My Current University Courses
Constructing Motherhood, SPCH 4957 or 5957 and WMST 4957 or 5957
Click here for preview of Fall 2010 syllabus. This course examines how the institution of motherhood, and experiences of mothering, have been constructed over time. Focusing primarily, though not exclusively, on the U.S., we explore changing and multiple meanings of motherhood, how such meanings have been constructed through media, cultural practice, and language, and how they have impacted family experience and women’s lives. We examine the ways in which women have used the platform of motherhood to agitate for political power, both historically and in contemporary movements. We interrogate how women’s social power in general is assessed up against the backdrop of motherhood, regardless of whether or not they are mothers. And we learn about how women have used their experiences as mothers as a significant motivating force for arguing powerfully and effectively on behalf of their families. Finally, we study the role of online technology and communities in shaping maternal understandings, political meaning, family life, and mothering experiences.
Gender and Communication, SPCH 4200
This course examines the mutual influence between communication and gender. That is, it investigates how communication shapes, reinforces, or resists definitions and experiences of gender, and it investigates how definitions and experiences of gender shape, reinforce, and resist particular communication practices. It examine ways that gender is communicatively constructed through families, close relationships, education, organizations, media, and other institutions. We confront the fact that how we think about and communicate about gender directly relates to how we go about living gendered lives. We will make careful considerations, individually and as a class, about how particular ways of thinking and communicating can enrich or impoverish how men and women live. Finally, we explore communication practices that show promise for fostering more humane living for women and men. Assignments include 2 exams and several short analysis papers.
Family Communication, SPCH 4210
This course examines the family as a communication system. As family members interact, they negotiate stability and change, individual and social identity, power and conflict, closeness and distance, and other dialectics. It is through communication that they create, sustain, and change meaning and reality. In this course, we examine the multiple functions of interaction in families so that you can appreciate the complexity of family communication and how it works in ways that you may not have noticed before. We explore the relationships between family life and social life, language and meaning, public and private, and family rules and values. This course broadly construes the concept of family, and thus more accurately represents the real family lives that real people are living today, rather than only the "traditional," but no longer dominant, family form of the single-career married couple and their children. Assignments include two major exams and several 2-3 page theory application assignments.
Feminist Thought and Practice, WMST 3330
This course provides a broad theoretical foundation for the discipline of Women’s Studies. Drawing from first wave, second wave, and third wave feminist thought, including the unique contributions of women of color, we explore a variety of theoretical and conceptual frameworks for studying women and gender, and from that we link feminist theory to civic responsibility and social change. The idea that all practice is grounded in theory is a core principle of this course; we explore how theory and practice inform each other. Assignments consist of 2 exams, one short paper, a web page, and an outline of key issues in each reading.
Women's Studies Capstone, WMST 4500
Directs you to draw from your cross-disciplinary course of study to develop and advance your own social justice, professional, and advanced educational objectives. Designed to help you ascertain how the WS courses you have put together prepare you for citizenship, occupation, avocation, and graduate studies. As the last class in the Women’s Studies core, this course directs you to shape a coherent vision for the future and begin pursuing the goals you have formulated to realize that vision.
Speaking for Social Change, SPCH 3346
This course provides advanced-level training in various forms of public address, and channels that training into civic engagement efforts that challenge issues of privilege, power and difference. We discuss and practice how to respond to social issues of exclusion and inequity in mindful, professional, and principled ways. We will practice supporting social justice efforts at campus, community, and national levels. This course helps you confront your own complicity in inequitable structures and your power to change those structures. You must have already had a basic speech course before taking this course. Assignments and grades come from speech planning, speech analysis, and speech presentation.
Communication Theory, SPCH 2330
This course examines different theories that try to explain how human interaction shapes people’s lives. It explores how communication creates meaning and selves, and also how communication theory creates meaning and knowledge. Course material examines the different assumptions about being human, or human being, that scholars have used in constructing theory. We also examine how theory is evaluated, and the impact of theory and theorizing in the discipline and in everyday life. We work from the position that a primary goal for communication study is to help human relationships become more humane. Assignments include two major exams and several 2-3 page theory application assignments.
Foundations in Communication, SPCH 5100
This graduate-level course lays a strong foundation for graduate study in the discipline of Communication. It helps you make a smooth transition from undergraduate to graduate level thinking, writing, and academic conduct. It provides an opportunity for you to consider, examine possibilities for, and decide how your graduate education will unfold and take shape. Students who do not put energy into deciding what it means to be in grad school and in the PCOM program in particular, and into how their choice of courses relate to each other and fit into a larger professional communication plan, will end up with graduate degrees (if in fact they graduate) that are of limited use to them professionally or personally. Those who do not focus on continually improving their capacity for sophisticated thought and writing will have trouble succeeding in graduate school. This course is designed to help you effectively channel your energy into these areas in PCOM. Assignments include reading and making sense of difficult material, designing a plan of study, writing a major paper in several stages, and several smaller assignments.
