Courses

Selected Communication Arts courses appear below. A complete Undergraduate School course list can be found at UW Catalog Course Descriptions.

Special Topics Courses - Spring 2010

610, Lecture 1 Democratic Deliberation and American Education
610, Lecture 2 Rhetoric of Reproductive Rights
613, Seminar 2 Japanese Film
613, Seminar 3 Radio and the Art of Sound

Course Descriptions

610, Lecture 1 Democratic Deliberation and American Education
Instructor: Professor Rob Asen
Lecture: 2:25 - 5:25 pm Wednesdays
P: Two of the following: Comm Arts 360, 370, 372, 374, 470, 472, 570, 571, 576 or 667 or consent of the instructor

Education has always been regarded as central to American democracy, but its centrality has not produced agreement about what education is or what educators should do. At local and national levels, Americans have disagreed over issues like teaching sex ed., evaluating student progress through standardized tests, and encouraging student-directed learning. This course will examine historical and contemporary debates over U.S. education policy at the national and local levels. As a mode of communication, debate is an important means by which policy problems are identified and framed and policy solutions are offered.

610, Lecture 2 Rhetoric of Reproductive Rights
Instructor: Sarah Jedd
Lecture: 4:00 - 5:15 Tuesdays and Thursdays
P: Comm Arts 260 or Junior standing

This course is designed to give you an overview of the rhetoric of reproductive rights in the twentieth and twenty-first-century America. In addition to offering you a glimpse of the history of American reproductive rights activism, this course will discuss the legal basis for reproductive rights by examining key Supreme Court decisions relating to birth control and abortion. This course will expose you to a variety of primary and secondary texts, and by the end of the semester, you will produce your own research in the area of reproductive rights.

Throughout this session, we will endeavor to answer questions such as:

How have reproductive rights been defined differently in different historical moments?
What are rights in the context of reproduction?
Who has reproductive freedom, and whose reproduction has been controlled?
How does race figure into the history of reproductive rights?
How does class influence men and women’s access to reproductive healthcare?
How does gender as a category of analysis help us understand the history of reproductive rights?

Your answers to these questions will help guide your inquiry into the subject and will help to direct your own rhetorical criticism of primary texts.

613, Seminar 2 Japanese Film
Instructor: Professor Ben Singer
Lecture: 1:20 - 4:00pm Fridays
Screening: 7:30 - 9:30 pm Wednesdays
P: Comm Arts 354

Surveys the history of Japanese Cinema, analyzing films both as social texts reflecting aspects of Japanese identity, culture and politics, and as aesthetic texts distinct from, but also influenced by, Western models of filmmaking. Focuses on classic films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa as well as new wave and popular-genre films of the 1960s.

613, Seminar 3 Radio and the Art of Sound
Instructor: Professor Michele Hilmes
Lecture: 1:00 - 3:30 pm Mondays
P: Comm Arts 351

Starting in the 1920s, the medium of radio innovated a whole new world of sound-only expression. Drama, documentary, comedy, discussion, news, and the presentation of music became the backbone of the medium, devising live studio and recording techniques that enthralled listeners of all nations. Though television pushed radio out of the mainstream in the 1950s, the art of sound is experiencing a renaissance today, on the internet, via podcasts and satellite, and as part of other digital venues. This course will trace the development of radio as an art, exploring its techniques, styles, and genres, both historical and contemporary, and encouraging students to experiment with the aesthetics and strategies of sound in the work they produce for the class.