C O M M U N I C A T I O N   S T U D I E S  

Notes

Courses in Communication Studies are offered through the Department of Communication Arts. Many courses emphasize team work and will require meetings outside of class time.

COMMST 100s


COMMST 100 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004666
Interpersonal Communication
Focuses on the one-to-one, face-to-face communication in both the personal and professional realms. Such topics as verbal and non-verbal interactions, listening, and the better management of interpersonal communication will be studied.

 
COMMST 101 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 014532
Theories of Communication
This is an introductory course addressing the major theoretical issues in, approaches to, and applications of communication. Theories from various branches of communication, including interpersonal, group/organizational, rhetorical, mass and cultural, will be explored in-depth. Historical, current, and practical critiques of each theory will be conducted. Coursework is designed to encourage students to give critical consideration to the place of theory within the field of Speech Communication and within everyday life.

 
COMMST 102 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 004662
Introduction to Performance
This workshop course introduces students to the creative processes of performance in a range of formal and informal settings. Emphasis is placed on the student's development as a performer.
[Note: Prior performance experience is not required.]
(Cross-listed with THPERF 102)

 
COMMST 111 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 013718
Leadership, Communication, and Collaboration
This course focuses on developing the qualities and transferable skills necessary for integration, continuous learning, and professional development. This course establishes a common baseline of leadership, communication, and collaboration capabilities for Accounting and Financial Management majors. Focus will be on the design and delivery of various types of communication and the development of basic teamwork skills.
[Note: Students will be videotaped.]
Prereq: Accounting and Financial Management, Mathematics Chartered Accountancy, or Science Biotechnology/Chartered Accountancy students.
Antireq: COMMST 204

 
COMMST 112 LEC,SEM 0.50
Course ID: 016358
Introduction to Black Arts, Culture, and Literature
This course examines the evolution and development of Black Peoples' artistic, cultural, and literary experiences from a global perspective including art and design, theatre and performance, literature, music, spoken word, and other modes of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice. Coursework is designed to immerse students in analyzing Black art, culture, and literature through intersectional, feminist, and queer lenses. The course is designed for both thinkers and creators. Students will engage in the course material through readings, viewings, and field trips around film, comics, anime, popular culture events, plus the visual and performing arts.
(Cross-listed with VCULT 112, THPERF 112, BLKST 102)

 
COMMST 149 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 015845
Introduction to Critical Design Practices
How does design help us think? This studio course introduces students to practice-based methods for generating knowledge. Topics may include prototyping, performance as research, material thinking, multi-modal representation, and experience design. Students will test and explore how we learn differently through creative practices.
(Cross-listed with DAC 209, THPERF 149)

 
COMMST 191 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015735
Communication in the Engineering Profession (AE, CIVE, ENVE, GEOE)
In this course students in Architectural, Civil, Environmental, and Geological Engineering will enhance oral and written communication competencies in contexts relevant to the engineering profession.
Prereq: Architectural, Civil, Environmental, and Geological Engineering students.
Antireq: GENE 199 taken fall 2017 or fall 2018
(Cross-listed with ENGL 191)

 
COMMST 192 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015736
Communication in the Engineering Profession (COMPE, ELE, MGTE)
In this course students in Computer, Electrical, and Management Engineering will enhance oral and written communication competencies in contexts relevant to the engineering profession.
Prereq: Computer, Electrical, and Management Engineering students.
Antireq: GENE 191
(Cross-listed with ENGL 192)

 
COMMST 193 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015737
Communication in the Sciences
In this course students will enhance oral and written communication competencies in contexts relevant to the life sciences and physical sciences.
[Note: This course requires department consent to enrol and to drop or swap the course. Please consult the Science Undergraduate Office who administer this course.]
Department Consent Required
Prereq: BSc students in the Faculty of Science.
Antireq: SCCOM 100
(Cross-listed with ENGL 193)

 

COMMST 200s


COMMST 201 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015905
Introduction to Gender and Sexuality in Communication
This course introduces the basic theories for studying the multiple relationships between communication practices and gender. The course emphasizes how communication creates gender and power roles and how communicative patterns reflect, sustain, and alter social conceptions of gender.

