Please note that room locations and schedules are subject to change and all details should be confirmed before the start of the class.
Click here for a list of complementary courses in other departments which count towards the Minor.
Fall 2023
COMS 210 (CRN 2140)
Introduction to Communication Studies (3 credits)
Prof. Jonathan Sterne
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:35 pm-3:55 pm
LEA 219
The social and cultural implications of media. Surveys theory and case studies relevant key issues such as the ownership, structure and governance of media industries; the significance of emergent media technologies; and the roles of media as cultural forms and practices.
COMS 301 (CRN 2141)
Core Concepts in Critical Theory (3 credits)
Alican Koc
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:35 pm-3:55 pm
ARTS W-120
How can culture be used to make sense of an endlessly unfolding present which seems to always be just out of reach? In other words, how can we get a sense of collectively shared historical experiences through cultural objects as singular as a Tweet, a meme, a work of art, or a song? This course will survey foundational texts and thinkers in critical social theory, as they relate to the historicization of the present within cultural studies and communication studies. This will include core texts in Marxist theory, the Frankfurt School, dialectical criticism, postmodernism, feminism, critical race theory, and queer theory. The course will prepare students with key theoretical and conceptual vocabularies for advanced study in the field.
COMS 310 (CRN 2142)
Media and Feminist Studies (3 credits)
Prof. Carrie Rentschler
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:05 pm-2:25 pm
ARTS W-215
“Media and Feminist Studies” examines contemporary feminist, queer and trans scholarship on popular culture, internet studies, new media, and techno-culture. Our course approaches media as systems, tools, technologies, infrastructures, codes, platforms, social practices, and genres of communication, in addition to representations (of (fill in the blank) ....). We will analyze how structures of power shape, script and condition media technologies and the social relationships of which they are part, engaging in debates about whiteness, intersectionality, the politics of representation, online oppression and resistance, the goal of critique, and other key issues in feminist theory and media studies. We will approach feminism as sets of ideas and forms of analysis, but also as movements and forms of activism. While the course and the professor do not espouse a particular feminist politics, part of our task is to openly, and vigorously, discuss feminist thinking, feminist research, and feminist movements in their relation to a range of intersectional, socially differentiated relations of power. If you take this course, you need to be up for this kind of engagement.
COMS 360 (CRN 2144)
Environmental Communication (3 credits)
Prof. Darin Barney
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:35 am-12:55 pm
ARTS W-215
A survey of contemporary approaches to communication, media and environment in the field of communication studies. Focus on critical attention on media, communication and knowledge practices concerning environmental information, issues and controversies, as well as the environmental impacts of media technologies, infrastructures and practices. Topics include public communication of science and environmental information (journalism, governments; social movements), climate change communication, media materialities and toxicities (energy, pollution, waste), environmental racism and environmental justice, environment and disability.
COMS 361 (CRN 2145)
Selected Topics Communication Studies 1 (3 credits)
Media and Culture of the Night
Prof. Will Straw
Fridays, 2:35 pm-5:25 pm
ARTS W-215
The night of cities has recently become the focus of attention for historians, city governments, cultural activists and others. This course will look at the key concerns of what are now called “night studies”. How have media and cultural events organized themselves in relation to the 24-hour cycle of day and night? How does the night function within what geographer Luc Gwiazdzinski calls the “discontinuous citizenship” of the 24-hour cycle, in which the rights of different groups to occupy cities varies as we move from day to night? How have cities responded to the rise of notions like the “night-time economy” or the spread of governance instruments like the “night mayor”? How has the night become a focus of conflicts over gentrification, noise, and gender-based safety?
COMS 362 (CRN 7697)
Selected Topics Communication Studies 2 (3 credits)
"Bad" Music: Aesthetics, Taste, and the Formation of Opinion
Prof. Alex Blue V
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:35 am-9:55 am
ARTS W-215
This course will focus on critical studies in colonialism, critical race theory, the history of religion and questions of globalization; networks & virality.
COMS 400 (CRN 2146)
Critical Theory Seminar (3 credits)
Dr. Gustavo Ferreira
Thursdays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-5
This course builds on the foundations of critical social thought to engage students in intensive study of emerging and contemporary themes in social and cultural theory related to media and communication studies. We will give special emphasis to a historical overview of critical theories in communication and cultural studies from Latin America, while adding an exploration of current texts and debates on digital media, globalization, development, imperialism, colonialism, feminism and gender studies, and environmentalism.
