (theatre critics and scholars, translators, script analysts, and editors), literary office dramaturgy (new script analysis, season planning, literary management of the theatre, etc.), and production dramaturgy (working with the director, audience outreach, new play development, etc.).
  • TH411 - Topics in Drama Studies (4 Credits)
    Various offerings in dramatic literature, theatre history, and/or criticism including, but not limited to, modern American drama, contemporary European and American drama, contemporary women playwrights, gay and lesbian drama, Shakespeare and the Greeks, the history of acting, the history of the physical theatre, and performance studies. All courses are reading, research, and writing intensive. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Magda Romanska
  • TH412 - Play Analysis (4 Credits)
    Introduces students to the art and skill of play analysis, with an eye toward production and cultural significance. Students learn building blocks of dramatic structure and analyze how structure contributes to the understanding of a play. They study plays, critical essays, and performances spanning 25 centuries of Western theatrical practice. Part of the class time is devoted to mapping the structures of the plays and analyzing how these structures may be used to create textually supported interpretations both on stage and in writing. Students explore the material through lecture, discussion, videos, and group activities.
  • TH421 - Advanced Acting: Special Topics (4 Credits)
    Intensive scene study and acting technique exploring specific issues of style, genre, or other defined topics. Topics offered may include, but are not limited to, Shakespeare, the Greeks, Stage Combat, Comedy, Auditions and Monologues, scene work from modern drama, Asian approaches to theatre and performance, Self-Scripting, Solo Performance, Advanced Voice/Dialects, Acting for the Camera, and Musical Theatre Performance. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • TH422 - Acting for the Camera (4 Credits)
    Prepares acting students for work on camera. Coursework includes: improvisation, monologues, and scene work. A portion of the course is devoted to the business of acting with special attention to film and television auditioning. Technical skills for film and television performance and an introduction to the elements of film production and emerging media are a component of the course. Part of the semester is devoted to working with a Visual and Media Arts undergraduate directing class.
    Instructor: Kenneth Cheeseman
  • TH425 - BFA Acting Studio 3 (4 Credits)
    Continuation of the intensive studio training work of TH 325 and TH 326 for students in the BFA program in Acting. Scene study problems move toward issues of style, including a range of aesthetic and acting style issues. This studio course integrates experiences in voice, movement, stage combat (including unarmed and Elizabethan rapier), and acting work through team teaching. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class time. At least four additional hours per week are protected in the schedule of all students to facilitate this important work. Co-requisite: TH 426.
    Instructor: Sarah Hickler
  • TH426 - BFA Acting Studio 4 (4 Credits)
    Continuation of the intensive studio training work of TH 425 for students in the BFA program in Acting. Beyond continued scene work, significant attention is paid to audition technique and to a thorough orientation to the profession and the business of acting. This studio course integrates experiences in voice, movement, and acting work through team teaching. Significant personal and group preparation is required outside of class time. At least four additional hours per week are protected in the schedule of all students to facilitate this important work. Co-requisite: TH 425.
    Instructor: Craig Mathers
  • TH427 - Musical Theatre Styles I (4 Credits)
    An intensive investigation of pop-rock styles, both in pure pop repertoire and contemporary musical theatre repertoire, in solo work and scenes. The semester culminates in individual cabaret performances, created by the students themselves, in a public performance. Co-requisite: TH 329 or TH 429.
  • TH428 - Musical Theatre Styles II (4 Credits)
    Senior-level BFA Musical Theatre majors continue the exploration of musical theatre genres and styles as they propose, rehearse, produce, and perform their own final projects in collaboration with their classmates. These projects are full concert-style performances of complete works from the musical theatre canon. In addition, one class per week is devoted to preparations for the Senior Showcase, which is performed for students, families, and industry professionals during commencement weekend. Co-requisite: TH 329 or TH 429.
    Instructor: Stephen Terrell
  • TH429 - Musical Theatre Dance Repertoire II (2 Credits)
    Students are assigned to class by skill level, as determined by musical theatre and dance faculty. Students explore various styles of musical theatre dance and hone their audition and performance skills. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: BFA Musical Theatre majors only who have successfully completed a faculty review, audition, and TH 222. Co-requisite: TH 327, TH 328, TH 427, or TH 428.
    Instructor: Stephanie Heroux
  • TH440 - Technical Theatre Laboratory (4 Credits)
    Various workshops are structured to introduce students to a broad range of technical experience. The subject matter for these workshops may include: 1. Properties design and construction 2. Audio design for performing arts 3. Advanced electrics 4. Design and construction for film and television Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH441 - Topics in Technical Design (4 Credits)
    Introduces the organization of the scene shop, tool maintenance and usage, construction techniques, technical drawing development, computer applications, rigging, and time and material budgeting. Students complete class projects and work on Emerson Stage productions. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed. May be repeated for credit.
  • TH443 - Lighting Design III (4 Credits)
    This advanced course encompasses esthetic, technical, and practical instruction in the development of the art and craft of lighting design as it applies to museums, exhibits, event design, and other non-traditional venues. Students learn the skills necessary to move a lighting design from client meetings to completion with a special focus on how that design will be represented in the many venues required in event planning. Additionally, students learn to analyze client needs and translate ideas into visual images to be presented at the event.
  • TH447 - Topics in Makeup (3 Credits)
    Topics in Makeup. See individual section offerings for details. Offered in Summer only.
  • TH450 - Drawing for Theatre and Film (4 Credits)
    Encourages students to view drawing as an organizing tool for thought, personal image exploration, and as an art of visual storytelling. Students create work exploring materials suited to their ideas, using a variety of media and papers. Lectures and visual presentations introduce students to artists in the worlds of fine arts, theatre, and film for whom drawing is an integral part of their creative process: William Kentridge, Robert Wilson, Eric Drooker, Raymond Pettibon, and a number of classic and contemporary artists whose drawing communicates information, narrates a story, creates a scenario, or conjures a world or system of belief.
  • TH460 - Drama as Education I (4 Credits)
    Examines the philosophy behind the teaching of theatre and the use of drama as an educational tool in classroom, workshop, and production settings. Students learn to assess the learning needs of their students, develop appropriate educational goals, and design and implement teaching strategies. There are 40 hours of pre-practicum work, including observations of area theatre and drama classes from grades pre-K through 12. Course is open to any Performing Arts major and others with permission of instructor. It is required for Theatre Education majors seeking initial licensure as a Teacher of Theatre.
  • TH461 - Drama as Education 2 (4 Credits)
    Students delve more deeply into the philosophy and practice of teaching through drama and theatre. Forty hours of pre-practicum work with students from grades pre-K through 12 is required. Course is required for Theatre Education majors seeking initial licensure as a Teacher of Theatre.
    Instructor: Bethany Nelson
  • TH463 - Student Teaching Seminar (2 Credits)
    Students concurrently enrolled in TH 465, Student Teaching Practicum, also attend this weekly seminar to explore issues, resources, questions, problems, and solutions to the teaching/learning challenges they are facing in their practicum experience. Topics pertinent to beginning teachers, including classroom management strategies and curriculum and lesson plan development are explored. Students reflect on their teaching experiences and critically examine their current and future roles as classroom instructors. Students will understand the need for a community of teachers and gain a sense of confidence about their teaching skills. Co-requisite: TH465.
    Instructor: Robert Colby
  • TH465 - Student Teaching Practicum (2 Credits)
    An 8- to 14-week practicum providing supervised student teaching activities at either the elementary, middle, or high school level. Students practice teaching in a school system, which permits them to interact with students and teachers in their area of concentration. Working closely with the on-site supervising practitioner, students develop instructional units and must be engaged in 300 hours of teaching. The practicum is open only to students who have completed their education program sequence. Co-requisite: TH463.
    Instructors: Robert Colby, Angela Zomer
  • TH467 - Special Topics in Theatre Education (4 Credits)
    Examines such topics as theatre-in-education, puppetry, playwriting with and for youth, theatre education outreach, and the teaching of dance and movement. Subject matter varies each semester.
    Instructor: Bethany Nelson
  • TH470 - Design in Practice Topics (4 Credits)
    In this advanced course of study, students develop the required practical skills necessary for the design and execution of a theatrical production design. Students further develop the ability to analyze a script, song, or score and translate the ideas therein into visual images. They learn to move a design from concept to completion under the actual "in theatre" conditions, while still maintaining a safe, constructive learning environment. They put into actual practice the equipment, methods, procedures, and skills necessary to implement a successful design. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH475 - Practicum: Arts Management (4 Credits)
    Students gain practical experience in arts management under faculty supervision. Includes reading and writing assignments, as appropriate, for the serious arts management student.
