Christopher Eisenhart

Introduction to issues of social justice and engagement in rhetoric and communication in interpersonal, professional, and civic contexts.  Students will develop their ability to recognize and respond to the rhetorical, ethical, and social implications of issues and tensions in various historical and contemporary communication situations. Learning from diverse perspectives and frameworks in communication, they will develop skills and approaches for critical social engagement through communication practices, across modes and genres. 

The study and contemporary application of ancient Greek and Roman rhetorical theory. Students will apply rhetorical theory in ongoing analyses of a wide range of communication media (written, spoken, visual) and in their own writing.

Study and practice of organizational communication. Students undertake communicative activities and processes by which individuals succeed in organizations and organizations proceed toward their missions. Understanding and practicing organizational communication requires balancing and coordinating practical concerns, mapping conceptual frameworks, and perceiving power dynamics. The course introduces the concepts and practices necessary to understand organizations and to affect personal and organizational success.

Intensive writing course emphasizing an advanced critical approach to a topic in writing, writing studies, communications or rhetoric. Through readings, class discussions, independent research, and writing assignments, students will practice refining analytic and persuasive content.

Rhetorical precepts and notions as developed since antiquity and applied to contemporary professional writing and communication. Students will learn to identify and analyze rhetoric across a variety of discursive situations and in turn establish sound rhetorical practices within their own communication.

Principles of research, writing the thesis/project proposal, and initial thesis/project drafting. The course explores primary and secondary research methods. Course content includes in-depth and formal interviewing techniques, principles of field observation, content analysis, literature reviews, electronic data searches, historical analysis, focus groups, case studies, questionnaire design, use and abuse of statistical inquiry, fundamentals of logic and causation, and philosophical inquiry into qualitative and quantitative research perspectives. The course places major emphasis on how to write a proposal and thesis/project aimed at eventual publication.