SPRING 08 Graduate Course Offerings
CAS 500 Historical Public Address Instructor: S.
Browne
Time: T 2:30-5:30 E-mail: sxb17@psu.edu
Schedule # 939430 Location: 218
Thomas
Description:
CAS 505 Historical Development of Rhetorical
Theory Instructor: C.
Johnstone
Time: R 2:30-5:30 E-mail: clj3@psu.edu
Schedule # 906676 Location: 174
Willard
Course Title: "Present at the Creation: The Origins and Early Development of Rhetorical Theory"
Description:
This seminar is foundational for graduate students who intend
to profess rhetoric upon completing their degrees. We
will examine the cultural, intellectual, political, linguistic,
and material conditions out of and within which rhetorical
theory emerged during the 7th-4th centuries BCE in the
Greek world. Beginning with the Homeric tradition
of oral mythpoesis and surveying important contributions
of the Presocratics, the course will concentrate on the
teachings and writings of the major Sophists of the 5th
century BCE and on the writings on rhetoric surviving from
Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle in the 4th. The approach
will be historical/archaeological. The principal
aim of the course is to deepen participants' understanding
of the pre-history and early history of rhetorical theorizing,
with particular attention to the ontological, epistemological,
cultural, and ethical issues associated with that activity. The
course also aims at extending and refining participants'
research competencies in the field of rhetorical theory. Readings
will include primary and secondary sources, and are likely
to include selections from and/or about Homer and Hesiod,
the Presocratics, the Older Sophists, Socrates, Isocrates,
Plato, and Aristotle. Written assignments will include
a research-project proposal, a literature review paper,
and a final research paper appropriate for submission to
a scholarly journal.
CAS 507 Issues in Rhetorical Theory Instructor: J.
Engels
Time: W 6:00-9:00 E-mail: jde13@psu.edu
Schedule # 906679 Location: 309
Sparks
Description:
In this graduate seminar, we will focus on recent issues
and debates in contemporary democratic theory. In
particular, we will focus on the critical reemergence of
Carl Schmitt’s work on the political as refracted
through Agamben’s State of Exception, Mouffe’s Democratic
Paradox, and Derrida’s Politics of Friendship. We
will spend time thinking about contemporary democratic
anxieties by reading Danielle Allen’s Talking
to Strangers, Bonnie Honig’s Democracy and
the Foreigner, Cass Sunstein’s Why Societies
Need Dissent, John Lewis Gaddis’s Surprise,
Security, and the American Experience, and Bryan Garston’s Saving
Persuasion. And, we will conclude by theorizing
ways forward with the help of Wendy Brown’s Regulating
Aversion, Jeffery Stout’s Democracy and
Tradition, Etienne Balibar’s We, the People
of Europe, and Bob Ivie’s Dissent from War. At
the end of the semester, students will have a better grasp
of the maddening paradoxes and awesome possibilities of
democracy.
CAS 557 Health Communication Instructor: R.
Smith
Time: W 2:30-5:30 E-mail: ras57@psu.edu
Schedule # 939433 Location: 371
Willard
Description:
The graduate course presumes that an understanding of human
communication, health, and our audiences can inform health
communication theories and practice. This understanding
may be gathered from academics, practitioners, and participants
engaged in a health system. By blending theory and practice,
this course (a) provides a starting point for developing
your intelligence about health communication, (b) encourages
thoughtful, theory-grounded criticism and creative improvement
of previous theories, research, and practice, (c) demands
an interdisciplinary interest in different disciplines
and perspectives, and (d) hones problem-solving skills
that can be used in these efforts. The learning objectives
are to understand and apply theories and research
of health communication, audiences, and contexts in order
to evaluate real-world problems, defend your
analysis, and justify your suggestions with articulate
logic and appropriate evidence in presentations to academics
and practitioners.
CAS 561 Quantitative Research Methods Instructor: J.
Nussbaum
Time: M 2:30-5:30 E-mail: jfn5@psu.edu
Schedule # 939436 Location: 174
Willard
Description:
CAS 597A Contemporary Topics in Persuasion Instructor: J.
Dillard
Time: R 2:30-5:30 E-mail: jpd16@psu.edu
Schedule # 939439 Location: 309
Sparks
Description:
One way to approach the study of persuasion is to link features of messages and individuals with particular outcomes such as attitudes and behaviors. Another approach, which this course will utilize, is to emphasize understanding of the processes that occur between message exposure and persuasive outcomes. Accordingly, this course will examine social scientific research on persuasive message processing. Particular topics include audience segmentation approaches based on predisposition to cognitive and emotional responding, message framing, the effects of narrative, and the causes of message rejection.
CAS 597B Political Rhetoric African
American Women Instructor: D.
Atwater
Time: M 2:30-5:30 E-mail: dfa1@psu.edu
Schedule # 939442 Location: 309
Sparks
Description:
This seminar explores the writings and speeches of African
American women from the era of slavery to the present
by examining the primary and secondary sources of African
American women from the standpoint of their rhetoric. In
particular, what are the themes that center and direct
African American women’s rhetoric? How do they
represent themselves and what persuasive messages are conveyed
in public and private spaces? How does their political
activism inspire others? Individuals such as Maria
Stewart to Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Dr. Condoleezza
Rice will be explored.