 
COMMST 204 LEC,TST 0.50
Course ID: 013723
Leadership, Teams, and Communication
This course examines leadership, team dynamics, and communication in organizational contexts. Students will develop communication knowledge and skills to enhance their abilities to be effective in leadership and team roles.
Prereq: Level at least 2A Arts and Business students.
Antireq: COMMST 111

 
COMMST 210 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015906
Key Concepts in Media and Culture
This course introduces foundational theories and lines of inquiry in contemporary media and cultural studies. Students apply media and cultural studies theories and methods through case studies of cultural artifacts ranging from wartime propaganda to memes and viral videos.

 
COMMST 220 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 012417
Performance Studies
This workshop course in performance studies explores performance as a way of knowing. It investigates performance as artistic practice and as a means of understanding historical, social, and cultural practices, including drama/theatre texts, poetry, narratives, and texts of everyday life.
Prereq: Level at least 2A
(Cross-listed with THPERF 220)

 
COMMST 223 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004665
Public Speaking
Theory and practice of public speaking. A workshop course involving design and delivery of various kinds of speeches, and the development of organizational, vocal, listening, and critical skills. Students will be videotaped.
[Note: Must attend first class. May be subject to priority enrolment.]

 
COMMST 224 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 016408
Black Performance Studies
This course explores the genealogies and historical development of Black performance created in regions such as North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. Students will examine the influences of key artists and theorists. Students will be challenged to apply historical, political, and cultural contexts to the analysis of audio, text-based, and/or audio-visual materials. This course expands students' concepts of Black performance to include performative modes such as performance poetry, TV shows, music, and podcasts.
Prereq: Level at least 2A or students pursuing the Diploma in Black Studies or the Diploma in Fundamentals of Anti-Racist Communication
(Cross-listed with BLKST 224, THPERF 224)

 
COMMST 225 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004667
Interviewing
Theory and practice of interviewing. A workshop course which teaches theory, design, and presentation of interviews. Videotaping student exercises will enhance interview design and delivery, as well as listening and critical skills.
Prereq: (For Mathematics students) one of EMLS 101R, 102R, EMLS/ENGL 129R, ENGL 109, COMMST 100, COMMST 223

 
COMMST 226 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 012411
Introduction to Race, Culture, and Communication
This course introduces theories and practices central to the relationship between communication and race/ethnicity. Students gain theoretical and practical understanding of the opportunities and obstacles that exist for racialized equity-deserving groups. Students are prompted to recognize their positionality in relation to race and how communication can be meaningfully used toward anti-racist ends.
Prereq: COMMST 101; LEVGE 2A

 
COMMST 227 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 010342
Leadership
A workshop course in leadership combining theoretical and experiential perspectives. Students will develop and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be effective and perceptive communicators in a leadership position.
Prereq: For Mathematics students one of EMLS 101R, EMLS 102R, EMLS/ENGL 129R, ENGL 109, COMMST 100, COMMST 223; Level at least 2A

 
COMMST 228 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 012410
Public Communication
This course introduces a theoretical framework for understanding the nature and significance of public communication. Strategies and techniques typically employed in political and commercial contexts are examined.
Prereq: COMMST 101 or for Mathematics students one of EMLS 101R, EMLS 102R, EMLS/ENGL 129R, ENGL 109, COMMST 100, COMMST 223; Level at least 2A

 
COMMST 229 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 016379
History and Communication
This course takes a historical approach to the discipline of communication studies. Using a range of historiographic approaches, it analyzes technologies, theories, and practices of communication within the broader context of social and historical change. Potential topics include writing in the ancient world, the printing press, radio and television, cinema and sound recording, the computer and new media.

 

COMMST 300s


COMMST 300 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 011682
Special Topics in Digital Design
In this course students will learn advanced digital design theory. They will participate in workshops with professional designers, develop specialized digital materials, and contribute signature work to their digital portfolio.
[Note: This is a repeatable course, subject to different content; it may be completed a total of four times.]
Prereq: Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with DAC 300, ENGL 303)

 
COMMST 301 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 016343
Topics in Gender and Sexuality in Communication
This course offers a sustained engagement with theories and methods used to study communication practices related to gender and sexuality through looking at a specific topic. This course emphasizes how communication practices influence relationships between social conceptions of gender, sexuality, power, identity, and culture. Subject to different content, the course may concentrate on a topic in-depth, such as gender and science, masculinity and race, colonial and non-Western feminisms, queer theory.
[Note: This is a repeatable course, subject to different content; it may be completed a total of two times.]
Prereq: COMMST 201