  • TH477 - Stage Management III (4 Credits)
    Provides students with the additional tools, techniques, and information to build the bridge from practicing stage management in an educational environment to the professional theatre or MFA program through in-depth study of the Actor's Equity Rules, creation of complex repertory rehearsal schedules of multiple productions, and hands-on training exercises of calling musical show cues with lighting, automation, and fly to music with cue lights.
  • TH479 - Topics in the Business of Theatre (4 Credits)
    Various topics related to the business of theatre for future working professionals are explored. Different sections approach issues relevant to specific career paths, i.e., acting, design, stage management, etc., such as: the finding of appropriate audition material, and audition and casting process in theatre, film, and television; the requirements for admission to professional trade unions, AEA, and exploration of service organizations; issues of titles, licenses, and/or permits; preparing a professional resume and/or portfolio, job strategies using online sources for entry-level work; entrepreneurial opportunities and interaction with allied businesses and fundraising for nonprofit companies; and other topics as appropriate to individual sections.
    Instructor: Carolyn Pickman
  • TH482 - Directing II: Theory and Practice (4 Credits)
    Extending the experiences of Directing I, this course emphasizes the application and unification of stage directing techniques and theories leading to a concept for production. Through selected scenes and projects for class presentation, students continue the exploration of materials and methods of communicating the dramatic content of a script to an audience.
    Instructor: Joseph Antoun
  • TH488 - Playwriting II (4 Credits)
    Includes, but is not limited to, the study of dramaturgical elements in the work of contemporary and classic playwrights, as well as continued study of story development, structure, and the use of dialogue. Students present a variety of work in class, their own and the work of others, looking at plays from the perspective of the actor, director, designer and, most importantly, the audience. By the end of the semester, students complete the first draft of a newly conceived full-length play or the third draft of the one-act play begun in Playwriting I.
    Instructor: Andrew Clarke
  • TH514 - Theatre Studies Seminar (4 Credits)
    Examines and explores various topics in theatre studies, including, but not limited to, the areas of theatre history, criticism, theory, aesthetics, performance studies, and dramatic literature. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • TH521 - Ensemble Workshop Topics (4 Credits)
    Students create a workshop production focused on a collective approach to theatrical collaboration. Research and in-depth study of the chosen source material accompany practical application and approaches to working in an ensemble, leading to a public showing of the group's work.
    Instructor: Christina Marin
  • TH540 - Puppetry (4 Credits)
    The art of puppetry and the basic methods of construction, operation, manipulation, and performance of puppets are examined. Emphasis is on the use of puppets as an educational tool. Projects include creating examples of each of the four major types of puppets: shadow, hand, rod, and marionette -- using a range of construction techniques and materials appropriate to an educational setting. The course culminates in the construction of puppets for in-class presentations. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
    Instructor: Mary Ellen Adams
  • TH562 - Theatre for Young Audiences (4 Credits)
    Introduces the scope, purposes, and history of theatre experiences for children and adolescents. Topics include play reading and analysis, the examination of formal and participatory theatre, and theatre-in-education techniques.
  • TH567 - Playwriting for and with Youth (4 Credits)
    Introduces a variety of schemes and stimuli to use in writing scripts for child or youth audiences or to use in helping young people write their own plays. Attention is given to freeing and stretching the imagination, issues of structure, and methods of play development, culminating in readings of new work. Class work includes writing, improvising, reading aloud, critiquing, and discussing work for and with youth.
  • TH579 - 10K and Under: Writing the Small Arts Grant (4 Credits)
    Students design grant proposals with a focus on community-based projects, learning grant writing, skill building, and developing relationships with local arts funders and community artists successful at grant writing and community-based collaborations. Skills include research, budget preparation, developing "boilerplate" data, and writing for specific constituencies and potential audiences.
    Instructor: Gail Burton
  • TH584 - Directing the Musical (4 Credits)
    Explores the conceptual and structural material pertinent to the musical play form with emphasis on developing skills in the staging of the materials through the coordination of music, lyrics, and dialogue. Each student is required to stage scenes from musicals for class demonstration. Selected students are assigned to stage mini-musicals for public presentation.
  • TH589 - Playwriting Workshop (4 Credits)
    Provides students with the ability to experience exercises designed to generate ideas, develop playwriting technique, and explore the theatrical realization of text.
  • TH611 - Seminar in Dramatic Lit (4 Credits)
    Selected periods and topics in dramatic literature are discussed; subject matter varies each semester.
  • TH612 - 20th Century Dramatic Theory (4 Credits)
    Introduces students to 20th-century dramatic theory from both academic and performance-based perspectives. Focuses on the fundamental issues raised by contemporary criticism, such as Modernism, Post-Modernism, Materialism, Psychoanalysis, Deconstruction, Feminism, Queer Theory, and Post-Colonial theory; and the ways in which contemporary theory challenges notions of race, gender, and sexuality. Analyzes the notions of identity and post-identity and how they subsequently developed. Looks at how theory can illuminate our understanding of dramatic texts (characters, concepts, and milieus), how it influenced the 20th-century drama, and how it developed in response to and in the context of drama. Although students begin with the early 20th-century texts, the primary focus is on the post-WWII period (1950s and after).
  • TH614 - Theatre Studies Seminar (4 Credits)
    Examination and exploration of various topics in theater studies, including but not limited to the areas of theater history, criticism, theory, aesthetics, performance studies, and dramatic literature. May be repeated for credit if topic differs.
    Instructor:
  • TH621 - Special Topics in Acting (4 Credits)
    Involves intensive explorations of specific topics.
  • TH622 - Principles of Acting (4 Credits)
    This introductory course has the dual objectives of developing students' abilities as actors and as coaches and teachers of acting in either classroom or rehearsal settings. Skills in improvisation and in working with scripted material will be honed, and attention will be given to movement and voice as a part of the acting process. The course also explores how and when to use these techniques, particularly with adolescent actors.
    Instructor: Nancy Finn
  • TH625 - Performance: Theatre and Community (4 Credits)
    Examines the relationships between theatre and culture, where culture is understood as a process of knowing the other, of looking and listening, of creating and maintaining connection in a community. An examination of theoretical texts in economics, history, sociology, cultural studies, politics, and performance provides a foundation for exploring and experiencing various techniques of making theatre in community.
  • TH627 - Playing the Self (4 Credits)
    This is an acting course. In it, students generate and develop personal stories and discover the most theatrical way to tell them. By developing personal material, students learn how to make choices from content and characterization to style and presentation. Through improvisations, students learn to do what actors do best, act. This process is spontaneous and in the moment, and discoveries are made not in the head but on one's feet.
  • TH628 - Playing the Other (4 Credits)
    This is an acting studio course, where students explore social, cultural, political, and aesthetic questions of playing characters of different racial, ethnic, gender, ability, sexual and other human identities, in acting work. Questions of appropriation, authenticity, and artistic license are considered. The actor's dramaturgy wherein one studies the bigger social and political contexts of characters is also considered.
    Instructor: Robbie McCauley
  • TH640 - Special Topics in Design and Technical Theatre (2 Credits)
    Students are placed in undergraduate design or technical theatre classes at an appropriate skill level, and also attend a bi-weekly graduate seminar. Coursework includes scene design, scene painting, scene and property construction, model building, television design, costume design, costume construction, lighting, technical theatre, audio design, and puppetry. Students are expected to provide appropriate materials as needed.
  • TH650 - Design in Production (4 Credits)
    This course is a comprehensive survey of scene, lighting, and costume design as they relate to the work of the non-design specialist. Emphasis is placed on the interconnection among the various design areas and their function in the process of making theatre. Students are expected to supply appropriate materials.
    Instructor: Brynna Bloomfield
  • TH660 - Drama as Education I (4 Credits)
    Students examine the philosophical foundations of theatre, speech, and the use of drama as an educational tool. They explore the uses of creative drama/improvisation in both formal and informal learning environments. Students learn to assess needs, develop appropriate educational goals and objectives, and design and implement teaching strategies using drama. This course is required for students seeking the Initial License in Massachusetts as a Teacher of Theatre (pre-K through grade 12). Readings, class participation, and participation in laboratory teaching sessions are required.
  • TH661 - Drama as Education II (4 Credits)
    Students explore the principles of educational drama and the teaching of drama and speech. A survey of various educational resources available to drama and speech teachers is included. The role of drama and speech within the wider context of the arts in education is discussed. This course is required for students seeking the Initial License in Massachusetts as a Teacher of Theatre (pre-K through grade 12).
  • TH662 - Playmaking (4 Credits)
    This course is designed to provide an intensive introduction and exploration of playmaking with young people, ages 8-21. The course offers a variety of approaches to developing original material with students, and identifies strategies for integrating curriculum topics and playmaking, as well as social, personal, and societal exploration.
