COMN 1100 - Communication in Personal Relationships
Relationships have a direct and lasting impact on us: they shape who we are, and the paths we take toward who we will become. The purpose of this course is to analyze and apply theories and research relevant to communication processes in a variety of personal relationships. Discussion of issues such as attachment, identity, hetero- and homosexual relationships, family communication, conflict, and intrapersonal discourses will provide students a foundation on which to build skills useful in a variety of personal relationships. In Communication in Personal Relationships, students will: Sensitively express attitudes and discuss research about different issues pertinent to the study of personal relationships; develop the skills to critically analyze their own relationships and the relationships of others; reflect on and challenge their and others? ideas in a critically constructive manner so that we arrive at a new level of understanding together; and demonstrate the ability to apply communication and interpersonal theories and research outside of this classroom upon completion of the course.

COMN 1550 - Communication in the Workplace
This course offers at topics-based introduction to they study and practice of communication in a variety of organizational settings. The emphasis is on issues of power, politics, globalization, culture, diversity, relationships, and conflict. Students learn how to recognize, diagnose, and solve communication related problems in the workplace.

COMN 1600 - Communication and Popular Culture
This course uses various landmark theories and perspectives to analyze popular culture, with a particular emphasis on the importance of communication in the production and consumption of culture. We will examine various artifacts of popular culture including music, movies, texts, advertisements, clothing, and other relevant pieces of popular culture.  In the course of this exploration, we will study the development of culture by applying different theories or ?lenses? to these artifacts.  Students will experience and analyze various aspects of popular culture including production and consumption, in addition to how these processes work within the context of globalization.  We will take a critical perspective in which we will challenge our own conceptions and consumption of popular culture.  The goal of this course is to combine relevant theories with your own observations and interests in order to develop a careful, critical, and constructive analysis of popular culture.

COMN 1700 - Fundamentals of Intercultural Communication
This course explores the fundamental concepts and issues in intercultural communication. We will examine the complex relationship between culture and communication from different conceptual perspectives and consider the importance of context and power in intercultural interactions. In addition to learning theory and applying different approaches to the study of intercultural communication, this course asks that you consider your own cultural identities, values, beliefs, assumptions, worldviews, etc. through participation in class discussions. Our discussions will enhance self-reflection, critical thinking, and your own awareness to the complexity of intercultural communication. You can expect that your classmates possess varying perspectives about the materials being covered in class. We will work hard to help everyone develop their perspective and voice, embracing such factors as cultural background, race, class, gender, and sexuality.

COMN 2040 - Communication and Leadership
This course overviews communication as it pertains to community, citizenship and spheres of influence. Theories of leadership as well as responsibilities of citizenship will guide the process of learning more about civic involvement and social justice as a relational process.

COMN 2130 - Introduction to Organizational Communication
This is a theory-driven course which will introduce students to the major approaches to the study of organizational communication, including classical, managerial, systems, cultural, and critical perspectives.  The course use these perspectives to deepen student's understandings of the organizational communication topics developed in COMN 1550, teaching students how to recognize and approach organizational communication issues from a variety of perspectives.

COMN 2300 - Fundamentals in Argumentation
This class offers a survey of approaches to the study of argumentation. We are going to examine and evaluate how argument is understood from various perspectives within the discipline of communication studies. We will engage theoretical concerns related to argumentation with a commitment to test their applicability to current events and issues. We will also explore how arguments are practiced in areas such as the arts and the media, legal contexts, interpersonal communication, public deliberation, and the sciences. The course will focus on expanding your contextual knowledge of how arguments operate within our culture and on cultivating your ability to read critically and creatively, make cogent arguments, assess opposing arguments charitably, and communicate your judgments effectively.

COMN 2400 - Landmarks in Rhetorical Theory
This course is a survey of some of the major conceptual innovations in the history of rhetorical theory. In particular we will investigate the conceptions of rhetoric prevalent in antiquity and how they inform contemporary perspectives on rhetoric. In order to carry this off, we will conceptualize rhetoric as an attempt to answer the question what is the relationship between what is true and what is the good.

COMN 3020 - Conflict and Communication
Conflict and Communication emphasizes the ways that people use communication to manage interpersonal conflicts. Students will be expected to apply course material to real-life conflict situations in course assignments. The goals of this course are for the student to: (1) understand the nature of conflict, (2) understand how conflict occurs and is managed in different relationships and contexts, and (3) recognize and think critically about conflict and functional strategies for conflict management in everyday life.

COMN 3130 - Organizational Communication
This is an applied course, service-learning course, based on a consulting model.  While the course will extend and enrich the topical and theoretical knowledge developed in COMN 1550 and COMN 2130, the primary purpose of this course will be to help students explore how they can put such knowledge into practice by collectively working with a local non-profit organization to first diagnose and then propose (and, in some cases implement) solutions to an organizational communication problem faced by that organization.

