WS 694: Communities in Crisis: Socio-cultural Issues in Disaster Response and Reconstruction (tentative - Summer 2008)
ACS 780 Game Cultures & Globalization - Spring 2008
COMS 620 Communication and Pedagogy, Fall 2007. Communication Pedagogy intersects with community engagement, interpersonal dialogue and mediating messages in a variety of ways. In terms of academic disciplines – it is interdisciplinary and negotiates communication studies, education, sociology, cultural studies, feminist studies, philosophy of science and knowledge and so on. These are contextual, historical and theoretical threads that weave together as develop an understanding of acts of teaching and acts of learning. The work we will read this semester, the concepts and practical applications of this course will examine, as well as the nature of our conversations will inevitably circle around this cross-section of these various disciplines. Communication education/instructional communication/communication pedagogy is a complex field. Our task is unweave them, see how they build on each other, and then see how they apply and feed into our collective work in the classroom. As we know, Universities in the U.S. are pushing for more online class offerings. Therefore it becomes necessary for us in the communication discipline to explore the issues around teaching in digitally mediated environments critically. What better place to examine some of these issues and environments than in a “Communication Pedagogy” class? In the spirit of modeling pedagogically sound uses of online environments, you will be using Livejournal (blogs), Secondlife, Podcasting and Wikis as appropriate for class activities. Blackboard will only be used for group emails from me, for any readings and documents that need to be shared in a protected class-only environment and for announcements. There will be NO “how to use Blackboard” sessions in this class – go to the relevant workshops if you are looking for help with technical features and skills. Each week we have a “technology focus” that is focused on exploring PEDAGOGICAL issues – NOT how-to lessons. Seek help from CTLT staff.
COMS 780/ WS 780 Feminist Research Methods -Summer 2007. This course will examine theoretical and methodological issues and engage epistemological and ontological concerns at the intersection of feminist theory, methods and communication. Students will be working with secondlife, an online multi-user 3-D environment and with Perrysburg Heights Community - engaging the local/global communities we live in as they work on class assignments.
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Cyberculture (COMS 729) Spring 2007. The course looks at how culture and politics play out through interactions between humans and technology, looking especially at communicative practices and social formations. What are the ontological, pragmatic and phenomenological issues relating to "techno-science" and "cyber-culture"? What colonial and post-colonial histories impact the design and shaping of technologies and their socio-cultural environments. How are silence and voice, presence and absence as well as material and cultural access negotiated worldwide. What literacies are privileged in cultures of technology, science and Modernity and why. What politics and ideologies necessitate specific literacies for access. And finally, what are the relationships of these “old” and “new” technologies to issues of race, class, sexuality and gender? What do we mean by “emerging” technologies and how does context and process interact with technologies to help us understand if and when they are “emerging”? When Raymond Williams writes of the Dominant, Residual and Emerging – how do these connect to Technological cultures?
Building Cyberfeminist Webs(WS 694) Continuing Ed. Workshop Summer 2003.Drawing from conceptual frameworks available through participatory action research, critical feminist theories and cyberfeminist practices, this graduate level workshop aims to train participants to practically engage computer technologies in order to make information communication technologies relevant to the contexts of women and other marginalized populations of the world. Thus this workshop will train participants to work with digital media for the empowerment of marginalized and minority populations.
Computer-Mediated Communities (COMS729/ACS 675) Spring 2003. Explores how meaning-making processes and social formations through communication shape computer cultures and organizational cultures within computer-based technological environments in a variety of organizational contexts. Special features of this class include a Digital Video group Project and the Trinidad Online project collaboration with students from Dr. Jillana Enteen's class at Northwestern University.
Feminist Research in Communication (COMS 780/ WS 780A) Summer 2002 Examines theoretical and methodological issues and engages epistemological and ontological concerns at the intersection of feminist theory, methods and communication
Gender and Communication (COMS 729/ WS 782D) Summer 2000 Focuses on some of the more current intersections between gender studies and communication revolving around gender, culture and technologies for communication; gender, international communication and postcolonial/transnational theories; gender, race and sexuality
Humanistic Research Methods (COMS 640) (required core course), Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Spring 2004, Spring 2006. An overview of selected Humanistic research methods in communication studies. This course is a restructured version of MCOM606.
Qualitative Research Methods (MCOM 606) Spring 1999 (required course). Students are introduced to content analysis, ethnography, narrative theory and semiotics, among other methods.
Communication Technoscience and Cyberculture (MCOM 780) Fall 1998 This graduate seminar examines communication at the intersection of science, technology, economics and culture.