  • TH663 - Student Teaching Seminar (2 Credits)
    Students concurrently enrolled in TH 665, Student Teaching Practicum, also attend this weekly seminar to explore issues, resources, questions, problems, and solutions to the teaching/learning challenges they are facing in their practicum experience. Topics pertinent to beginning teachers, including classroom management strategies and curriculum and lesson plan development are explored. Students reflect on their teaching experiences and critically examine their current and future roles as classroom instructors. Students will understand the need for a community of teachers and gain a sense of confidence about their teaching skills. Prerequisite: Permission of the Theatre Education Program Director. Co-requisite: TH665.
    Instructor: Robert Colby
  • TH665 - Student Teaching Practicum (2 Credits)
    This 8- to 14-week practicum provides supervised teaching activities at either the elementary, middle, or high school level. Students practice teaching in a school system that permits them to interact with students and teachers in their area of concentration. Working closely with the on-site supervising practitioner, students develop instructional units and must be engaged in 300 hours of teaching. The practicum is open only to students who have completed their program sequence. Requirements and prerequisites may be obtained from the Theatre Education program director. Co-requisite: TH 663.
    Instructors: Robert Colby, Christina Marin, Angela Zomer
  • TH667 - Special Topics in Theatre Education (4 Credits)
    Examines such topics as theatre-in-education, puppetry, playwriting with and for youth, theatre education outreach, and the teaching of dance and movement. Subject matter varies each semester. May be repeated for credit.
    Instructor: Ronald Santoro
  • TH668 - Pract: Multicultural Education (4 Credits)
    Introduces students to a variety of perspectives and approaches to solving the "problem" of multicultural education. Includes an exploration of the range of issues involved in this complex topic, such as curricular and teaching issues, social and behavioral issues, bilingual education, testing systems, tracking, and cultural and ethnic power dynamics. Also focuses on the ways in which drama and theatre can facilitate change in these areas.
  • TH669 - Contemporary Issues in Education (4 Credits)
    Students examine the critical, philosophical, historical, and sociological issues facing education in general, and communication and performing arts education in particular. Students will also evaluate current research in communication and performing arts education and apply it to practice.
  • TH680 - Directing: Theory and Practice (4 Credits)
    The directorial process is examined, beginning with textual analysis of dramatic action, and covering such areas as ground plans, pictorial composition, movement, and stage action. The relationship of the director and other theater artists is also studied. Student work includes selected scenes and projects prepared for class presentation.
    Instructor: Steven Yakutis
  • TH681 - Special Topics in Directing (4 Credits)
    Focuses on project work in directing supplemented by readings and discussion. Consideration is given to advanced directorial problems of planning and rehearsal, and to strategies for dealing with casting, characterization, language, physicalization, and actor-director relations.
  • VM100 - History of Media Arts I (4 Credits)
    This is the first of a two-semester course that explores the historical development of the media arts, including the film, broadcasting, and sound recording industries until 1965. Investigates the relationships between economics, industrial history, and social and political systems, and the styles and techniques of specific films and broadcast programs. Special attention is given to the diversity of styles of presentation in the media.
    Instructor: Michael Selig
  • VM101 - History of Media Arts II (4 Credits)
    This is the second of a two-semester course that explores the historical development of the media arts, focusing on the continuing development of the film, broadcasting, and sound recording industries after 1965, as well as the development of video and digital technologies. Investigates the relationships between economics, industrial history, and social and political systems, and the styles and techniques of specific films and videos, broadcast programs, and digital media products.
  • VM102 - Dimensions of Creativity (4 Credits)
    Provides students with the opportunity to explore their ideas, expand their imaginations, and find the courage to express their creativity. Built around a series of lectures and workshops activated through individual and group projects, the course introduces students to the creative process through an exploration of various dimensions of media-making: ideation, visualization, sound/music, and performance. While the emphasis of the course is on creativity, students also gain a basic understanding of technique and technology in service of their creative ideas.
  • VM105 - Introduction to Visual Arts (4 Credits)
    Investigates the visual language of communication shared among all of the visual arts, emphasizing visual analysis, understanding of materials, the history of style and techniques, and the functions and meanings of art in its varied manifestations. Provides a foundation for subsequent studies in the visual and media arts.
    Instructor: De-nin Lee
  • VM115 - Foundations in VMA Production (4 Credits)
    Combination of lectures and hands-on workshops examining the relationships among photography, graphics, audio, film, video, and digital media within the context of cross-media concepts, theories, and applications. Traces the creative process from conception and writing through production and post-production. Students proceed through a series of exercises that will lead to completion of a final project, establishing a foundation for advanced production coursework. Offered in Summer only.
  • VM116 - Intro to Film Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces the basics of non-synchronous 16mm filmmaking, including camera operation, principles of cinematography and lighting for black-and-white film, non-sync sound recording and transfers, and picture and sound editing. Offered in Summer only.
  • VM117 - Computer Animation (4 Credits)
    This course introduces students to the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling and animation. Students learn to model, texture objects, compose and light scenes, animate, and add dynamics, as well as to render their animations into movies and to compositing movies, audio, titles, and credits in post-production. Offered in Summer only.
  • VM118 - Writing the Feature Film (4 Credits)
    Examines the fundamentals of writing for narrative feature-length film. Investigates structure, character, conflict, scene writing, and dialogue, taking students from ideation through to the development of a detailed outline. Students will write the first 25-30 pages of a screenplay. Offered in Summer only.
  • VM120 - Foundations in Visual and Media Arts Production (4 Credits)
    A combination of lectures and hands-on workshops examines the relationships among photography, graphics, audio, film, video, and digital media within the context of cross-media concepts, theories, and applications. Traces the creative process from conception and writing through production and post-production. Students proceed through a series of exercises that lead to completion of a final project, establishing a foundation for advanced production coursework.
  • VM200 - Media Criticism and Theory (4 Credits)
    Explores theoretical and critical approaches to the study of photography, film, television and video, audio, and digital culture. Theories and methods examine issues relating to production and authorship in the media arts, audience reception and effects, political ideology, ethics, aesthetics, cultural diversity, and schools of thought within the liberal arts. Extensive critical writing and reading in media criticism and theory.
  • VM202 - Critical Listening (4 Credits)
    Provides a study of the psycho-acoustic perception and analysis of classical and contemporary use of sound in the media. Students identify and define acoustic variables, comparing past and present recordings in all media.
    Instructor: David Doms
  • VM203 - History of Photography (4 Credits)
    Surveys the aesthetic and technical development of photography from its invention to the present day, with emphasis on the 20th century, including critical analysis of the medium central to understanding the influence and appropriation of photography today.
    Instructors: Brian McNeil,
  • VM204 - Topics in Media Arts: Practice (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of media arts practice. May be repeated for credit it topics differ.
  • VM210 - History of Western Art I: Renaissance and Baroque (4 Credits)
    Explores Renaissance and Baroque art, beginning with Proto-Renaissance works in the 14th century, and concluding with the Late Baroque in the later 17th/early 18th century. Students study major works and artists characterizing these movements, and the critical treatment they received over the centuries.
    Instructor: Judith Hull
  • VM211 - History of Western Art II: 18th and 19th Century Art (4 Credits)
    Investigates the evolution of the arts in the Western tradition through the 18th and 19th centuries. Major works, styles, and artists are examined within the context of contemporaneous sociocultural movements, such as the Enlightenment. Among the movements studied are: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Art Nouveau, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism.
  • VM212 - History of Western Art III: Modern (4 Credits)
    Examines the major styles, works, and artists of the first half of the 20th century, prior to the advent of Abstract Expressionism. Examines a wide variety of European and American modern art, investigating critical and public reactions. Among the movements studied are: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, the Bauhaus, Constructivism, and De Stijl.
  • VM213 - History of Western Art IV: Post World War II (4 Credits)
    Chronological study of Western contemporary art after World War II, starting with Abstract Expressionism. Considers the major styles, works, and artists, investigating numerous forms of European and American contemporary art, and their attendant criticism, in a broad contextual framework. Among the movements studied are: Pop Art, Minimalism, New Realism, Postmodernism, Conceptualism, Neo-Expressionism, Graffiti, Photorealism, Earth Works, and Performance Art.
    Instructor: Cher Knight
  • VM214 - History of Non-Western Art I: Asia and the Mideast (4 Credits)
    Examines styles of and critical approaches to East, South, and Southeast Asian art, including China, Japan, India, and the arts of the Mideast, especially those of Islam. Artworks and artists are presented with concern for respective cultural traditions and diverse perspectives, considering how indigenous philosophical and spiritual beliefs, and sociocultural and political structures, inform the artworks.
