Communication Studies

(All Sections)

The Liberal Arts Tradition. The study of the art of public speaking traces its roots to the rhetorical tradition established by the ancient Greeks. Inherent to the art of rhetoric, effective oral communication has been essential to leadership and citizenship and constitutes one of the Seven Liberal Arts.

In modern times, there is a renewed emphasis upon the skills of communication, both in civic and organizational life. The Communication Age places greater importance on the two-fold ability that comes from the study of rhetoric: the ability to communicate effectively and the ability to be a knowledgeable and analytical consumer of communication presented by others.

(All Sections)

American Sign Language (ASL) is offered at Butler University in the Communication Studies Department. ASL is taught in a total immersion environment with no voice and no English. This course offers to Butler students a great opportunity to learn another language and experience its culture. Students gain cultural awareness as they abolish preconceived stereotypes and replace them with greater sensitivity to "differently able" people. Conflicts and controversies between the Deaf World and the hearing world are explored in class. An optional service-learning component of each ASL course affords students multiple opportunities to practice the language learned in class with native signers in the local community. Students see first hand that people who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing are no different from themselves. This course, with its diverse cultural interactions, teaches tolerance and acceptance of people once thought unapproachable. Through real world experiences, Butler students are developing new and lasting friendships in the Indianapolis Deaf community.

Suzanne Reading

Essential to the profession of speech-language pathology and audiology is an interest in and a desire to serve others. Study in the liberal arts and sciences allows the exploration and appreciation of ideas and beliefs of others, which, in turn, allows successful interaction with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures. The knowledge of different languages, cultures, and social values, as well as an ensuing appreciation is necessary if we are to be respectful of others, including individuals with communication disorders. A broadened perspective, the result of a liberal arts education, promotes wisdom, tolerance, and personal growth, all desired attributes for working closely and effectively with others in order to solve communication problems.

Through the study of speech, language, voice, and fluency problems, students will gain knowledge of the scope of the profession devoted to treating communication disorders. Just as importantly, this course will provide students with an insight and sensitivity to those who experience communication problems. It will enable students to appreciate the remarkable ability of humans to communicate creatively --- an ability that is central to the human experience, the study of which is encompassed by liberal arts and sciences.

David Moscowitz

Benjamin Lee has noted that "mass media-print, film, and television-draw together materials from political, intellectual, and popular culture 'discourses' to form distinct 'public cultures' that vary from society to society in their organization." This course follows this rubric to critically explore the rhetoric of film and its implications on public culture within the context of cinematic production, circulation, and consumption. In particular, we will build a critical vocabulary of film by initially considering the basic grammars of composition, continuity, and editing, followed by careful consideration of conventions and variations of authorship, genre, and narrative.

Disclaimer: Some films screened in or for class will feature nudity, violence, and/or behavior that you might consider aberrant. Students who do not wish to see, discuss, or study such material are advised against taking this course.

This course constitutes a vital part of your liberal arts education, which values inquiry, empathy, and an open exchange of ideas and worldviews. Course objectives include:

• To engage processes of reflective, analytical, and humanistic inquiry
• To critically evaluate film according to different interpretive points of view
• To recognize how cultural plurality constrains and compels creative expression
• To consider how the discourse of film contributes to cultural identity
• To develop your own critical, constructive, and creative voice

Carrie Richie

Course Objective: An introduction to the study of the sounds of spoken language, this course will focus on articulatory, acoustic, linguistic, and clinical phonetics. Accurate transcription of the English language using the International Phonetic Alphabet will be emphasized. This course will serve as an important foundation for future course work in both normal and disordered speech processes. In keeping with the Liberal Arts and Sciences tradition, this course will take the scientific approach to various aspects of human communication.

Carolyn Richie

The purpose of this course is to establish a working knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the speech and hearing mechanisms. Focus will be placed on the systems involved in respiration, phonation, and articulation/resonation. Properties of the nervous system and audition will also be discussed in detail. This course will serve as an important foundation for future course work in both normal and disordered speech processes. From a scientific standpoint, and in keeping with the Liberal Arts tradition, we will explore how the human body is used in order to communicate.