The questions we will raise in this course relate to this wide overview of diverse sources on critical theory and communication studies. What kind of theoretical work we can develop when in contact with different histories of critical thought? What elements of Latin-American social thought can be employed to specific research interests in a global setting? To what kinds of new or refreshed concepts the media histories and analyses from the region contribute to a critical thinking that questions settler colonialism and other forms of oppression? How horizontal, participatory, and dialogical communication theories can contribute to environmental and social challenges?
Our goal is to add pluriversal perspectives to students’ current interests and problematize communication studies in a mainly western(ized) setting.
COMS 490 (CRN 2148)
Special Topics in History and Theory of Media (3 credits)
The Utility of Death and Dying in Black Media
Prof. Alex Blue V
Tuesdays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
FERR 230
This course deals with Black studies, critical race theory, death and dying, and concepts of spectrality from perspectives rooted in literary criticism, film studies and popular music studies.
COMS 491 (CRN 2149)
Special Topics in Communication Studies (3 credits)
Surveillance and Technology
Mehak Sawhney
Wednesdays, 2:35 pm-5:25 pm
ARTS W-5
Surveillance is ubiquitous in the contemporary world. This course will explore the longer histories, differential impacts, and multiple scales of surveillance across technologies and contexts. It will cover some fundamental issues in surveillance studies such as its colonial origins, racialized and gendered dynamics, policing technologies, dispersed sites such as borders and occupied territories, and ever-incremental scales of datafication. It will introduce students to the specificities of different surveillance media such as documentary, biometric, visual, sonic, and datafied forms of surveillance. It will also bring together the everyday experience of surveillance technologies and the macro-ideologies of capitalism, colonialism and state power that govern subjects. The course materials would include foundational theoretical readings, empirically rooted accounts of surveillance and identification, films, artworks, podcasts, and class exercises on the subject.
COMS 492 (CRN 2150)
Power, Difference and Justice (3 credits)
Communication & Social Movements
Prof. Mark Lloyd
Mondays, 2:35 pm-5:25 pm
FERR 230
Social movements play a critical role in determining how our society operates; our communication ecology and media are key in both the organizing and impact of these movements. The Black Lives Matter Movement, the #MeToo Movement, the White Nationalist Movement, The Environmental Movement and various other social movements are shaping our future. This course is meant to provide students a critical guide and examination of various social movements and how they impact institutions and social norms, with a focus on the role of communication in determining whether these movements succeed or fail.
This is a seminar for upper-level undergraduate students, with some theory but largely focused on current and historic examples.
Winter 2024
COMS 230 (CRN 1953)
Communication and Democracy (3 credits)
Prof. Mark Lloyd
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:35 am-12:55 pm
LEA 232
Introduction to investigation of the relationship between communication, media practices and democracy. Examines the role of media and communication in existing and emerging democratic contexts, and the challenges of constructing and maintaining a democratic media and communication environment on the domestic and international levels.
COMS 330 (CRN 1954)
Media in Cultural Life (3 credits)
Critical Issues in Technology and Development
Roda Siad
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:05 pm-5:25 pm
ARTS W-120
Technology plays an increasingly prominent role in national and international development strategies. Various public and private actors have leveraged emerging technologies for automating government service delivery purportedly to improve welfare and policing systems, supporting sustainable development goals and migration management. This course examines the role of technological innovation in development-related issues and considers how the design and policy dimensions of emerging technologies and other data-driven tools are reconfiguring development practices. It will situate technological change from early Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to newer developments in the areas of biometrics, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and distributed ledger technology (i.e., blockchain technology) within their ideological origins and interrogate the values and assumptions behind the use of terms such as innovation, expertise, and development. Some of the topics we will explore include: the digital divide and narratives around modernity and progress, technology’s role in the humanitarian-development nexus, racial discrimination, economic inequality, gender inequality, algorithmic bias, dataveillance, environmental justice, ghost work and issues related to data sovereignty and justice. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to engage students in a broad range of contemporary debates emerging from scholarly, industry and public spaces about the implications of digital technologies and data practices on marginalized communities in Canada and internationally.