  • VM215 - History of Non-Western Art II: Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas (4 Credits)
    Examines the artistic styles of Africa (including the Diaspora), Islam, Pacific cultures, and the Americas (Mesoamerica, South, Central, and indigenous North America). Artworks are contextualized through their indigenous traditions, as well as a diversity of critical perspectives. Considers how respective philosophical and spiritual beliefs, and sociocultural and political structures, inform the artworks.
  • VM218 - The Artist and the Making of Meaning (4 Credits)
    Introduces semiotics and structuralism as they apply to the relation between art and language. Offers students a systematic approach to thinking critically and creatively about art, particularly in the late 20th and early 21st century.
  • VM220 - Writing the Short Subject (4 Credits)
    Studies the writing of the short subject within the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and experimental concepts and scripts (including animation). Scripts range from 3 to 15 minutes and are suitable for production within the budget and time constraints of an Emerson College class. Students complete comprehensive revisions of their work.
  • VM221 - Writing the Feature Film (4 Credits)
    Examines the fundamentals of writing for narrative feature-length film. Investigates structure, character, conflict, scene writing, and dialogue, taking students from ideation through to the development of a detailed outline. Students write the first 25-30 pages of a screenplay.
  • VM222 - Writing for Television (4 Credits)
    Examines writing for television in a variety of formats, with a predominant emphasis on situation comedies and drama. The elements of each genre are analyzed, challenging students to find their own unique "voice," and new and innovative ways to write stories within established formats. Also covered are reality television and children's television, story outlining, and script formatting. Each student writes a first-draft script of an existing sitcom or drama.
  • VM230 - Introduction to Film Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces the basics of non-synchronous 16mm filmmaking, including camera operation, principles of cinematography and lighting for black-and-white film, non-sync sound recording and transfers, and picture and sound editing.
  • VM231 - Intermediate Film Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces the technical, conceptual, and procedural skills necessary to successfully complete a short double-system sync-sound 16mm film, including pre-production, production, and post-production procedures and techniques.
  • VM240 - Introduction to Video Field Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces single-camera video production. Students learn the equipment and techniques used in single-camera field production and post-production, writing, and producing a variety of projects, edited in digital non-linear mode.
  • VM241 - Introduction to Studio TV Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces studio television practice. Students learn the principles of pre-production, production, and post-production for the studio as well as control room procedures. Students prepare their own multi-camera, live-on-tape studio productions.
  • VM250 - Introduction to Sound Principles and Audio Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces audio physics, sound principles,and the theory and practice of audio recording and mixing. Emphasis is on concept development for sound production, signal routing and the mixer console, analog and digital audio recording, and editing techniques.
  • VM251 - Location Sound Recording (4 Credits)
    Intensive study in the theory and practice of field/location and studio audio recording for film, video, and television. Covers techniques in the use of field/studio recorders and mixers, microphones, boom poles, and shot blocking. Also covers tape-based and hard-disk digital recorders, and time-code synchronization management.
    Instructor: Mark van Bork
  • VM260 - Introduction to Digital Media Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces the theory and practice of interactive media. Stresses the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical concerns of interactivity. Technologies covered are HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Additional topics include semantic web design and development, graphics and imaging, interface design, user experience, project management, and the mobile web. Emphasis is on making creative works.
    Instructor: Brooke Knight
  • VM261 - Computer Animation (4 Credits)
    The first course of a two-course sequence, introducing students to the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling and animation, and preparing them for the second course, VM 363 Advanced Computer Animation. Students learn to model, texture objects, compose and light scenes, animate, and add dynamics, as well as render animations into movies and compositing audio, titles, and credits in post-production.
    Instructors: Anya Belkina,
  • VM262 - Drawing (4 Credits)
    Introduces basic techniques in drawing, exploring the use of line and image in contemporary art. The language of drawing in contemporary art and architecture will inform the practice of drawing.
    Instructor: William DeWolf
  • VM263 - Drawing For Time-Based Media (4 Credits)
    Imparts key drawing skills required in pre-visualization, concept art creation, set design, storyboarding, two-dimensional media production, and post-production. Develops students' abilities to think spatially, whether constructing a plan for a set or depicting a character in action. Also focuses on anatomy, locomotion, and communication possibilities of the human form.
    Instructor: Anya Belkina
  • VM265 - Introduction to Photography (4 Credits)
    Introduces the fundamentals of black-and-white photography, including camera controls, film development, printing, and photo finishing. Critiques of student work will develop "the critical eye." Students must have the use of a camera with adjustable speed and aperture.
  • VM300 - Topics in Vis & Med Arts: Stud (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of media arts history, theory, and criticism. May be repeated for credit it topics differ.
  • VM303 - Studies in Digital Media and Culture (4 Credits)
    Examines the dramatic shift in meaning and processes of contemporary communication by investigating the social, artistic, economic, and political implications of using digital ways of working. Topics include the Internet and the web, cyberspace and censorship, games, digital film and video, multimedia and interactivity, virtual reality, person-machine interfaces, and globalization considerations.
  • VM304 - History of Documentary (4 Credits)
    Examines the history and theory of documentary media production, with attention to the economic, technological, ethical, and aesthetic concerns of documentarians.
  • VM305 - History of Experimental/Avant-garde (4 Credits)
    Examines the history and theory of experimental and avant-garde film, video, and other moving image practices and their connections to broader art and social movements. Through extensive reading and viewing, students investigate avant-garde and experimental cinema form, style, and content as well as historical and contemporary filmmakers' production methods and distribution networks in film communities and the art world.
    Instructor: Kathryn Ramey
  • VM306 - Film and Television Genres (4 Credits)
    Explores the practice of genre criticism in film and television through the examination of one or more film and television genres (e.g., the western, science fiction, or domestic melodrama and soap operas). Employing the principles of genre criticism, students investigate the historical development of a genre in film and television series.
  • VM307 - Communication Ethics and Cultural Diversity (4 Credits)
    Inspects ethical issues, including racial and ethnic prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping, from a philosophical and case study approach. Topics such as privacy, piracy, censorship, offensiveness, deception, ethnocentricity, pornography, racism, confidentiality, fairness, and hate speech are investigated in a variety of communication media--computer technology, photography, video, speech, audio, film, and print--both in international and U.S. domains.
  • VM308 - Cinema and Social Change (4 Credits)
    Throughout cinema's history, numerous filmmakers have sought to harness the power of the medium and to channel it in the service of political and social change. Have they made a difference and by what measure and what strategy: Surveying fiction and documentary, commercial and independent cinema, features and shorts, this course aims to offer a wide-ranging examination of the ways directors around the world have employed their art and their craft in the pursuit of fostering social justice.
  • VM315 - Topics in Art History (4 Credits)
    Studies a selected topic in art history. Emphasizes critical analyses of artworks with respect to their aesthetic, historical, sociocultural, philosophical and/or political contexts. Image lectures, museum and/or gallery visits, reading, class discussion, and project activities may be utilized to engage students in the material. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructors: Joseph Ketner, De-nin Lee, Amber Tourlentes
  • VM320 - Feature Writing Workshop (4 Credits)
    Working from detailed outlines developed in VM 221 Writing the Feature Film, students complete a first draft, feature-length screenplay. Students read each other's work, write a critical analysis of each segment, and engage in discussion of aesthetics, craft, and form.
  • VM322 - Comedy Writing for Television (4 Credits)
    Examines writing television comedy with an emphasis on sitcoms. Areas of study also include sketch writing and writing for late-night TV. Students learn how to writie physical comedy, how to write for existing shows and characters, sitcom structure, format, and joke writing. Each student writes a script for an existing sitcom that will be workshopped.
    Instructor: Martie Cook
  • VM323 - Writing Primetime Drama (4 Credits)
    Examines writing for primetime television drama, including study of the history of television drama and the difference between plot-driven dramas and character-driven dramas, writing effective protagonists and antagonists, and writing for existing dramas and characters. Students write a script for an existing primetime television drama that will be workshopped in class.
    Instructor: James Macak
  • VM324 - Topics in Screenplay Genres (4 Credits)
    Studies a given genre from the perspective of the screenwriter. Working in a specific genre, students write a treatment, an original outline for a feature film, and up to the first half of a script in the specific genre. Honing critical skills, students engage in analytical and aesthetic discourse about their own work, as well as material written by others. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM325 - Writing the Adaptation (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the process of analyzing material from another medium (e.g., novels, plays, comic books) and translating into a screenplay. Students write one original first act of a public domain property, as well as one analytical paper.