 
COMMST 302 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 016342
Topics in Race, Culture, and Communication
This course analyzes whiteness, race, and ethnicity with special emphasis on language, media, discourse, rhetoric, and performance through looking at a specific topic. This course will enrich student understanding of the conceptions and impacts of race on communicative practices.
[Note: This is a repeatable course, subject to different content; it may be completed a total of two times.]
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 323 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 005137
Speech Writing
The analysis, writing, and editing of speeches. This course considers how genre and style impact the creation, reception, and implications of meaning. Students practice writing, as form and style, in the construction of arguments and other genres of speech making.
Prereq: Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with ENGL 309E)

 
COMMST 324 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004691
Small Group Communication
A workshop course which works from theory to develop the skills to work in groups effectively. The principles of group dynamics, leadership, and conflict resolution will be studied and implemented in small group meetings and presentations.
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 325 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004739
Organizational Communication
This course examines organizational theory, the communication process, and the interplay between the two. Students will develop the skills to identify, analyze, and solve a variety of organizational communication problems through case study group work and other workshop-style methods.
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 326 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 004692
Performing the Voice
Students explore techniques to access and develop the voice as a resource for performance.
Prereq: THPERF 102/COMMST 102
(Cross-listed with THPERF 326)

 
COMMST 329 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 012415
Designing Digital Presentations
In this course students will be introduced to design and production of digital presentations. They will develop specialized digital materials and contribute work to their digital portfolio.
Prereq: At least 0.5 unit of DAC
(Cross-listed with DAC 329)

 
COMMST 335 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 015100
Power, Agency, Community
This course examines the ways in which individuals and institutions communicate to enact agency and build communities situated within power relations. Students will develop their understanding of what power and agency are, the relationship of each to communication, and how each constitutes community life.
Prereq: COMMST 101; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 339 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 015099
Media, Images, and Communication
This course investigates how distinct modes of communication impact the creation of messages, dissemination or knowledge, and reception of meaning. Students will examine aural, textual, and visual communication in the context of print, electronic, and digital media.
Prereq: COMMST 101; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 399 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 014533
Communication Inquiry
This course identifies critical communication inquiry at the individual, group, public, and collective levels of theory and practice. Students will work to develop strategies of engagement or thinking that could extend, modify, or overturn standing theoretical positions and initiate new inquiry. Critique and criticism are developed in order to explore advanced questions within the field of Speech Communication, and students are introduced to critical research methods used by scholars in the field of Speech Communication.
Prereq: COMMST 101; Level at least 3A

 

COMMST 400s


COMMST 401 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 012412
Advanced Gender and Sexuality in Communication
This course further develops theories and methods for studying how communication practices reflect, maintain, and disrupt social conceptions of gender and sexuality. The course emphasizes how gender, sexuality, and communication are implicated in power relations, and how gender and sexuality intersect with multiple dimensions of identity and culture.
Prereq: COMMST101, COMMST 201; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 402 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 012413
Advanced Race, Culture, and Communication
This course is an advanced study of the intersection of communication and race that develops theoretical, critical, and historical perspectives on whiteness and race, racist language and communicative practices, and anti-racist critiques of communication. Students will further explore their own relationships to cultural conceptions of whiteness, race, and ethnicity.
Prereq: COMMST 226; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 420 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 013571
Persuasion
This course examines the communicative, psychological, and sociological aspects of persuasion and persuasive messages, with attention to interpersonal contexts, the role of images, and persuasion in the media and public discourse. This course will explore the ways in which the sending and receiving of persuasive messages involve cognition, emotions, and social norms in everyday contexts.
Prereq: COMMST 223; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 430 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 013570
Communication and Social Justice
An examination of how communication on the part of individuals, groups, and institutions implicates social justice. Students examine the relationship between communication and justice to understand how the representation and performance of gender, race, ethnicity, and other cultural constructs contribute to social and political conditions.
Prereq: Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with LS 492)