Click here for preview of Fall 2010 syllabus. This course examines how the institution of motherhood, and experiences of mothering, have been constructed over time. Focusing primarily, though not exclusively, on the U.S., we explore changing and multiple meanings of motherhood, how such meanings have been constructed through media, cultural practice, and language, and how they have impacted family experience and women’s lives. We examine the ways in which women have used the platform of motherhood to agitate for political power, both historically and in contemporary movements. We interrogate how women’s social power in general is assessed up against the backdrop of motherhood, regardless of whether or not they are mothers. And we learn about how women have used their experiences as mothers as a significant motivating force for arguing powerfully and effectively on behalf of their families. Finally, we study the role of online technology and communities in shaping maternal understandings, political meaning, family life, and mothering experiences.
Gender and Communication, SPCH 4200
This course examines the mutual influence between communication and gender. That is, it investigates how communication shapes, reinforces, or resists definitions and experiences of gender, and it investigates how definitions and experiences of gender shape, reinforce, and resist particular communication practices. It examine ways that gender is communicatively constructed through families, close relationships, education, organizations, media, and other institutions. We confront the fact that how we think about and communicate about gender directly relates to how we go about living gendered lives. We will make careful considerations, individually and as a class, about how particular ways of thinking and communicating can enrich or impoverish how men and women live. Finally, we explore communication practices that show promise for fostering more humane living for women and men. Assignments include 2 exams and several short analysis papers.
Family Communication, SPCH 4210
This course examines the family as a communication system. As family members interact, they negotiate stability and change, individual and social identity, power and conflict, closeness and distance, and other dialectics. It is through communication that they create, sustain, and change meaning and reality. In this course, we examine the multiple functions of interaction in families so that you can appreciate the complexity of family communication and how it works in ways that you may not have noticed before. We explore the relationships between family life and social life, language and meaning, public and private, and family rules and values. This course broadly construes the concept of family, and thus more accurately represents the real family lives that real people are living today, rather than only the "traditional," but no longer dominant, family form of the single-career married couple and their children. Assignments include two major exams and several 2-3 page theory application assignments.
Feminist Thought and Practice, WMST 3330
This course provides a broad theoretical foundation for the discipline of Women’s Studies. Drawing from first wave, second wave, and third wave feminist thought, including the unique contributions of women of color, we explore a variety of theoretical and conceptual frameworks for studying women and gender, and from that we link feminist theory to civic responsibility and social change. The idea that all practice is grounded in theory is a core principle of this course; we explore how theory and practice inform each other. Assignments consist of 2 exams, one short paper, a web page, and an outline of key issues in each reading.
Women's Studies Capstone, WMST 4500
Directs you to draw from your cross-disciplinary course of study to develop and advance your own social justice, professional, and advanced educational objectives. Designed to help you ascertain how the WS courses you have put together prepare you for citizenship, occupation, avocation, and graduate studies. As the last class in the Women’s Studies core, this course directs you to shape a coherent vision for the future and begin pursuing the goals you have formulated to realize that vision.
Speaking for Social Change, SPCH 3346
This course provides advanced-level training in various forms of public address, and channels that training into civic engagement efforts that challenge issues of privilege, power and difference. We discuss and practice how to respond to social issues of exclusion and inequity in mindful, professional, and principled ways. We will practice supporting social justice efforts at campus, community, and national levels. This course helps you confront your own complicity in inequitable structures and your power to change those structures. You must have already had a basic speech course before taking this course. Assignments and grades come from speech planning, speech analysis, and speech presentation.
Communication Theory, SPCH 2330
This course examines different theories that try to explain how human interaction shapes people’s lives. It explores how communication creates meaning and selves, and also how communication theory creates meaning and knowledge. Course material examines the different assumptions about being human, or human being, that scholars have used in constructing theory. We also examine how theory is evaluated, and the impact of theory and theorizing in the discipline and in everyday life. We work from the position that a primary goal for communication study is to help human relationships become more humane. Assignments include two major exams and several 2-3 page theory application assignments.
Foundations in Communication, SPCH 5100
This graduate-level course lays a strong foundation for graduate study in the discipline of Communication. It helps you make a smooth transition from undergraduate to graduate level thinking, writing, and academic conduct. It provides an opportunity for you to consider, examine possibilities for, and decide how your graduate education will unfold and take shape. Students who do not put energy into deciding what it means to be in grad school and in the PCOM program in particular, and into how their choice of courses relate to each other and fit into a larger professional communication plan, will end up with graduate degrees (if in fact they graduate) that are of limited use to them professionally or personally. Those who do not focus on continually improving their capacity for sophisticated thought and writing will have trouble succeeding in graduate school. This course is designed to help you effectively channel your energy into these areas in PCOM. Assignments include reading and making sense of difficult material, designing a plan of study, writing a major paper in several stages, and several smaller assignments.
My Other University Courses
Feminist Pedagogy independent studies; Feminist Mothering independent studies;Intro to Women’s Studies; Interpersonal Communication; Persuasion; Group Discussion; General Speech; Public Speaking; Advanced Public Speaking