  • VM328 - Topics in Film Writing (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in varying areas of film writing. Topics may include dialogue, great screenwriters, scene study and rewriting. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM329 - Topics in Television Writing (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in varying areas of television writing. Topics may include webisodes, reality television, and comedy writing for late night. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM331 - Topics in Vis & Med: Practice (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of media arts practice. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Lawrence Sampson
  • VM332 - Production Management (4 Credits)
    Introduces the budgeting and logistical organization of film and television productions, reviewing the roles of Associate Producer, Production Unit Manager, First Assistant, Second Assistant Location Manager, and other members of the producer's and director's teams.
    Instructor: Philip Mondello
  • VM335 - Alternative Production Techniques for Filmmaking (4 Credits)
    Intermediate-level 16mm production workshop in the use of unorthodox, non-computer-driven methods and processes for developing and producing motion pictures. Provides an overview of historic methods of formal exploration of the basic materials of film as a projection medium, including camera-less filmmaking, direct animation, and loop projections, as well as alternative mechanical processes such as xerography, hand process, and alternative camera tools and techniques. Primary emphasis is on creative invention and exploration.
  • VM338 - Performance for Television (4 Credits)
    Introduces performance as an expression of personality and production. "On camera" assignments include public service announcements, editorials, interviews, commercials, and other forms of studio presentation. Students also receive instruction in basic studio operations.
  • VM350 - Sound Design (4 Credits)
    Introduces the art of inventing sounds and composing soundtracks for visual media such as film, video, computer animation, and websites. Focus is on audio post-production and the roles of the supervising sound editor and the sound designer. Post-production techniques include sound recording, sound editing, and sound mixing in stereo and surround sound.
    Instructor: Brian McKeever
  • VM351 - Audio for New Media (4 Credits)
    Focuses on the creative possibilities of sound in a variety of digital media environments. Topics include MIDI control, digital sound synthesis, data compression, and real-time control of sound within applications such as Flash, MAX/MSP/Jitters, and CSound.
  • VM352 - Studio Recording (4 Credits)
    Explores the principal tools of the professional audio production studio and how they can be used for creative productions. Includes instruction in multi-track recording and sound processing equipment.
    Instructor: Owen Curtin
  • VM355 - Radio Programming (4 Credits)
    Focuses on programming a radio station in today's competitive media environment. Topics include basic principles of radio programming, positioning against the competition, selecting and leading an air staff, music, news, and talk programming.
  • VM356 - Marketing and Promotion for Radio and Audio (4 Credits)
    Explores the techniques, methods, goals, and ethics of successful promotions, including the components of an effective promotions team. Includes the planning, coordination, and implementation of a promotion campaign.
    Instructor: Jack Casey
  • VM360 - Film Animation (4 Credits)
    Introduces film animation in which short animated exercises and individual sequences are located within a survey of animation as an art form and commercial product. Students employ a range of media, exploring and developing ideas and skills in producing 16mm animated sequences, culminating in a final project.
    Instructor: Joseph Kolbe
  • VM362 - Motion Graphics (4 Credits)
    Covers the practice and art of motion graphics and visual effects, including the design process, artistic concepts, and technologies. Production techniques range from title sequences for film, to compositing of real and virtual worlds and a myriad of digital time-based art forms. Students make a series of projects using post-production and compositing software.
  • VM363 - Advanced Computer Animation (4 Credits)
    The second course in the two-course computer animation sequence, introducing students to advanced three-dimensional modeling and animation techniques and preparing them for independent computer animation production work. Continues to develop skills acquired in computer animation, including modeling, texturing objects, composing and lighting scenes, animating, dynamics, rendering, and post-production compositing.
  • VM364 - 3D Computer Gaming (4 Credits)
    Provides students with the fundamentals of game design and theory. Students learn to create and import assets, develop objectives, script behaviors and action, and build game levels. Students complete the course with an original portfolio-ready single player game.
    Instructor:
  • VM365 - Intermediate Photography (4 Credits)
    This intermediate course in black-and-white photography is designed to present a variety of "ways of seeing" by examining frame, tone, point of view, scale, time, and sequence. Students must have access to a camera with adjustable speed and aperture.
    Instructors: Jane Akiba, Lauren Shaw
  • VM366 - Digital Image for Photographers (4 Credits)
    Provides a basic introduction to the elements of electronic, digitally realized, and manipulated photography. Students learn computer-related input and output devices for photographic imaging, and create work produced on the page and the screen. Addresses the need to understand the potential for the computer manipulation of photo-real images in design and illustration, and introduces the computer as a tool within the context of traditional camera and darkroom photography.
    Instructor: Lauren Shaw
  • VM367 - Digital Color Photography (4 Credits)
    Explores color photography through the rapidly evolving digital process. Emphasizes the use of color in photographs and encourages students to find connections between their subjects and colors in their images. Students learn color-managed workflows on industry-standard equipment and gain a deeper understanding of color itself as a medium of expression.
    Instructor: Camilo Ramirez
  • VM370 - Business Concepts for Modern Media (4 Credits)
    Focuses on strategic thinking, planning, organization, and implementation of media projects from conception (pre-production) through release/distribution/exhibition (theatrical, non-theatrical, digital, web). Includes acquiring fundamental skills and a working knowledge of business math, business plans, intellectual property and copyright basics, grant writing and resources, and current trends in advertising, marketing, and press package materials.
  • VM371 - Alternative Media Production: Out of the Box (4 Credits)
    Fosters an exploratory approach to making media projects by providing unorthodox conceptual frameworks in which students conceive and execute short projects using both conventional and unconventional acquisition devices in a variety of media. Students work individually or collaboratively throughout the course to develop ideas and acquire material for assignments.
    Instructor: Robert Todd
  • VM372 - Directing Image and Sound (4 Credits)
    Examines a director's preparation in detail, with particular emphasis on forming creative approaches to the script, as well as image and sound design. Production and post-production strategies are also addressed.
  • VM373 - Directing Actors for the Screen (4 Credits)
    Develops skills in directing actors in dramatic performances for the screen. Students are taken step by step through the directing process with a particular emphasis on research and visualization, as they learn how to plan and direct narrative sequences. Classes will be offered in conjunction with Acting for the Camera classes in Performing Arts.
  • VM375 - Advanced Interactive Media (4 Credits)
    Continues to explore interactive media, including consideration of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical concerns. Technologies covered include interactive web elements, databases, mobile development, and an introduction to programming. Emphasis is on making creative works.
    Instructor: Brooke Knight
  • VM376 - Editing for Film and Video (4 Credits)
    Furthers understanding of and ability to work with medium- to long-format post-production processes through editing assignments in film and video, along with critical examination of completed motion pictures.
  • VM377 - Documentary Production Workshop (4 Credits)
    Develops skills necessary to produce documentary productions in video or film. Covers production processes from story development through all the production phases. Practical considerations of production are balanced with theoretical debates on the legal and ethical responsibilities of those who document others.
    Instructor: Laurel Greenberg
  • VM378 - Basic Cinematography and Videography (4 Credits)
    Introduces basic elements of the aesthetics, technology, and craft of cinematography and videography. Students gain a working knowledge of 16mm and digital video cameras, as well as basic lighting design and equipment, with an emphasis on crew relations and organization. Includes a comprehensive exploration of the work of significant cinematographers.
  • VM400 - Topics in Visual and Media Arts: Studies (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of visual and media arts history, theory, and criticism. Course may be repeated for credit if topics vary.
  • VM401 - Aesthetics and History of New Media (4 Credits)
    Investigates the past 40 years of new media. Topics and fields of study include photography, experimental and video art, installation and interactive projects, Internet projects, implications of working in digital media, connections to other 20th-century media, and review of the recent criticism in the field.
  • VM402 - Seminar in Media Arts Topics (4 Credits)
    Examines various topics in media arts in seminar format, with emphasis on students' oral and written presentation of material. Course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM404 - Black American Independent Cinema I (4 Credits)
    Examines the depiction by and of African Americans in cinema through the 1950s. Special emphasis on the historical, cultural, political, social, and economic influences that have shaped and/or determined the cinematic depictions about and by African Americans. Students emerge from the class with a richly contextualized understanding of the representation of African Americans. Fulfills the General Education U.S. Diversity requirement.
  • VM405 - Black American Independent Cinema II (4 Credits)
    Examines the depiction by and of African Americans, beginning with "blaxploitation" films of the 1970s, the concomitant impact of racial turbulence, and the emergence of a new African American independent filmmaking tradition. Landmark films and filmmakers whose work explores and challenges Hollywood and Western notions of identity, narrative, history, and oral traditions are presented, including works by women, the "L.A. Rebellion" filmmakers, and contemporary Hollywood productions about and/or by African Americans.