 
COMMST 431 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 010340
Crisis Communication
This course examines practical and theoretical dimensions of communication in times of crisis. It examines case studies and communication strategies and conducts critical and conceptual analysis of how crisis disrupts and transforms various forms of communication.
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 432 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 010350
Conflict Management
This course focuses on how conflict is communicated and resolved in one-on-one, group, and organizational contexts. Theoretical perspectives, simulations, role plays, and self-assessment exercises will enhance students' abilities to be successful communicators in conflict situations.
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 433 WSP 0.50
Course ID: 010345
The Organizational Consultant
This workshop course will examine the communication skills necessary for the organizational consultant. Participation in videotaped simulations will allow students to explore consulting styles and training interventions by developing the communications expertise and knowledge specific to the consulting professional.
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 434 DIS,LEC 0.50
Course ID: 011393
The Discourse of Dissent
A study of the social, historical, and rhetorical dimensions of collective action. Topics may include health and welfare movements, civil rights and anti-war protests, and environmentalism.
Prereq: Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with HIST 309, ENGL 309G, GSJ 309)

 
COMMST 435 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 016344
Games and Culture
This course examines the relationships between games and culture. Students will consider the social, political, and economic dimensions of games and acquire ways of thinking about how games communicate by transmitting, contextualizing, and contesting culturally situated meanings.
Prereq: COMMST 101; Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 440 LEC,SEM,WSP 0.50
Course ID: 011906
Performative Inquiry and Practice
This course explores how to create, perform, and analyze performance texts, here defined as including drama/theatre texts, poetry, narratives, and the texts of everyday life. Through readings and creative investigation, students will explore the links between the participant, the researcher, the site, and the impulse of inquiry.
Prereq: COMMST 220; Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with THPERF 440)

 
COMMST 471 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015907
Communication, Resistance, and Social Change
This course explores the function of communication in advocating for and generating social change, mostly through practices of resistance, protest, and other forms of dissent and collective action. Students will consider how the broader assemblage of media, social, and civic institutions resist change, and will imagine how communication might be used effectively to challenge the status quo.
Prereq: COMMST 101; Level at least 3A
(Cross-listed with LS 471)

 
COMMST 475 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 013573
Communication Ethics
An examination of the interplay between communication and ethics from historical and pragmatic perspectives. Issues discussed include communication in a variety of settings, such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, public, and intercultural interactions as they relate to personal development, values, meaning making, and ethical ways of communicating.
Prereq: Level at least 3A or Level at least 2A Philosophy majors

 
COMMST 479 LEC 0.50
Course ID: 015933
Media and Environment Communication
This course will explore the role of media in enabling and/or inhibiting communication about the environment and climate change. After offering an overview of the field of environmental communication, it will engage in an analysis of key issues regarding the role of the media in relation to the environment, such as "social license to operate," the role of alternative media practices, and the environmental impact of media systems themselves. The course will consider a range of different media genres in relation to the environment (e.g., public relations, governmental communication, news media, social media, NGO campaigns, documentaries). What are the primary objectives and strategies of different forms of environmental communication and how do these various media shape public understanding of environmental issues?
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 490 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 011402
Selected Seminars in Speech Communication
Seminars in special areas of speech communication.
[Note: This is a repeatable course, subject to different content; it may be completed a total of four times.]
Department Consent Required
Prereq: Level at least 3A

 
COMMST 491 SEM 0.50
Course ID: 011403
Selected Seminars in Speech Communication
Seminars in special areas of speech communication.
[Note: This is a repeatable course, subject to different content; it may be completed a total of four times.]
Department Consent Required
Prereq: Level at least 3B

 
COMMST 499A LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004740
Senior Seminar
This course is designed to give the student an opportunity to complete a comprehensive presentation in their major area of concentration.
[Note: A grade for THPERF/COMMST 499A will be submitted only after the completion of THPERF/COMMST 499B.]
Department Consent Required
Prereq: Level at least 4A Honours Speech Communication
(Cross-listed with THPERF 499A)

 
COMMST 499B LEC 0.50
Course ID: 004741
Senior Seminar
This course is designed to give the student an opportunity to complete a comprehensive presentation in their major area of concentration. Second part of THPERF/COMMST 499.
Department Consent Required
Prereq: Level at least 4A Honours Speech Communication
(Cross-listed with THPERF 499B)