The following classes are a representation of the courses that can be selected from the department of media, film and journalism studies, the department of communication studies and the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. This listing is not exhaustive; please visit  the Media, Film & Journalism Studies and Josef Korbel School of International Studies websites  for complete listings of available courses.

Communication Courses

Department of media, film and journalism studies

MFJS 4650 International Communication
This course explores major theories concerning international communication flows; processes and effects of globalization and global media; issues of new communication technologies; the rhetoric and media framing of global politics and culture; war, armed conflict and peace issues; global environmental issues; international marketing, public relations and diplomacy; and national and cultural sovereignty issues related to communication. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4912 Foundations of International and Intercultural Communication
This course explores theories and issues related to the intersection of international or global and intercultural communication issues, focusing on issues of culture, communication and media, and power in political, economic and social contexts. Traditionally international and intercultural communication have been separate fields of research and practice, but with the worldwide convergence in many areas fueled by globalization, and changes in communication and new media, the intersections of these fields are more apparent. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4050 Strategic Management of Communication Campaigns
This class provides students experience in understanding, designing and implementing public communication campaigns. Central to the course is the exploration of the theoretical social science framework underlying communication campaigns and examination of the ways these theories are used to define and explain communications problems and to plan and evaluate communications campaigns. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4060 Public Relations Communication Techniques
This course focuses on various forms of writing for the print and broadcast media with an emphasis on public relations. The course is designed to encourage development of various analytical and fact-finding skills necessary for information gathering, as well as those required for translating and interpreting complex information. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4070 Seminar in Public Relations
This class examines special topics in public relations such as crisis communication, international and intercultural public relations, and political, sports and health communication. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4080 International and Intercultural Public Relations
This course explores several issues and aspects of international and intercultural public relations, including culture and intercultural communication issues, PR in nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations, transnational corporate PR, global news issues and media relations, public and cultural diplomacy of governments and foreign policy, and cross-cultural and diversity training, This is not a PR techniques course, but focuses on relevant theories and issues. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4160 Mass Communication Theories
Students will get an overview of various theoretical approaches to the study of mass communications, paying particular attention to the relationships among technology, media institutions, culture and society, and the ways these various relationships have been conceptualized and researched. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4260 Qualitative Research Methods
This class provides a survey of interpretive critical theories and practices. Areas of study include historiography and historical research, participant observation/ethnography, textual analysis, reception or audience studies, cultural studies and legal research. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4310 New Media Law
Students will examine recent conflicts in mass communications law. Topics vary with current developments. Particular emphasis is given to the legal problems of broadcasting, cable and the new communications technologies. Other topics may include libel, privacy, obscenity, newsgathering, copyright, media ownership and advertising regulation. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4320 Brands and Identities
This course reviews theories and cases of the role and meaning of brands in a consumer society, with a particular emphasis on understanding how brands are implicated in the construction and presentation of personal and group identities. The course combines insights from marketing, social psychology and cultural students to explore the importance of brands for both consumers and practitioners. Students will master core branding concepts and use them to critically analyze salient social and cultural issues. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 3501 Web Building and Site Management
This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts of Web site development and management, including HTML, graphical Web-building tools (Macromedia Dreamweaver and others), multilevel site planning and construction, navigation schemes, basic interactivity (via JavaScript and CGI), information organization, Web site management and the delivery of basic multimedia content. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4550 Effects and Consequences of the Mass Media
This class will provide an empirically based examination of the psychological effects and sociological consequences of mass communications. The course combines theoretical perspectives from social science inquiry in an attempt to define how audiences use the mass media and the effects that media have on audiences. Emphasis is on areas of inquiry having bearing on mass communications policy in contemporary society. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4560 Quantitative Research Methods
The development and application of specific social sciences research techniques to the study of mass communications with emphasis on survey research strategies. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4912 International Health and Development Communication
Students will learn about the role of communication in international health; the social and cultural factors that influence the design, delivery, reception and effectiveness of international health communication programs; the role of international health's big players (e.g., W.H.O, UNAIDS, Doctors Without Borders, pharmaceutical companies, etc.) in international health communication; and the ways in which international health communication affects development in countries around the world. 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4912 Language, Power and Globalization
This course focuses on key historical and contemporary political and cultural struggles surrounding language around the world. It introduces students to various theoretical and political discourses on the nature of language, examines the relation of language and power, and analyzes the role of language in individual and collective identity, especially (inter)national identity. Overall, this course aims to equip students with the conceptual and analytical tools to critically engage and reflect upon the significance of language to both their own and others' sociopolitical identity(ies) and existence(s). 4 qtr. hrs.

