About graduate credit: Students receive graduate credit for 500-level courses. Students may also receive graduate credit for undergraduate courses numbered 450 -499, but only with the graduate advisor’s approval and the course instructor’s permission. Further, the Graduate School only allows two courses at the undergraduate level to count toward the M.A. degree in Communication Studies. Courses 450-499 may not always be open to graduate students.

Complete Graduate Studies Course List

Organizational Communication Seminars

Communication and Media Seminars

Interpersonal Communication Seminars

Intercultural Communication Seminars

Political Communication Seminars

Method & Theory Seminars

Organizational Communication

COMM 470 Leadership Communication
(3 credits) Examination of traditional theories and concepts of leader-follower dynamics; presentation of cognitive, systems, and symbolic interpretative views of leadership with an emphasis on persuasion and motivation in leader-follower interactions. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 550 Seminar in Communication Technologies
(3 credits) Seminar on design, usage, and social impact of electronic mail, communication through computer networks, and new technologies of organizational communication such as group decision support systems (GDSS). Each student will study an actual application of a major communication technology in an organization. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 570 Seminar in Organizational Communication
(3 credits) Communication strategies and patterns of private and governmental organizations, including research on communication systems. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 578 Case Studies in Leadership Communication
(3 credits) Students will assess, synthesize, integrate, and evaluate research in the area of leadership and organizational communication. Students will interact with modern topics related to communication and organizations through the analysis and discussion of various cases pulled from current events in organizational research. COMM 578 is the graduate version of COMM 478. Additional work will be required for Graduate Students.

COMM 579 Ethics & Diversity in Leadership Communication
(3 credits) This course provides students with an opportunity to explore the issues related to ethical decision-making and personal ethical development as they apply to interpersonal communication, followership, organizations, diversity, and organizational citizenship. Additional work will be required for Graduate Students.

COMM 595 Internship
(3 credits) Internship opportunity to apply what students have learned to the real world. Restricted to majors. Prerequisite: 9 credits of M.A. degree. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

Communication and Media

COMM 550 Seminar in Communication Technologies
(3 credits) Seminar on design, usage, and social impact of electronic mail, communication through computer networks, and new technologies of organizational communication such as group decision support systems (GDSS). Each student will study an actual application of a major communication technology in an organization. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 557 Seminar in Strategic Communication 
(3 credits) This course covers history, theory, and research related to the use of strategic organizational communication to change attitudes. The course is a survey course designed to help you understand how organizations create targeted, creative, research-based communication to accomplish their objectives. Students will examine the role of communication in organizational planning and execution of advertising, marketing, public relations, and social change. Strategic Communication provides insight into how communicators use critical and creative thinking to gather, organize, evaluate and deliver information in a culturally diverse world. Graduate students will be required to fulfill advanced research and presentation requirements. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

Interpersonal Communication

COMM 460 Deception and Communication 
(3 Credits) Deceptive communication including nonverbal indicators of lies, types of lies, and the influence of relationships on lying behavior and interpretation. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 562 Seminar in Family Communication
(3 credits) This course examines cutting-edge research on family communication, as well as classic theories and research findings that have influenced and revolutionized the way scholars conceptualize family interaction. Topics include basic family communication processes, communication in family subsystems, communication during family stress, and the role of family interaction in health and well-being. Students will explore how family relationships are built, maintained, and destroyed by communication as well as the potentially important and long-lasting effects of family relationships on individuals.

COMM 565 Seminar in Nonverbal Communication
(3 credits) This course focuses on human physical behaviors as the basis of communication between persons. This physical behavior includes such variables as voice, face, eyes, posture, gesture, space, territory, clothing, and touch. The content of the course considers the individual and social factors affecting the production of such behaviors, and the effects of such behaviors on others' attitudes, perceptions, cognitions, and relationships. Applications of research and theory in nonverbal communication to infant development, personality, sex differences, marital satisfaction, relationship development, culture, aging, and brain functioning are also studied throughout the course.

COMM 584 Seminar in Interpersonal Communication
(3 credits) Theories of interpersonal communication and communication within a relationship, including the study of relevant models, contexts, and constructs. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

Intercultural Communication

COMM 475 International Communication
(3 credits) Exploration of the forms and channels of communication substantially influenced by international cultural and political factors. Covers: global communication technology; news, information, and entertainment flows; international diplomacy and negotiation. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 477 Environmental Communication
(3 credits) Examines the link between communication and environment within the context of communication scholarship. Topics include sense of place, cultural approaches to interacting with the environment as well as exploring current themes surrounding the environment. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 558 Seminar in Intercultural Communication 
(3 credits) The seminar course provides a concentration on cultural factors in international affairs and conflicts, how culture affects perceptions of national interests, and the relationship of U.S. national security to understand the general and political cultures of other nations. Students will integrate cultural and intercultural communication theory and behavior, with an emphasis on the development of specific communication skills to facilitate developing cultural knowledge in government and political contexts. Students will learn how to study the cultural factors that affect international conflicts and how strategic communication should address such cultural factors. Graduate students will be required to fulfill advanced research and presentation requirements.

COMM 576 Seminar on Communication and Culture
(3 credits) Cultural and intercultural communication theory and research. Focuses on discovering and describing distinctive ways of speaking within and between cultures. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

Political Communication

COMM 540 Seminar in Political Communication
(3 credits) Political communication theory, research, and issues. Empirical studies of campaigns, movements, news media, voter decision-making, political participation, socialization, and knowledge. Political theory, field research, communication science findings, and research methods. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 551 Graduate Seminar in Persuasion
(3 credits) Work with an actual persuasion campaign, such as public information, political, or commercial marketing campaigns. Includes case studies of large-scale persuasion efforts, current theoretical models of persuasion processes, and methods for studying, evaluating, and refining messages for optimal effects. Prerequisite: COMM 351 (Persuasion Theory and Practice) or consent of instructor. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

Method & Theory Seminars

COMM 505 Research Methods
(3 credits) Seminar in the quantitative study of human communication phenomena, research design, and statistical analysis. May be repeated up to 3 credits.

COMM 506 Qualitative Research Methods
(3 credits) Survey of qualitative research methods in the study of human communication, including historical and critical approaches, interviewing, participant-observation, and communication ethnography. Students apply methods to their own research. May be repeated up to 3 credits.