Program Requirements: Communication and Culture

Requirements for the Major (11 course units minimum)
Each student selects, in consultation with her or his adviser, a path of emphasis from the three available options. Within that path, students concentrate their elective courses and build further specialization through choices of advanced seminars and internships. No exceptions will be made to the structure listed below.

1. COMM101 Communication and Culture, 1 unit

2. Seven elective courses, 7 units (additional courses may be taken)

minimum of four and maximum of five must be in path of emphasis
minimum of three must be at the 200 level
maximum of two practicum courses, which must be in an approved sequence (optional)

3. One Integrative Seminar (200 level), 1 unit

4. Approved internship or project, 1-2 units

5. Senior Capstone Seminar or Project in path of emphasis, 1-2 units
(Honors thesis option for qualified students.)

Students must complete COMM101 before taking the integrated seminar.

Course prerequisites are listed for specific courses and may be different for communication and culture majors than for students taking the course in the department from which it is cross-referenced. Students should consult semester schedules carefully to determine prerequisites.

Students must earn a grade of C or better in all courses contributing to the major program of study.

For more information about the communication and culture major, call 508-793-7180.

Courses

Introductory Course
COMM101 Communication and Culture

PATH 1: Media Dimensions
Electives in Media Dimensions:

Communication and Culture
COMM145 Do-It-Yourself Media
COMM168 Image Theory
COMM170 Computer Mediated Communication
COMM221 Media Policy and Democracy

Art History
COMM010 From the Stone Age to Our Age
COMM243 Design in the 20th Century: Arts & Crafts to Ikea
COMM245 Urban Art and Society in Jazz Age New York

English
COMM205 Culture and the News

Foreign Languages and Literatures
COMM206 The Work of Art and Cultural Criticism from Wagner to the Present

Geography
COMM258 Internet Geography

History
COMM211 American Consumer Culture

Music
COMM012 Music as Culture
COMM013 Pop Music in USA
COMM104 Music and Modernism
COMM108 20th-Century Music
COMM146 Recording Practice and Audio Art
COMM210 History of Music Seminar

Screen Studies
COMM103 Introduction to Screen Studies
COMM117 Factual Film and Television
COMM118 History of American Broadcasting and Electronic Media
COMM171 Storytelling through Video: Documentary and Dramatic Production
COMM214 Social and Cultural Issue Documentary
COMM235 Images of Youth
COMM261 Critical Perspectives of T.V. Culture

Sociology
COMM136 Effects of Mass Media

Studio Arts
COMM123 Intermediate Photography
COMM125 Graphic Design Projects
COMM208 Typography
COMM209 Introduction to Interactive Design
COMM250 Photography Studio
COMM254 Graphic Design Studio

PATH 2: Discourse Dimensions
Electives in Discourse Dimensions:

Communication and Culture
COMM150 Discourse and Cultural Studies: Field Research

Comparative Literature
COMM134 Latino Literature and Media Arts

Education
COMM020 Transformative Schooling: Culture, Community, Education and Society

English
COMM102 Documentary Writing
COMM114 American Talk
COMM196 Strategic Speaking
COMM202 Feature Writing
COMM204 Writing for Magazines
COMM215 Language and Culture in the United States
COMM248 Signs/Crossroads: Semiotics
COMM272 Ethnic America: Literary and Theoretical Perspectives
COMM279 Fictions of Asian America
COMM293 History of the English Language

Philosophy
COMM242 Philosophy of Language

Psychology
COMM158 Discourse, Subjectivity and the Self
COMM195 Psychology, Communication and the Self
COMM247 Theoretical Models of Communication in Psychology
COMM255 Gender Development and Language
COMM262 Narrative Perspective
COMM268 Communicative Development

Theater Arts
COMM212 Actor as Thinker

PATH 3: Global Dimensions
Electives in Global Dimensions:

Communication and Culture
COMM246 Global Communication and the Spaces of Cultural Production

Art History
COMM159 Latin-American Art
COMM164 The Arts of Asia
COMM165 The Arts of Islam
COMM239 Renaissance and Baroque/Seminar

Comparative Literature
COMM130 The National Imagination

Foreign Languages and Literatures
COMM129 Media Workshop in French
COMM144 Francophone Literature and Film
COMM138 Studies in Contemporary French Culture

Geography
COMM017 Culture, Place and the Environment
COMM137 Gender and Environment

Psychology
COMM156 Cultural Psychology
COMM157 Cultural Psychology of Urban Living

Screen Studies
COMM224 World Cinema and Global Culture
COMM263 Topics in French Cinema: Popular Genres, Block Busters, and Remakes

Sociology
COMM160 Global Cultures and Identities
COMM278 The Creation of Nationalisms, Nationalist Culture and Symbols
COMM260 Roots and Routes

Integrative Seminars
Integrative seminars are courses at the 200 level that treat a particular topic through different disciplinary perspectives or that bring together two or more topics from different domains of communication and cultural analysis. These seminars are listed separately below. At least one integrative seminar is offered each semester and new topics may be added. Interested students may petition the director of the program to substitute a second integrative seminar for an elective course.

Integrative Seminar Courses

Art History
COMM216 Architecture and Democracy
COMM234 Converging Cultures in the Age of Discovery

English
COMM257 Language at Issue
COMM252 Cultural Discourses of Advertising

Music
COMM231 Soundtracks

Psychology
COMM251 Language Development

Sociology
COMM230 Sociology of Culture
COMM275 Culture, Consumption and Class in Local and Global Contexts

Senior Capstone
The senior capstone in communication and culture requires that each student participate in original research or creative activity or produce an individual project related to some aspect of his or her path emphasis. At the end of the junior year, majors receive information about options available for the senior capstone. Based on this information, each student selects one of the senior capstone seminars, proposes an independent study project or, if qualified, proposes an honors thesis project. All projects and theses must be supervised by a member of the communication and culture faculty. For honors theses, a second faculty member, who will serve as an evaluator, is selected through a consultation process between the student and his or her thesis adviser. Information regarding honors theses, which are yearlong projects, is contained in the Majors' Handbook.

Courses that have been offered as senior capstone seminars are listed below. New courses are added from time to time. Note that a student who takes a designated capstone seminar earlier than the senior year may count this course toward major elective requirements but may not use the course to fulfill the capstone requirement.

Senior Capstone Courses

English
COMM295 Gender and Discourse

Music
COMM274 Audio Culture

Psychology
COMM276 Advanced Topics in Cultural Psychology (Topic Dependent)

Screen Studies

COMM285 Film as Narration

COMM288 Gender and Film
COMM292 Capstone: ReViewing Disney

Sociology

COMM286 Media Effects Workshop
COMM294 Global Ethnographies