COMN 3140 - Advanced Intercultural Communication
This course is designed to study the intersection of communication and culture.  In this course, culture is defined broadly to include a variety of contexts, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, and class.  Students gain theoretical and practical understanding of the opportunities and obstacles that exist as individuals and communities communicate within and across cultures

COMN 3142 - Dialogue, Culture, and Conflict
This course explores how dialogue is used to resolve conflict in intercultural communities and to approach controversial topics about culture and communication. The course includes attention to conflict, negotiation, mediation, resolution, and transformation.

COMN 3180 - Workshop: Organizational Culture
This is an advanced course which will explore in depth one particular domain of organizational communication: organizational culture.  The course will explore managerial, interpretive, and critical understandings of organizational culture as a construct.  Students will conduct a quarter-long ethnography of an organization with which they have ongoing and significant involvement as a way of exploring how the cultural perspective can enhance their understanding of organizational life.

COMN 3245 - Building Group/Team Effectiveness
The objectives of this course are to help students acquire a deeper understanding of groups and teams, how they function, what contributes to their success or failure.  It also aims to help students develop the skills and capacities that will allow them to contribute in concrete and significant ways to successful outcomes and satisfying experiences for themselves and others in groups and teams.

COMN 3250 - Special Topics: Visual Communication

COMN 3270 - Health Communication
This course examines the role of health communication in our everyday lives.  We will focus on communication strategies that inform and influence individuals, families and communities in decisions that enhance health.  We will also explore the dynamics and impact of health communication between individuals and the health care system such as doctor-patient communication, dissemination of health related information, and the role of mediated communication in examining health communication.

COMN 3280 - Family Communication
This purpose of this course is to enhance understanding about communication patterns within families. In this course, we will examine theory/research on the role of communication in creating and maintaining healthy marriages and families. Specifically, we will study communication and the family life cycle, different family forms, family race/ethnicity, power in families, conflict in families, communication and stress in families, and communication in the aging family. The course format includes lectures, discussions, analysis of case studies, and in class applications.

COMN 3285 - Advanced Relational Communication
Advanced Relational Communication is intended to increase understanding of relationships from diverse perspectives. The three main perspectives we will investigate show how relationships affect and are affected by their context, the individuals involved, and the relational system. The goals of this course are for students to increase their skill in: (1) explaining how knowledge about context, individuals, and relational systems increases understanding of communication processes in a variety of relationships; (2) evaluating critically the information about relationships that we encounter in our everyday lives; (3) asking and investigating questions about real-life relationships.

COMN 3290 - Communication and Aging
Communication and Aging will focus on the communication processes associated with aging. Students will explore the implications of aging and how aging affects the process and outcomes social and relational interactions. They will examine communication and aging through interactional processes (intrapersonal, interpersonal and relational) and through context (organization, family, health, and culture). Emphasis is placed on the theoretical and applied research in communication and aging.

COMN 3300 - Principle of Persuasion
Principles of Persuasion involves a social scientific approach to persuasion and social influence. Some of the topics included in this approach are the relationship between attitude and behavior; characteristics of the source, message, and receiver of a persuasive appeal; and models and theories that explain the effects of persuasive communication. By the end of the course, students should be able to think more critically about the persuasive messages they encounter in everyday life, to apply theoretical models of persuasion, and to construct persuasive messages.

COMN 3315 - Public Deliberation
During the last two decades public deliberation has emerged as the centerpiece of theoretical and practical accounts of liberal democracy. This course begins by setting out the nature and functions of public deliberation. We will then track how deliberative democrats respecify the traditional accounts of inclusion, equality and reason in an attempt to meet the demands of the deep cultural diversity that mark social life in advanced industrial societies. Specifically we will ask if public deliberation as portrayed in these accounts is sufficient to meet these demands or do we need to expand our understanding of political argument to include a diversity of rhetorical practices? And, once we do expand our account of deliberation how does this transform the traditional problematics of both democratic and rhetorical theory?

COMN 3470 - Free Speech
This course will survey some of the major conceptual innovations in the justifications of freedom of speech. We will begin with an exploration of the traditional defenses of free speech and then move to a reexamination of those defenses in light of modern communication theory and the challenges of pluralism. In particular we will ask if the justifications of free speech need to be rethought given our understanding of speech as a social force that constitutes identities and values rather merely expressing private opinions. Moreover, given our understanding of the social force of speech should we regulate speech that is racist, sexist and seems to erode the foundations of a public culture based on mutual respect and public deliberation over social goods? Can we devise a robust defense of free speech based on its social force that both protects those that may be harmed by antidemocratic discourses and still provides the resources for democratic dissent? 

COMN /GWST 3680 - Gender and Communication
**This course has a required service learning project.
This course focuses on the interactive relationships between gender and communication in contemporary U.S. society. This implies four priorities for the class. First, the course explores multiple ways communication in families, media, and society in general creates and perpetuates gender roles. Second, the course considers how we enact socially created gender differences in public and private settings and how this affects success, satisfaction, and self-esteem. Third, the course connects theory and research to our personal lives. Throughout the quarter, the course considers not only what IS in terms of gender roles, but also what might be and how we, as change agents, may act to improve our individual and collective lives. Fourth, the course connects course content to student service learning experiences. Simultaneously, service informs academic content. All students volunteer across the quarter at a community organization and reflect on these experiences on a regular basis, using course materials as a basis for analysis and understanding.