  • VM406 - Post-Colonial Cinema (4 Credits)
    Investigates the historical, socioeconomic, and ideological contexts of film production, distribution, and exhibition of post-colonial films that explore and challenge Hollywood and Western notions of identity, narrative, history, and oral traditions. Cinemas considered include those from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
  • VM407 - Childrens' Media (4 Credits)
    Investigates the content and production approaches of major children's media programming in the context of child development theories. Students study theory and conduct research on media's impact on children's behavior, including impacts of television, music, and computers.
  • VM409 - Seminar in Western Art (4 Credits)
    Provides a study in a selected area of art and art history with emphasis on the development of analytical and theoretical approaches to the understanding of works of art. Presentation of independent research and participation in the evaluation of the research work of seminar members is expected. Fulfills the Aesthetics perspective of the General Education requirements. Course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM410 - Seminar in Non-Western Art (4 Credits)
    Provides a focused study on a particular culture or issue germane to history and/or criticism of non-Western art. Emphasizes a diversity of perspectives, paying careful attention to frame investigations within the artistic, socio-cultural, political, philosophical, and spiritual contexts indigenous to the respective culture(s) being studied. Fulfills the Aesthetics perspective and Global Diversity requirements. Course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
    Instructor: Mirta Tocci
  • VM412 - American Film Comedy (4 Credits)
    A historical approach to the development of American film comedy explores theories of comedy and their value to the critical interpretation of comic films. Also considers the varying ways spectators are addressed, and the impact of performers and directors on various comedy styles.
    Instructor: Michael Selig
  • VM413 - Postmodernism and the Media (4 Credits)
    Investigates postmodern theory, beginning with historical analysis of modernism and the emergence of postmodernism, exploring approaches to and influences on postmodernist notions about history, power, and aesthetics; subjectivity and identity; and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
  • VM417 - Communication Ethics (4 Credits)
    Provides a study of the philosophical roots and modern applications of moral reasoning in various communication media, including print, digital, television and video, photography, film, radio, speech, and telecommunications. Includes topics such as confidentiality, privacy, deception, free speech, obscenity, justice, equality, defamation of reputation, abuse of power, digital manipulation, fairness, truth in advertising, and conflict of interest.
  • VM418 - Transnational Asian Cinemas (4 Credits)
    Asian "national" cinemas are examined and problematized in the contexts of media and economic globalization, including: the politics of transnational film practices; issues surrounding filmic representation and diasporic identities; the construction and negotiation of national, gender, and genre differences; local-regional-global dynamics; and questions of the postcolonial in Asian contexts.
  • VM420 - Topics in Media Arts: Practice (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of media arts practice. Course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM423 - Writing Television Pilots (4 Credits)
    Examines how to create a television series, including developing an original premise, and writing convincing, multi-dimensional characters, and intriguing, character-specific dialogue. Students write an entire television pilot script to be workshopped in class, along with a pilot package that includes a logline, series synopsis and a 13-week episode guide with character and story arcs.
  • VM424 - Interactive Storytelling (4 Credits)
    Explores recent developments in interactive digital narratives, performances, documentaries, ethnographic studies, games, and installations. Students produce one interactive project during the semester.
  • VM428 - Feature Writing Workshop (4 Credits)
    Working from detailed outlines developed in VM 221 Writing the Feature Film, students complete a first draft of a feature-length screenplay. Students read each other's work, write a critical analysis of each segment, and engage in discussion of aesthetics, craft, and form.
  • VM429 - Comedy Writer's Room (4 Credits)
    Emulates a Hollywood comedy writing room. Students collectively create and write an original pilot script for a TV comedy. Students write character sketches, a comprehensive story outline, the first draft of the script and all subsequent drafts, and participate in an extensive punch-up. Participants gain a keen understanding of how a Hollywood comedy writers' room works, how to write under deadline, how to pitch jokes, and how to write comedy as a team.
  • VM440 - Advanced Studio Production: Fiction (4 Credits)
    Provides the opportunity for specialized work in fiction television genres that include a studio component, such as drama series, soap operas, and situation comedies. Students create projects and produce, direct, light, and crew them.
  • VM441 - Advanced Studio Production: Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Provides the opportunity for specialized work in nonfiction multi-camera television genres, including talk shows, live performance, and public affairs programming. Emphasis is on designing, producing, directing, lighting, and studio crewing.
  • VM445 - Advanced Video Production Workshop (4 Credits)
    Explores the technical skills and the conceptual framework of production activities such as camerawork, lighting, audio acquisition, and production design. Exercises offer opportunities to put theory into practice, as well as refine and extend practical skills.
  • VM450 - Advanced Sound Design (4 Credits)
    Advanced studies in audio post-production, with emphasis on expanding students' conceptual framework and refining creative audio post-production skills in surround sound mixing and applications in film, video, and digital media.
    Instructor: Brian McKeever
  • VM452 - Art of Noise (4 Credits)
    Explores the concept of the "avant-garde" not as a fading modernist construct, but as a creative tool in contemporary sound art practice. Through examination and modeling of both familiar and obscure works, students cultivate novel strains in their creative voices. Investigates issues related to process (indeterminacy, defamiliarization, stochastic methods, and phase shift) as well as the social aspects of outsider art, subversion, and provocation.
  • VM456 - Advanced Studio Recording (4 Credits)
    Explores the theoretical and technical applications of multi-effects signal processing, advanced multi-track mixing, and MIDI sequencing. Students apply the semester's evolving topics to the production and development of one major creative project integrating musical and sound art composition elements of differing styles, lengths, and levels of complexity.
  • VM457 - Recording Industry as a Business (4 Credits)
    Explores the ways sound entertainment and information products are developed, produced, and marketed. Examines market analysis principles and legal requirements and structure, including licensing agreements, contracts, and copyright; along with the examination of revenue issues such as royalties, record sales, product endorsements; and cost-centered issues such as promotion, advertising, and touring.
  • VM463 - Graphic Design for Digital Media (4 Credits)
    Explores the fundamentals and aesthetic considerations of design composition (text, image, graphics, motion) and production for digital media. Students conduct studies of and complete exercises in design and layout for the screen; visual communication of ideas and concepts in a non-textual context; screen elements for digital media art, such as buttons, type, color, and virtual environments; file formats; and digital media considerations and information flow/sequencing and design.
  • VM464 - Programming for Digital Media (4 Credits)
    Intermediate- to advanced-level programming for digital media productions in their respective authoring languages.
  • VM465 - Documentary Photography (4 Credits)
    Provides the foundation for an intense photographic investigation of an issue-cultural, political, ideological, or personal. Develops greater competence in negative making and black-and-white printing, with emphasis on strongly informative images. Assignments require the student to discover narrative possibilities while creating strong individual images. The course's technical components are supplemented by considerations of the history of documentary photography.
  • VM470 - Advanced New Media Projects (4 Credits)
    Provides an opportunity for senior VMA students working in computer animation, interactive media, motion graphics, digital photography, networked performance, audio, or other forms of new media to create advanced portfolio work. Projects, both collaborative and individual, are developed in the context of peer-based critique and analysis. The focus is on using new technologies for creative self-expression. Students complete the course with an original portfolio-ready project. May be repeated once for credit if projects differ.
  • VM475 - Creative Producing for Film (4 Credits)
    Explores the ways in which a creative producer engages with a project from conception through completion with a focus on the development process. It will discuss original ideas, source material (books, stories), pitching, creating log lines, script coverage, the notes process and assembling the creative team. It will cover customary business affairs including chain-of-title, copyright, talent and option agreements. Key issues in finance, marketing and distribution will also be examined.
    Instructor: Linda Reisman
  • VM476 - Editing for Advanced Film and Video (4 Credits)
    This advanced-level 16mm film and video post-production workshop is designed to assist in the editing and completion of students' advanced-level projects. Technical procedures as well as aesthetic and conceptual issues endemic to post-production of motion picture projects are examined with an eye to their practical application to students' work on their projects.
  • VM477 - Producing for Television and Non-Broadcast Media (4 Credits)
    Students learn the organizational and creative skills of producing in the studio and in the field. Topics include program development, pitching, budgeting, hiring, scheduling, and coordinating the production and program evaluation.
  • VM478 - Advanced Cinematography and Videography (4 Credits)
    Offers advanced-level exploration of aesthetics, technology, and craft of cinematography and videography. Students gain a working knowledge of the advanced level of cameras in the department and are expected to develop complex lighting and shot designs. Emphasis is on aesthetic use of the technical elements of motion picture acquisition. Includes significant collaboration with other courses in the curriculum including BFA and BA Production Workshop.
