Communication and Culture Major

Undergraduate Program

The communication and culture major is designed to engage students in focused inquiry into the cultural foundations of communication in its various forms. As a liberal-arts major, the program of study emphasizes the development of a conceptual framework for understanding the role of communication in both transmitting and creating culture through practices of verbal and nonverbal communication. Through an interdisciplinary approach involving faculty from different fields of expertise in the humanities and social sciences, students study media, discourse, and global influences and developments in communication. The curriculum covers historical and current topics, and the range of communicative forms considered includes visual and graphic images, everyday discourse, literary works, journalistic writing, music and material productions. Although not a production-oriented or preprofessional major, students have opportunities for practicum and internship learning. The faculty is committed to providing the type of sound critical and conceptual grasp of communication that is essential for intelligent participation and leadership in the various fields of communication.

For details regarding the major, students should consult the Majors’ Handbook, which is available online, in the Communication and Culture Program Office, and at the Academic Advising Center.

The major is organized into three paths of emphasis: (1) media dimensions, (2) discourse dimensions and (3) global dimensions, which includes courses in both media and discourse studies that emphasize some aspect of global communication. Most courses are cross-referenced with the departments in which they originate.

Program Faculty

Michael Bamberg, Ph.D.

Parminder Bhachu, Ph.D.
Marcia Butzel, Ph.D.
Odile Ferly, Ph.D.
Betsy Huang, Ph.D.
Fern Johnson, Ph.D. 
Benjamin Korstvedt, Ph.D.
Stephanie Larrieux, Ph.D.
Stephen Levin, Ph.D.
Matthew Malsky, Ph.D.

Hugh Manon, Ph.D.
Sarah Michaels, Ph.D.

Debra Osnowitz, Ph.D.
Rhys Townsend, Ph.D.
Jaan Valsiner, Ph.D.
Kristina Wilson, Ph.D.

Courses

• ARTH 010 - From the Stone Age to Our Age: Monuments and Masterpieces of Western Art
• ARTH 159 - Latin-American Art
• ARTH 216 - Architecture and Democracy
• ARTH 243 - Design in the 20th Century: Arts & Crafts to Ikea
• ARTH 245 - Urban Art and Society in Jazz Age New York
• ARTS 121 - Intermediate Photography
• ARTS 125 - Graphic Design Projects
• ARTS 208 - Typography
• ARTS 209 - Introduction to Interactive Design
• ARTS 250 - Photography Studio
• ARTS 254 - Graphic Design Studio
• AS 279 - Fictions of Asian America
• CMLT 130 - The National Imagination
• COMM 050 - Communication and Culture: Main South
• COMM 101 - Communication and Culture
• COMM 168 - Image Theory
• COMM 170 - Computer Mediated Communication
• COMM 220 - Communication Ethics
• COMM 221 - Media Policy and Democracy
• COMM 246 - Global Communication and the Spaces of Cultural Production
• EDUC 112 - Transformative Schooling: Documentary Video for Social Change
• ENG 202 - Feature Writing
• ENG 205 - Culture and the News
• ENG 257 - Language at Issue
• ENG 275 - Fictions of Empire: Studies in Global English Literature
• ENG 294 - History of the English Language
• ENG 295 - Gender and Discourse
• FREN 127 - Media Workshop in French
• FREN 137 - Studies in Contemporary French Culture
• FREN 140 - Francophone Literature and Film
• GEOG 017 - Culture, Place and the Environment
• GEOG 136 - Gender and Environment
• GEOG 257 - Internet Geography: Socioeconomic Impacts of Information Technologies
• GERM 205 - The Total Work of Art and Cultural Criticism from Wagner to the Present
• GERM 230 - The German Discovery of Sex
• ID 261 - Roots and Routes: Immigrants, Diasporas and Travel
• MUSC 012 - Pop Music in the USA
• MUSC 104 - Music and Modernism in Society, 1885-1945
• MUSC 200 - Audio Culture
• MUSC 210 - Seminar in Music History and Criticism
• PHIL 242 - Philosophy of Language
• PSYC 157 - Cultural Psychology of Urban Living
• PSYC 193 - Discourse, Self and Coolness
• PSYC 247 - Theoretical Models of Communication in Psychology
• SCRN 122 - History of American Broadcasting and Electronic Media
• SCRN 123 - Factual Film and Television
• SCRN 145 - Experimental Video Production
• SCRN 160 - Soundtracks
• SCRN 214 - Social and Cultural Issue Documentary Production
• SCRN 230 - Images of Youth
• SCRN 261 - Critical Perspectives on Television
• SCRN 284 - Film as Narration
• SCRN 288 - Gender and Film
• SOC 160 - Global Cultures and Identities
• SOC 255 - The Creation of Nationalism, Nationalist Cultures and Symbols
• SOC 294 - Global Ethnographies: Ethnographers in the Making for the 21st Century
• SPAN 133 - Studies in Hispanic Culture
• SPAN 134 - Latino Literature and Media Arts
• TA 212 - Actor as Thinker

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.

Introductory Course

• COMM 101 - Communication and Culture
• COMM 050 - Communication and Culture: Main South

PATH 1: Media Dimensions

Electives in Media Dimensions:

PATH 2: Discourse Dimensions

Electives in Discourse Dimensions:

PATH 3: Global Dimensions

Electives in Global Dimensions:

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.

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.