COMN 3700 - Rhetoric and the Environment
What is "the environment" and how do we--as humans, American citizens, Coloradoans, etc.--define our relationship with it? How should we construct our relationship with it? By interweaving various perspectives from rhetorical theory, a discursive history of environmental controversies and policy, and a critical engagement with diverse voices and rhetorical styles, this course explores answers to these basic questions. Through readings, discussions, and assignments, we will foster a critical orientation toward environmental rhetoric. This will include interrogating the persuasiveness of arguments and evidence deployed in various environmental controversies; considering the ethics of various advocates' rhetorical expressions; and considering perspectives that may differ from our own. As this course cultivates critical thinking skills, it also seeks to help you find and enhance your own voice as an informed citizen and advocate--not by simply repeating others' discourse, but by thoughtfully considering the quarter's various rhetorical perspectives, and coming to your own decision about important environmental issues.

COMN 3700/4701 - Special Topics: Communication and Climate Change
Since the release of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth over a year ago, American public discourse has become increasingly concerned with global warming. Not only is there nearly 100% consensus among climate scientists that human-induced climate change exists; but the severity of global warming is entering the popular imaginary, in the form of journalism, films, etc. But while scientists are committed to slowing global warming, the types of sweeping policy and behavioral changes needed to abate the projected climate catastrophe have been very slow in coming. As such, communication scholars--particularly those concerned with the art of public persuasion--are in a unique position to contribute to this significant and complex issue. The goal of this course is to produce original scholarly research, to invite more and better communication concerning climate change. It offers you a unique opportunity to work closely as part of a research team, inquiring into questions such as: What barriers currently prevent proactive social change on global warming? Specifically, what about the actual issue of global warming might make it difficult for advocates to communicate persuasively in solving it? What policies or ideologies prevent advocates from communicating more persuasively? How might we work to remove or diminish these barriers, through more effective communication practices? Through self-directed reading, research and discussion, you will produce a presentation-worthy piece of scholarship on communication and climate change by the quarter?s end.

COMN 3701 - Special Topics: Latina/o Communication Studies
As the Latina/o population continues to grow in the United States, having become the largest "minority" population in the United States, it becomes increasingly important to understand and respect the cultures of this heterogeneous community. Latina/os are often erroneously subsumed or rendered invisible by dominant constructions of race within the United States that rely on a hegemonic black/white binary. Given the increasing visibility and growth of this group, this course will examine the development of Latina/o Studies within the field of Communication Studies by taking both a historical and a contemporary approach.

COMN 3760 - Rhetorical Criticism
Like other research methods in communication studies, rhetorical criticism is a means:  It is a pathway through which you may reach a desired end, as well as a set of tools with which you may shape your final work.  However, following Nothstine, Blair, and Copeland (1994), "criticism is a process:"  a pathway which "rarely travels a straight line to its end" (p. 343), and a toolkit which arrives with ambiguous instructions (at best) for how to put the project together.  In the humanistic tradition, rhetorical criticism is an art motivated by the critic's vision and guided by her or his deftness, ingenuity, and perseverance.  Moreover, true to its Aristotelian roots, rhetorical criticism is a practical endeavor inspired by important public events of the day and the critic's desire to persuade:  the significance of rhetorical criticism is born in public dialogue or debate.  In the wake of the "critical turn," rhetorical criticism not only inspires academic colloquia--through it, critics pursue democracy and social justice.  In conversation with today's methodological gadflies (especially performance studies and the "new" ethnography), rhetorical critics have started to embrace self-reflexivity, and writing as a method of inquiry (not simply the "reporting on" inquiry once it is "done").  Through the inventional process this quarter, you will produce an insightful piece of writing on a significant rhetorical act of your choice; position yourself as a researcher prepared to enter a major project (e.g., a thesis or dissertation); and strengthen your everyday critical abilities.

COMN 3770 - Mediated Communication and Relationships
This course examines how people develop, define, maintain, and manage interpersonal relationship through their use of mediated communication.  We will examine communication in relationships that occur through the internet, text-messaging, cell phones, chat rooms, gaming, and virtual communities.  This is a seminar type course where students guide and are guided through their own study of mediated relationships.

COMN 3850 - Communication Ethics
This class is not just about how to be ethical communicators but it is also about how to discover ethics--the good life and care for others, answerability and responsibility--deep within the structures of human communication itself. The course is committed to a mixture of theory and practice but practice is at the heart of the matter. Half of our sessions will be devoted to dialogue or conversation about ethics in life. There we will try to work as close as we can with ethics in our own lived experience. In the other half, we will explore theory: the ethical/philosophical/communicative ground of ethics.