Carolyn Richie

This course covers the fundamental principles of speech science; the physiology of speech production, acoustics of the speech signal, and aspects of speech perception. Primary emphasis will be placed on normal speech processes, but clinical applications in communication disorders will also be presented. In keeping with the Liberal Arts and Sciences tradition, the purpose of this course is to provide scientific insight into the mechanics of spoken language, a hallmark and universal human behaviour.

David Moscowitz

To the naked eye, sexuality appears to be about simple biology, uniquely male and female body parts like ovaries and penises, testicles and vaginas. Gender, however, is more complex. This seminar explores how film interrogates both, particularly the representation of sexual and non-sexual bodies as well as the performance of related social constraints and constructions of gender.

This course constitutes part of your liberal arts education, which presumes an open exchange of ideas and worldviews-including those considered profane or heretical. Whatever it is that roots the core of your being, it may be confronted and disrupted by some or many (or all) of the films shown for this class. Many of the required films feature explicit violence, nudity, and behavior that you might consider aberrant. Some films feature directors renowned by many; others are directed by folks who are reviled by some; others are not considered "high art" at all and are read as "B-rate" by most. We can learn from all of these. Nevertheless, students who do not wish to see, discuss, or study such material are advised against taking this course.

Finally, let me stress that this course is constituted as a seminar devoted to film and cultural criticism. We will interrogate and discuss how film functions as a form of public art and discourse and by result how it fosters the ongoing evolution of public culture, identity, and ideology. In other words, this course will not study technical aspects of film very much unless they contribute to our understanding of how artistic discourse contributes to cultural critique.

Bill Neher

As a systematic field of study, communication (rhetoric, or rhetorike) arose among classical Greek educators and statesmen concerned with the development of ethical leaders and active citizens. Their efforts resulted in the first systematic theories of communication. This tradition places the study of human communication centrally in the liberal arts.

David Moscowitz

This course is devoted to studying how we "know" our world using the frequently contested terms, symbols, and tropes that we share with others. As one of the three founding liberal arts (called the trivium), rhetoric has a long history as a mode of critical, humanistic inquiry. By result, "rhetoric" is subject to various interpretations regarding what it connotes (and yes, as you'll notice in the list below, those varying orientations overlap!):

• noble oratory and stylistic expression (e.g. "Lincoln's rhetorical artistry")
• vacant promises and bombastic artifice (e.g. "empty political rhetoric!")
• composition, semantics, and language use (e.g. "rhetorical precision")
• persuasion, influence, and perhaps, propaganda (e.g. "rhetorical trickery")
• reasoning, argumentation, and logical thought (e.g. "rhetorical deliberation")

Although we will engage all of these impressions, this course defines rhetoric as the discursive means for conveying social construction and cultural production. Whereas a more restrictive definition might focus only on what is overtly or intended to be persuasive, argumentative, or ceremonial, this perspective of rhetoric also invokes texts that cultivate shared affiliation and community such as art and architecture, historical commemoration, expressions of identity, performance, and various modes of popular culture. This course constitutes a vital part of your liberal arts education, which values inquiry, empathy, and an open dialogue of ideas and worldviews. Course objectives include:

• To engage processes of reflective, analytical, and humanistic inquiry
• To introduce various research methods in rhetorical criticism that highlight different kinds of criteria and interpretive points of view
• To recognize how cultural plurality constrains and compels rhetorical action
• To consider how shared, public discourse shapes formations of culture and power
• To develop your own critical, constructive, and creative voice

Kristen Swenson

To think critically and creatively is an integral part of your liberal arts education at Butler University. Often, the process of intellectual engagement requires that we abandon our comfort zones in order to grow as humans, intellectuals, and citizens. In this course, we will explore many commonly held assumptions about gender and how gender is culturally constructed, disciplined, and performed in order to rigorously examine how gender and culture intersect to shape and influence our material worlds and daily communicative interactions. To this end, we will maintain our open-mindedness, demonstrate respect to our peers even if we disagree with their viewpoints, and we will continually work to challenge our own assumptions and to foster intellectual and personal growth.

COM 356 - Communication Research Methods - Richie ~ View Section Statements

COM 356 - Communication Research Methods - Waite ~ View Section Statements

William W. Neher

The study of perspectives and theories concerning ethical standards for communication. Students are introduced to various systematic approaches for dealing with ethical issues, problems, or dilemmas, especially in regard to interpersonal communication and informative and persuasive discourse.