    Instructor: Clarence Courtney
  • VM490 - BFA Production Workshop (4 Credits)
    Provides the means for students to produce portfolio work. BFA students are required to take two consecutive semesters of the workshop, 4 credits per semester. Work may be produced in teams, partnerships, or individually. Projects must be proposed in the semester preceding the semester in which the work is to be produced (see section on BFA requirements above). Students may also apply to serve as non-BFA participants for a single semester and for 4 credits only, serving as crew members or staff on another student's project. Prerequisites: Completion of one specialization-level production course, and approval by the faculty BFA committee based on application.
  • VM491 - BA Capstone Project (4 Credits)
    Students are admitted by application to produce portfolio work as a Capstone Project. Applications must include a detailed description of the proposal for consideration by a faculty panel. The proposal can be for either a creative project based in any area of the program, including film, TV, animation, sound design, or digital art and games; or a significant research project in media studies. Provides an opportunity to produce a significant piece of creative or scholarly work.
  • VM492 - Photo Practicum (4 Credits)
    Designed to integrate, enrich, and solidify a student's photographic skills building on past productions. Emphasis is placed on developing a portfolio representative of a personal vision.
    Instructor: Lauren Shaw
  • VM500 - Topics in Visual and Media Arts: Studies (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of visual and media arts history, theory, and criticism. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM520 - Topics in Visual and Media Arts: Practice (4 Credits)
    Explores various aspects of visual and media arts practice. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • VM600 - Business of Modern Media (4 Credits)
    Focuses on strategic thinking and implementation of media projects from conception (pre-production) through release/distribution/exhibition. Material covered includes business plans; grant resources, writing, and package preparation; acquiring rights associated with production; preparing for feature production (optioning literary property, pitching ideas, offerings, prospectus); legal issues (rights, copyright, and intellectual property); insurance considerations; advertising; and marketing. Students are required to conduct database web research on the industry and festivals in addition to following current trends in global markets, financing, advertising, and marketing.
  • VM602 - Media Production Ethics and Cultural Diversity (4 Credits)
    Ethical and diversity issues, including deception, privacy, pornography, racism, discrimination, defamation of character, sexism, stereotyping, piracy, censorship, obscenity, ethnocentricity, confidentiality, fairness, and hate speech are investigated as they apply to the production process of film, video, new media, audio, and photography.
  • VM604 - Topics in Media Production (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in the area of media studies and production.
    Instructor: Harlan Bosmajian
  • VM605 - Graduate Writing Short Subject (4 Credits)
    Introduces the three genres of short form--nonfiction, experimental, and fiction. Students learn the differences and components of each genre and acquire an understanding of the art, craft, and discipline of each process from a writer's point of view. Emphasis is on developing the writer-s individual personal vision.
  • VM606 - Writing for Interactive Media (4 Credits)
    Explores the fundamentals of writing for the interactive screen. Examines narrative, non-text, web, and multi-user game contexts as the student works from the ideation phase through completed works made ready for production.
    Instructor: Richard Smyth
  • VM610 - Media Pedagogy (4 Credits)
    Explores approaches to teaching and learning in college level media production courses. Reviews key components of academia and an academic career: types of institutions, rank, tenure, teaching, service, scholarship, professional organizations, and compensation. Students analyze and design media production courses and investigate components of effective lecture, discussion, demonstration, and critique sessions as well as investigate ethical issues related to teaching. Each student leads a class session and produces a statement of his/her teaching philosophy.
  • VM611 - Principles of Sound Production (4 Credits)
    An introductory course in audio physics, sound principles, and the theory and practice of audio recording and mixing. Emphasis is also placed on concept development within sound production concurrent to the study of signal routing and the mixer console, analog and digital audio recording and editing techniques.
  • VM612 - Graduate Sound Design (4 Credits)
    An introductory course on the art of the sound designer and the processes and theories applied to composing and editing sound tracks for visual media such as film, video, computer animation, and websites. Areas of focus are in audio postproduction techniques and in the roles of the supervising sound editor and the sound designer. Postproduction techniques include dialog correction and automated dialog replacement (ADR), Foley session recording, sound effects acquisition and editing, and the mixing and localization theories and practices for stereo and surround-sound. The theoretical focus of the course is on the voice in film and visual media, as speech, as song, and everything that remains afterward with an ongoing theoretic investigation into the relationship between sound and image.
  • VM613 - Foundations of Image and Sound Production (4 Credits)
    Introduces the aesthetics and practice of image and sound production. Topics include visual composition, preproduction skills, lighting, basic directing, camera operation, lens theory, and editing. Students create projects using digital still photography and video.
  • VM614 - Graduate Studio Production (4 Credits)
    An introduction to the fundamentals of studio video production. Students produce, direct, and work crew for productions. Lectures, production analyses, and critiques of work are included.
  • VM615 - Introduction to Film Production (4 Credits)
    This project-based course is an introduction to camera, light, and sound equipment used in film production. The course is designed to give students an overview of the basic building blocks of motion-picture filmmaking, from the characteristics of emulsion to conceptual continuity. Students are engrossed in the mechanics of filmcraft on all levels: technical, practical, aesthetic, poetic, etc. Photographic principles and mechanical image acquisition are explored at length with technical and aesthetic assessment of projects.
    Instructor:
  • VM618 - Interactive Media (4 Credits)
    Provides an introduction to the theory and practice of interactive media production. Stresses the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical concerns of interactive digital media, emphasizing creativity and familiarity with the material. Areas include introductions to web-based interaction, user input, animation, design and development, as well as project management, interface design, and user experience. Students produce creative works based on instruction in the technical aspects of the material.
  • VM619 - Advanced Interactive Media Production (4 Credits)
    This course is a continued exploration of interactive media, which includes consideration of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical concerns. Technologies covered comprise the main elements of computer- and network-based interactivity, databases, and web-based user input, as well as the inclusion of dynamic content. The emphasis is on the creation of meaningful work using the materials.
  • VM621 - Documentary Production Workshop (4 Credits)
    Introduces the practice of documentary video production. Emphasizes documentary strategies, research, budgeting, production, and postproduction. Students produce a documentary short.
    Instructor: Marc Fields
  • VM623 - Advanced Documentary Production (4 Credits)
    Affords student documentarians the opportunity to examine in depth a broad array of "voices" or approaches to the documentary while developing their own voice through the production of a 20-25 minute project. In addition to the training on documentary production, students have the opportunity to develop substantive research and fundraising skills and deepen their understanding of the historical, social, and aesthetic framework within which documentary work is created.
  • VM624 - Graduate Directing Actors for the Screen (4 Credits)
    This is a workshop-style class that focuses on the director-actor interaction. John Cassavetes said that acting is the essential discipline for moviemakers, and in this intensive course, students learn the language of acting and the techniques of directing actors in dramatic productions.
  • VM625 - Computer Animation 1 (4 Credits)
    This is the first course in the two-course computer animation sequence, introducing students to the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling and animation and preparing them for the second course, Computer Animation II. Students learn to develop concepts, produce storyboards, model, texture objects, compose and light scenes, animate, and add dynamics. Finally, they learn to render their animations into movies and to composite movies, audio, titles, and credits in postproduction. In addition to these production skills, students develop their conceptual understanding as well as their critical and creative thinking about the practice of computer animation.
    Instructor: Anya Belkina
  • VM627 - Advanced Directing Fiction Narrative (4 Credits)
    Skills learned in previous courses and Graduate Directing Actors for the Screen are applied to the production of a single project of approximately 27 minutes in length. Emphasis is on writing, preproduction, and design, with students concentrating on the discrete roles of screenwriter, producer, director, designer, D.P., editor, etc. Students are expected to produce industry standard budgets, hold professional style auditions, create a comprehensive shooting schedule, and rigorously plan and execute all aspects of rehearsal, shooting, and postproduction. Work produced in this class should be of festival standard or suitable to be used as a pitch to a television company.
    Instructor: Jonathan Wacks
  • VM628 - Experimental Media Production (4 Credits)
    This is a project-based course for students who are interested in experimental analog and digital media. Along with project assignments open to a wide range of processes in various media, students examine ways that audiovisual media can be used to question mainstream genres, either through the invention of new forms or by subverting and hybridizing those forms. Students also look at how alternative venues and audiences shift the meaning and orientation of production. Technical topics include innovative uses of film, video, audio, and software, for example, direct animation or contact recording. Other topics include: the medium as metaphor, alternative representations of politicized subject matters, ordering systems other than the narrative, non-camera-based visual production, installation art and media as object, media's use of performance and anti-performance, image appropriation, the macro and the miniature within the frame, the long take, repetition and feedback loops, and other generative strategies for media makers.
    Instructor: Robert Todd
  • VM629 - Motion Graphics (4 Credits)
    This is an intermediate course in the practice and art of motion graphics and visual effects. The design process, artistic concepts, and technologies involved in the creation of motion graphics range from title sequences for film to compositing of real and virtual worlds and a myriad of digital time-based art forms. Students make a series of projects using post-production and compositing software.