MFJS 4652 Culture, Gender and Global Communication
This course explores the ways in which culture, gender and communication intersect and shape a variety of issues from an international and intercultural perspective, including media representations and stereotypes, gender & sexuality, immigration, trafficking of women, activist media for social change, and women's human rights and social/ political movements. It is taught from a multicultural perspective by professors from Central America and North America. 4 qtr. hrs.

Department of Communication Studies

COMN 3020 Conflict Management
Students explore substantive and relational types of conflict and various strategies for conflict resolution. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 3130 Organizational Communication
This class studies the dynamics of organizational communication centering on communication systems, examines the structures and patterns in modern organizations and explores related working modes, strategies, guidelines and techniques. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 3161 Communication and Social Change
Understanding the process by which new ideas are communicated, adopted or rejected is the goal of this course, with an emphasis on assessing communication strategies. Students will review current literature of social change in developing countries. 2 qtr. hrs.

COMN 3300 Principles of Persuasion
This course 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.

COMN 3550 Principles of Negotiation
Students explore principles and research findings related to resolving conflicts, arranging contracts and reaching agreements. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 3680 Gender and Communication
This course considers sex and gender differences in communication as a function of sex role learning. 5 qtr. hrs.

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.

COMN 4110 - THEORIES IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
Selected themes in interpersonal communication, based primarily on theoretical sources, including interaction, relationships, goal achievement, hierarchies, interpersonal change.

COMN 4130 Seminar in Communication in Human Organizations
Students examine current problems and issues in organizational communication. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 4150 Culture, Ethnicity and Communication
This course explores an intercultural approach to the investigation of communication codes, norms, value dimensions, power, privilege and relationship issues within national, ethnic and gender groups. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 4220 Critical Intercultural Communication
Students study theories and research programs that examine contact between representatives of two or more cultures (national, ethnic, gender and corporate) in a variety of contexts, focusing on such topics as cultural identities, adaptation, interpersonal relationships and competence. 5 qtr. hrs.

COMN 4231 Discourse and Race
This class looks at race as a discursive formation using the literature in critical race theory that has emerged over the past decade. Issues will be discussed around historic material as well as symbolic determinations of the discourse on race that have conspired to sustain a highly racialized system. 5 qtr. hrs.

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

INTS 4151 History, Culture and Conflict
This course explores interdisciplinary and comparative history, analysis and style through reading various historical texts. The task will not only be to read books "on the surface" but to penetrate to what could be called the substructure of good historical writing. The class covers the representation of such topics as slavery, witchcraft and the Nazis. 5 qtr. hrs.
INTS 4192 Bargaining and Negotiation
This class is an introductory course investigating the impact of situational characteristics and psychological processes on decision-making and bargaining strategies in a variety of international policy-making problems. Issues range from cultural consideration to decision-making in crisis to conflict-resolution positions adopted by parties to settle their differences. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4210 Multinational Corporations
This is an intermediate course focusing on the development of the multinational enterprise. The determinants of foreign direct investment, the economics of the multinational firm, the impacts of multinational corporations on host and home country development and dependence, and the implications of the operations for each other's policies will be discussed. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4240 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
This intermediate course explores the reasons that nationalism has re-emerged in capitalist, socialist, industrial and Third World countries. Examines the role of culture in international politics and how nationalism constitutes both a reactive force to exploitation and a competitive force in development. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4324: International Policy Economy
The course examines 3 contrasting visions of international political economy: economic security, trade and finance.