Quintilian held that the ideal of rhetoric (effective communication) is characterized as the good person speaking well. Aristotle held that the character of the speaker (the communicator) might just be the most important element in influencing others. The ability to think critically about the ethics of one's own communication and that of others represents one of the highest aims of liberal education

Course Objectives: To lead students to become

1. Sensitive to ethical issues associated with various communication acts and settings.
2. Aware of systems of thought that allow people to deal with ethical questions in communication.
3. Conversant with major theorists and theories relevant to ethics of communication.
4. Aware of their own ethical assumptions when communicating or evaluating the communication of others.

Marianna Mathias

The liberal arts' basic and historic purpose is to teach us to think for ourselves, to act wisely and well in the world, and to undertake occupations useful to ourselves and others. Liberal arts education rests on a paradox: thinking soundly oneself means first listening carefully to the thoughts of others. The liberal arts urge us to cultivate ourselves through the consciousness of others; careful attention to their ideas and actions help us refine our own.

This course is part of a comprehensive liberal arts education that values students' ability to think for themselves, in a critical, analytical fashion, while at the same time listening carefully to the viewpoints of others. Careful attention to, respect for, and analysis of the ideas of others helps us to form, develop, and understand our own ideas.

Suzanne Reading

The unique and amazing human ability to use language sets us apart from other living creatures. This ability enables us to develop relationships, reflect upon and invent new ideas, and ultimately live a full and productive life. Considered the most complex activity of the brain, language use develops naturally in early childhood, without direct teaching. When language ability does not develop naturally in children, it is critical to provide early intervention so that social, emotional, and intellectual development will not be compromised. This course explores various disorders that prevent the development of language as well as methods of treatment that are effective and sensitive, while preserving the dignity and intrinsic value of a child's life. Studies in the liberal arts and sciences encourage us to develop a sense of self and discover our potential. This course affirms the importance of language use to the development of a child's potential. This course will encourage students to think about the central role that communication plays in the development of our humanness and the reality that access to language is a fundamental human right.

David Moscowitz

If you have not recognized it before, start to do so now: we cannot get through a day without encountering various forms of cultural influence. This class will explore how people and institutions work to motivate not only your behavior, but also the way you view the world, consider your role within it, and relate with others. To interrogate this, we will explore various cultural contexts of influence in the form of case studies ranging from marketing to politics to social protest.

This course constitutes a vital part of your liberal arts education, which values inquiry, empathy, and an open exchange of ideas and worldviews. This means that our mode of inquiry in class will be investigative, not instrumental.

Course objectives include:

• To critically distinguish and assess various contexts of persuasive influence
• To evaluate texts according to different interpretive points of view
• To engage processes of reflective, analytical, and humanistic inquiry
• To recognize how cultural plurality constrains and manages rhetorical action
• To consider how influence functions as a component of social progress
• To develop your own critical, constructive, and creative voice

David Moscowitz

"Schlemiels, Sabras, and a Skinhead: Cultural Representations of Jews"

"The modern construction of the Jew and the establishing of a coherent Jewish identity," writes Linda Nochlin, "is almost synchronous with, though hardly identical to, the growth of mass communication and the possibility of popular representation on a large scale." Today, as Jews have endured constraints presented by antisemitism, acculturation, assimilation, and antisecularism, the representation of Jewish identity has become more diffuse-and divisive-at the dawn of the new century. Given how Jews in America and Europe have gained agency to author cultural representations about themselves, we will examine the tensions that have arisen from this process. We will read criticism and analysis of Jewish cultural representation as well as consume media depictions of, by, and about Jews. This course is designed with juniors and seniors in mind and will culminate in a research paper devoted to the cultural critique of how Jewish identity is represented.

This course constitutes part of your liberal arts education.

Course objectives include:

• To engage the process of critical and humanistic inquiry
• To evaluate texts according to different interpretive points of view
• To recognize how cultural plurality constrains and manages rhetorical action
• To advance our understanding about how Jewish cultural identity is maintained
• To develop your own critical, constructive, and creative voice