  • VM640 - MFA Production Workshop (4 Credits)
    This is an intensive workshop for second-year MFA students to concentrate on the main body of their artistic output. Students present their own work and critique the work of others, as well as work on their current projects. Centered on the self-directed production schedule and the collaborative nature of critique in an MFA program, this course prepares students to become lifelong artists. Course to be repeated three times during matriculation.
  • VM651 - Studies in Narrative and Media History (4 Credits)
    Offers a historical survey of media art from the perspective of narrative studies. Exposes students to a wide array of narrative structures historically evident in media art, including conventional and unconventional fictional narrative forms, as well as varying types of narrative evident in documentary and experimental media works. In addition, students are introduced to the role of visual images in media narratives, as well as the impact of digital technologies on narrative forms. Students are expected to develop an understanding of the role of narrative structure in effecting emotion and in communicating ideas.
  • VM652 - Theories of Integrated Media (4 Credits)
    Media are no longer discreet forms of expression. Digital technology has created an integrated environment where even analog media are most often produced and/or viewed in a digital context or with digital tools. This course is an intensive introduction to theories of producing and consuming film, video, photography, and sound, both in isolation and couched within digital technologies. Students are given a background in traditional approaches to media criticism and encouraged to question how the new digital context has altered those approaches and changed the conditions under which the creative expression and consumption of media takes place.
  • VM655 - Topics in Media Studies (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in the area of Media Studies.
    Instructor: John Gianvito
  • VM663 - Studies in Digital Media and Culture (4 Credits)
    Examines the dramatic shift in meaning and process of contemporary communication by examining the social, artistic, economic, and political implications of using and implementing digital ways of working. Topics include the Internet and the web, cyberspace and censorship, history of the technologies and new media, games, digital film and video, multimedia and interactivity, virtual reality, person/machine interfaces, and globalization considerations.
  • VM664 - Studies in Documentary History and Theory (4 Credits)
    A historical investigation of the theories and practice of documentary representation in film, television, video, and new media.
  • WR101 - Introduction to College Writing (4 Credits)
    Introduces college writing, focusing on cultural analysis that appears in academic work and in the public intellectual sphere. Emphasizes how writers work with texts (including images, film, music, and other media) to develop writing projects. Through four main writing projects that concentrate on drafting, peer review, and revision, students learn to be constructive readers of each other's writing and to understand the rhetoric of intellectual inquiry.
  • WR121 - Research Writing (4 Credits)
    Research-based writing course that explores how rhetorical situations call on writers to do research and how writers draw on various types of writing to present the results of their research. Through four main writing projects, students develop an understanding of the purposes and methods of research and a rhetorical awareness of how research-based writing tasks ask them to consider their relation to the issues they are researching and to their audiences.
  • WR211 - Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction (4 Credits)
    This course focuses on the basic vocabulary, techniques, and traditions in Fiction and includes the discussion of published work. Students practice their writing craft through exercises and other assignments, many of which will be shared with the class in an introductory workshop setting. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR212 - Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry (4 Credits)
    This course focuses on the basic vocabulary, techniques, and traditions in Poetry and includes the discussion of published work. Students practice their writing craft through exercises and other assignments, many of which will be shared with the class in an introductory workshop setting. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR216 - Introduction to Creative Writing: Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    This course focuses on the basic vocabulary, techniques, and traditions in Nonfiction and includes the discussion of published work. Students practice their writing craft through exercises and other assignments, many of which will be shared with the class in an introductory workshop setting. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR311 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction (4 Credits)
    Original Fiction is written and presented in class for criticism and discussion. Students will also read and discuss published work in the genre. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR312 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry (4 Credits)
    Original Poetry is written and presented in class for criticism and discussion. Students will also read and discuss published work in the genre. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR313 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Drama (4 Credits)
    Original Drama is written and presented in class for criticism and discussion. Students will also read and discuss published work in the genre. This course may be repeated once for credit.
    Instructor: William Orem
  • WR315 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Comedy (4 Credits)
    Original Comedy is written and presented in class for criticism and discussion. Students will also read and discuss published work in the genre. This course may be repeated once for credit.
    Instructor: Michael Bent
  • WR316 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Original Nonfiction is written and presented in class for criticism and discussion. Students will also read and discuss published work in the genre. This course may be repeated once for credit.
  • WR405 - Advanced Seminar Workshop in Poetry (4 Credits)
    Advanced writing workshop in poetry with in-class discussion of original poems by students already seriously engaged in writing poetry. The course pays special attention to getting published and students are encouraged to submit their work to magazines. May be repeated once for credit.
    Instructor: Christine Casson
  • WR407 - Advanced Seminar Workshop in Fiction (4 Credits)
    Extensive fiction writing of short stories and/or novels coupled with in-class reading for criticism and the craft of fiction. May be repeated once for credit.
  • WR415 - Advanced Seminar Workshop in Nonfiction (4 Credits)
    Advanced writing workshop in various nonfiction forms, such as memoir, travel writing, literary journalism, or other narrative nonfiction writing. Students will already have completed at least one nonfiction workshop, have a project in development, and be capable of discussing such techniques as characterization, point of view, and narrative structure as they appear in literary nonfiction forms.
    Instructor: Ewa Yarbrough
  • WR416 - Adv Topics in Writing (4 Credits)
    Special offerings in various genres of writing like Comedy Writing, Travel Writing, Experimental Fiction, among others. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.
  • WR440 - Advanced Seminar Workshop in Screenwriting (4 Credits)
    Advanced workshop in feature film writing in which students learn how to work with characters, dialogue, and dramatic structure through story development, mini treatments, and scene breakdown. Students beginning new scripts produce at least half of a screenplay and a solid, outlined second half. Students continuing a work-in-progress script revise and polish. Course also includes study and discussion of successfully produced film/TV scripts. May be repeated once for credit.
    Instructor: Christopher Keane
  • WR515 - Topic in Nonfiction: (4 Credits)
    Various topics, approaches, and styles of life studies--the art of portraying fact and the art of portraying self--are explored in reading, practiced in writing, and addressed in group discussions and private conferences. Each student will produce a 30 page portfolio of nonfiction. Offered in Summers only.
  • WR600 - Teaching College Composition (4 Credits)
    Introduction to composition history, theory, and pedagogy that prepares students to teach college writing courses. Examines debates and practices in college composition and their conceptual foundations and introduces rhetoric as a productive art and means of analysis. In preparation to teach writing, students learn how to design writing assignments, to run writing workshops, to respond to and evaluate student writing, and to produce a syllabus for a first-year composition course.
  • WR605 - Poetry Workshop (4 Credits)
    In-class discussions of original poems aim to help students learn strategies for generating and revising work. The workshop asks students to consider their work in light of the essential issues of the poet's craft, and to articulate their individual sensibilities as poets.
  • WR606 - Fiction Workshop (4 Credits)
    Uses student manuscripts as its main texts, supplemented by published stories, to illustrate the fundamental aspects of fiction, mainly in the short story form. Explores the complexities of narration, characterization, scene, dialogue, style, tone, plot, etc. Emphasis is on the generation of fictional works and on their revision.
  • WR608 - Spec Top in Fiction Workshop (4 Credits)
    This course continues to examine the art and craft of short fiction by focusing on special topics such as revision, microfiction and linked stories.
  • WR610 - Forms in Poetry (4 Credits)
    Explores how poems are shaped by attention to metrical lineation and rhythm, stanza structure, and the forms of poetry, such as the sonnet, sestina, villanelle, renga, ballade, ghazal, etc. Students are expected to write original poems in forms as well as develop their practical knowledge of prosody.
  • WR613 - Nonfiction Workshop (4 Credits)
    Stresses the writing of many forms of nonfiction, such as informal essays, autobiography, profiles, travel writing, or literary journalism, coupled with reading assignments of relevant texts.
  • WR629 - Playwriting Workshop (4 Credits)
    Provides a detailed exploration of the playwright's craft for the medium of the stage. Each student writes a major dramatic work and submits a draft for critique and discussion.
  • WR640 - Screenwriting Workshop (4 Credits)
    For students with screenplays-in-progress and for writers wishing to start new scripts
  • WR652 - Novel Workshop (4 Credits)
    Workshop in structuring and writing the opening chapters of a novel. Course explores story premise, stylistic approach, point-of-view, and other structural parameters, as well as revision.
    Instructor: Mako Yoshikawa
  • WR655 - Writing the Nonfiction Book (4 Credits)
    Workshop on the extended narrative, with discussions of organizing the research, developing an outline and devising a structure, carrying out the plan, and writing the book proposal. Students submit their own work and also examine various approaches of nonfiction books.