COMS 340 (CRN 1955)
New Media (3 credits)
Prof. Carrie Rentschler
Wednesdays, 4:05 pm-5:25 pm
Fridays, 4:05 pm-5:25 pm
STBIO N2/2
Critical analysis of new media from cultural, philosophical, technological and institutional perspectives.
COMS 350 (CRN 6773)
Sound Culture (3 credits)
Dr. Gustavo Ferreira
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:35 am-12:55 pm
ARTS W-215
Analysis of sound culture, including sonic and audiovisual media, sound art and architecture, sound in everyday life, sonic institutions and theoretical accounts of the role of sound in communication.
COMS 361 (CRN 7210)
Selected Topics Communication Studies 1 (3 credits)
Techlash: Critical Studies of Technological Solutionism
Dr. Gustavo Ferreira
Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:35 am-12:55 pm
Arts 150
In this course, our aim is to study and employ critical concepts in media and technological analysis. The 2010s were the decade of the Startup and disruption rhetoric. Rooted in hopes of technological development as the solution for all humanities' problems, we have seen the rise and fall of the "Uber of X" solutions from deliveries, through health, to financial services. Despite critiques of such promises being raised almost simultaneously with this enthusiasm, these hopes have longer historical roots and are still central to current technological developments. To understand these contexts, past and present, we will overview studies of digital technology that critically explore their economic and political conditions, ideologies, assumptions, consequences, and the contradictions of their ability to address societal challenges. Questioning the neutrality or objectivity of technological tools, we will use these concepts to map new trends in the tech development world and analyze their discourse and practice, presenting our findings in experimental media modalities. We hope to identify beneficial engagements with media technologies and their proposed innovations.
Note: Not open for students who took COMS 362 in W2023.
COMS 400 (CRN 1957)
Critical Theory Seminar (3 credits)
Prof. Darin Barney
Tuesdays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-220
This course builds on the foundations of critical social thought to engage students in intensive study of emerging and contemporary themes in social and cultural theory related to media and communication studies. Focus will be on current texts and debates of significance in the field, and will include prominent work in areas including political economy, feminism, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial and critical race theory, radical democracy, environmentalism, posthumanism and media and cultural studies. In particular, this year’s seminar will focus on critical theories of environment, with an emphasis on “materialist” currents in contemporary environmental thought, including historical materialism (eco-socialism; Marxist critiques of fossil capitalism and “green” capitalism); biopolitical materialism (environmentality, economization of “life”; resource mediation); and feminist, posthumanist, and decolonial materialisms. These will be considered in light of contemporary environmental issues including climate change, energy transition and environmental in/justice.
COMS 411 (CRN 1958)
Disability, Technology and Communication (3 credits)
Prof. Jonathan Sterne
Mondays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-220
This course explores the intersections of disability and media studies in order to rethink our basic concepts of communication, technology and culture, as well as to advance our understandings of disability and the technocultural environments in which it exists. We will consider critical accounts of disability against theories of technology and communication. Through readings, discussions, and student research, we will develop scholarship that provides alternatives to the idealized norms of able-bodiedness that pervade the humanities and social sciences.
COMS 435 (CRN 1959)
Advanced Issues in Media Governance (3 credits)
Prof. Mark Lloyd
Mondays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-5
This seminar examines current/emergent scholarship about policy debates and issues related to electronic media worldwide. Topics vary; they include but are not limited to Internet Governance, Electronic Privacy/Surveillance, Access to Information/Knowledge, Media Diversity, Community and Social Justice Media, Communication Rights and Freedom of Expression, and Civil Society Policy Advocacy.
COMS 492 (CRN 1961)
Power, Difference and Justice (3 credits)
Prof. Carrie Rentschler
Fridays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-220
Media systems and their role in social relations of power and difference that are maintained and challenged through communication practices.
COMS 500 (CRN 6774)
Special Topics in Communications Studies 1 (3 credits)
Prof. Alex Blue V and Prof. Matthew C. Hunter
Wednesdays, 11:35 am-2:25 pm
ARTS W-220
A seminar for advanced undergraduate students and Masters students dealing with selected topics in Communications Studies.
Note: Cross-listed with ARTH 502.