INTS 4920 Conflict and Conflict Resolution
In this introductory course, students will identify the collective factors leading to successful reconciliation or agreeable compromises in conflicts; analyze the role and influence of cultural norms, gender conditioning and different bargaining strategies and tactics on the resolution process; and apply the practical fundamentals of negotiation and particular problem-solving tactics. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4300 Introduction to Development
This introductory course evaluates the meaning of development and presenting alternative interpretations that incorporate problems of power and the environment. Modernization theory, dependency theories and theories of imperialism are presented, as well as issues of growth and reform examined. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4302 Ethics and Development
This is an intermediate course mixing moral and theological orientations with social science perspectives on ethics to critique the processes of development. Topics include poverty and injustice, secular and religious ethical arguments, ecological and political economy aspects and the logic of economics. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4304 International Economics
This is an introductory course focusing on the structure of the world economy and how it functions. Trade, investment, payment patterns, exchange rates, international capital flows, balance of payments problems and economic development will be examined. This class is intended for students with no prior economics background. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4310 International Trade
This is an intermediate course analyzing the causes and consequences of international trade, including classical, neoclassical and product-cycle models. Topics include international specialization, terms of trade of developed and less-developed countries, distribution of gains from trade, instruments and uses of commercial policy, nominal and effective protection, and the theory of customs unions and economic integration. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4324 International Political Economy
This class introduces students to the nuts and bolts of the global economy. It introduces students to the politics of the world economy and can serve as a gateway to advanced international political economy courses. Areas of focus include international economic cooperation and state security, past and present regimes of global trade and finance, divergent paths of development, and radical and mainstream critiques of the contemporary management of the international economy. Most classes include a detailed case study against a background of readings of broader relevance. Assignments include a final exam and a group case study investigating a particular aspect of the international political economy. There is no economics prerequisite. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4331 Technology and Economic Development
This is an intermediate course comparing the benefits and problems of technological progress in developing countries with the developed world. Theories of technical change, macroeconomic effects of policy choices, technology transfer, innovation and productivity are among the issues discussed. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4340 Trade and Economic Development
This class is an intermediate course focusing on less developed countries and the world economy. Topics include trade patterns and the international division of labor, trade strategies, protection and commercial policy, economic stabilization and exchange rates, the international monetary system and the debt problem, transnational corporation investment, commodity agreements and cartels. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4358 Human Rights and Economy
This course explores the nature of economic rights and the relationship between human rights and economic institutions. Issues covered include needs; rights and living standards; property rights; equality and efficiency; capitalism and human rights; and human rights and economic development. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4362: GENDER & HEALTH
(no description available)

INTS 4367 Global Health Affairs
Introductory survey class for all students interested in intersection of international affairs and global health and security, development and economics.

INTS 4370 Political Economy of Globalization
This is an introductory course examining the political economy of the international system. Topics include economic interdependence and international inequality, economic interdependence and political independence, hegemony and leadership, and the capitalist world system. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4375 Theories of the State
This is an intermediate course surveying the approaches to understanding the nature and role of the state. Works of classical theorists will be studied and alternative conceptions of the state examined. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4379 Gender, Development and Environment
See current catalog for full description. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4386: TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION – AMERICAS
The course examines movement of various nationalities from other nations into North, South and Central America.

