Special Topics Courses

CCA 394 – Cinema of the 1980s Teen Horror Movies: This course will focus on the teen horror movie — which enjoyed a Golden Age in the 1980s — to explore one of the most influential and socially disruptive decades in Hollywood history. Taught by award-winning critic Rene Rodriguez.

CCA 394 – Introduction to Animation: Learn the basics of 2D animation while learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and AfterEffects. This course will take students through various aspects of animation, including developing characters, concepts, rigging, environments, titles, artistic styles, masking, and keyframing.

CCA 394/HIS 338/INS 310/JUS 338/REL 405 – The Holocaust Reflected in the Movies: By viewing and discussing specially selected films, we shall explore the origins and the development of the persecution and attempted annihilation of the European Jewry during World War II.

CCA 594/795 + BIL 285/675 – Science Doc Music and the Brain: Students learn the history and cutting-edge research surrounding Music and the Brain and how it relates to emotion in humans. In addition to learning the neuroscience that underlies perception of sound and dynamics, students will create narrative audio soundscapes using their own recorded audio as well as music and sound effects. Create story arcs with sound!

CCA 594/795 – Professional Development: Students will enhance their communication and networking skills, gain mentoring from experts in the field, and become familiar with a wide range of challenging and creatively satisfying possible career paths.

CCA 795 – Contemporary Representations of the Environment: This course gives students a broad introduction to ways in which screen media are used today to represent both the natural world and also environmental issues such as climate change, animal extinction, and natural resource use.

COM 406/609 – Communication for Social Justice: Learn the ways in which communication scholarship contributes to social justice, building on historical foundations of development communication, integrating critical analyses, and exploring contemporary global concerns.

COS 391/691 – Communication in Romantic Relationships: Research and theory organized between communication processes (including message production and reception) and the development of romantic/intimate relationships emerged under the rubric “relational communication” in the early to mid-1980’s.