INTS 4390 Decision Making in International Organizations
This is an intermediate course exploring public policy decision making in international economic organizations. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, GATT and select U.N. agencies will be discussed. The class focuses on formal and informal institutional structures and on participation by various actors. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4391 Organizations and Internationalization
The goal of the class is to understand modern and postmodern organizations in the context of global change and internationalization of economic markets. The class is based on two complementing parts: theoretical and practical-empirical. In the first part, we will delineate the paradigmatic discourse of classical organizational theory in the framework of understanding modern organizations as rational, natural and open systems. Next we move to postmodern understandings of organizational structures such as the network organization and the virtual organization. The second part of class is devoted to the application of organizational theories on real cases describing the challenges that organizations are facing in the global-international economy. These include the internationalization of research and development, organizational strategy and technology. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4455 Human Rights and Health
With such varied and important topics as the Patient's Bill of Rights, stem cell research and the distribution of pharmaceuticals in the news, health has become an important political and social topic. This course uses such topics to explore the relationship between health and human rights. Until recently, the right to health has been a nebulous concept, despite being rooted in numerous human rights treaties. This course examines the issues and problems raised by adopting a human rights approach to health and analyzes the approaches that have been developed to forward the right to health. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4460 Politics of the Third World
This is an intermediate course focusing on historical, social and international factors in the analysis of the political economy of Third World societies. Theoretical debates on development, dependency and historical processes that have shaped the emergence of a Third World are examined. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4461 Social Development
This is an intermediate course concerning the distribution of development within countries. It will examine value structures in the labor market, social mobility, income distribution, basic needs, nationalism and globalization of capitalist systems considered in the context of social change and justice. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4463 Women and Development
This is an intermediate course providing an overview of gender issues and development. Specific topics include the economic, political, social and cultural position of women; explanations for and origins of women's positions; the impact of national and international development policies (including technology) on women; the role of women in movements for change in developing countries; and women in post-revolutionary societies. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4466 Global Inequality
This course comparatively explores the sources of the distribution of socioeconomic well-being in the world. Who benefits, and by how much, from the massive redistribution of socioeconomic resources from global markets, development strategies and welfare programs? Should anything be done about the skewed distribution? Before jumping into the distributive system, the biases built into the notions of a more "just society" will be briefly reviewed. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4492 Health and Humanitarian Aid
This course aims to examine current organizational standards such as the Sphere Project, best-practice scenarios from ICRC, IRC, MSF and many other humanitarian organizations, and lessons learned from recent and historical humanitarian crises. Utilizing a case-based and problem-based format, students will gain and apply knowledge through critical examination of issues and development of practical solutions. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4501 Politics Within Nations
An introduction to comparative politics analyzing approaches, methods and topics for understanding political processes in countries around the globe, as well as how events in the international arena — especially globalization — affect the domestic politics of states. Through readings, lectures, guided discussion and multimedia sources, students acquire skills to better understand and analyze how governance can and can't address social problems in widely varying contexts. The course features case studies on China, Germany, India, South Africa and Brazil, among others. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4521 International Development: Cross-Cultural Perspective
Explores cultural dimensions of economic and social change from perspectives of actors who create, promote, negotiate and resist different global and local agendas. 3 or 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4560 Global Change: Issues/Dynamics
This is an introductory course surveying the major global public policy issues. Topics include population growth, food availability, environmental quality, energy supply, security, economic structure transformation and weaponry proliferation. The extent and nature of international policy responses of individual states and those of collective action are also discussed. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4700 United States Foreign Policy
This is an intermediate course on issues and perspectives for evaluating American foreign policy. Topics include theories of foreign policy; historical epochs in superpower relations — the Cold War, detente and confrontation; America's role in the post- Cold War world; and war, peace and trade in relation to U.S. foreign policy planning and assessment. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4825 Immigration, Ethnic Diversity and Public Policy
This is an introductory course comparing traditional immigration countries (United States, Canada, Australia) with western European countries where resident ethnic minorities are a new phenomenon. The class will explore policy responses, conflict and accommodations, minority-majority group relations, and sociopolitical integration processes affecting immigrants. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4900 International Political Theory
This is an introductory course examining different approaches to understanding international politics. The purpose of theory; individual, state and system levels of analysis; classical and modern realism and liberal and radical theories; decision-making perspectives (game theory, images and perception); and postmodernism will be discussed and critically analyzed with respect to implicit assumptions, central assertions and logical flaws in theory construction and application. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4930 International Law, Organization, and Conflict Management and Resolution
This is an intermediate course examining the role of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organization of African Unity, the European Community and the International Court of Justice in the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Various mechanisms of conflict resolution will be studied, such as good offices, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4931 International Organizations
This is an intermediate class on approaches to the study of international organizations, including institutionalism, neofunctionalism, complex interdependence, international regimes and epistemic communities. Case studies examine collective security and peacekeeping, human rights, Antarctica and the environment. 5 qtr. hrs.

INTS 4935 Human Rights and Democracy
This class is an intermediate course examining the role of basic rights in democratic theory. Topics include justification of the rights of the innocent, the rights to personal security and the rights to subsistence, and cultural rights of indigenous people, explored through the interplay between social theory and controversial political and ethical claims. 5 qtr. hrs.

For More Information
The department of media, film and journalism studies' website offers the most current information on courses, requirements, faculty and student news. Go to the Media, Film & Journalism for more information on the program.

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