Course Catalog

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FASHION MATERIALS & PROCESSES (CM2112)

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of materials, especially textiles, and their central role in designing, producing and experiencing fashion. Students will learn to identify materials and techniques, relying on historical and contemporary examples from all over the world, focusing on their properties and applications in fashion design.
This course is devised as an immersion into the materiality of fashion, exploring fibers, raw materials, dyes, textiles, finishes, and garment construction. It will also address pattern making, surface ornamentation, textile design, and the different stages of collection design. Issues of production and labor, functionality, seasonality and sustainability will also be integral to class discussions.
Combining object-based study, textile and garment analysis, and hands-on activities, this course will engage students in thinking critically about the different making processes and materials of fashion and the artisans and producers behind them. Through lectures, seminars, and site visits, and extensive use of literary, visual and film sources, students will gain insights into how fashion is made from start to finish.

TOPICS IN COMMUNICATIONS (CM2910)

TOPICS VARY BY SEMESTER

TOPICS IN GLOBAL COMMS (CM2910)

Topics vary by semester

COMMUNICATING FASHION (CM3004)

Explores what happens when dress and grooming become the basis for the modern phenomena of fashion. Studies the historical development of fashion: how fashion relates to the emergence of artistic, social, and economic forms and the ways fashion communicates ideas about status, gender, or culture. Investigates the role of media, advertising and marketing in the global fashion industry.

PUBLIC RELATIONS & SOCIETY (CM3005)

The course outlines different types, practices, and principles of public relations. It looks at some key frameworks and developments in PR theory and practice, offering a straightforward combination of theory and case studies. In an increasingly global context, it is also imperative to take into account the international and intercultural perspectives of PR.

COMPARATIVE POLITICAL COMMUNICATION (CM3011)

This course provides an overview of political communication theories, modes, means and institutions and serves as an introduction to how communication scholars study politics and the media. We will cover prevalent political communication theories and trends, the relationship between political institutions and the press both in the US and in other countries, elections, debates, political campaigning and advertising, new media and politics, political socialization, education, politics and popular culture.

FEATURE AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM (CM3012)

An advanced feature-writing workshop focused on techniques for long-form and investigative journalism. Students will gain experience in story ideas, researching, interview techniques, structuring feature articles. Emphasis will be placed on researching and data gathering for in-depth magazine and investigative reporting. This workshop will develop writing skills for careers in magazine style and investigative journalism on subjects selected by students. Articles can be published on the Peacock Plume website.

VIDEO PRODUCTION FOR BROADCAST NEWS (CM3027)

Gives students a basic overview of the process of producing audiovisual material for non-fiction radio and television, with an emphasis on broadcast news and documentaries; explores the various stages of news production, from the development of a story concept to completion of the finished program. The goal is to enable the student to achieve an understanding of the basic techniques, equipment and the role of key personnel in a professional news environment. Students who take this course may not take CM/FM 1019 Principles of Video Production.

SCRIPTS FOR TRAVEL (CM3033)

This course will focus on approaches to writing about travel and cultures of places. Emphasize will be place on developing unique writing styles and “voices” and contributing articles to the Peacock magazine and Peacock Plume website Travel page. Students will gain insight into the changing set of processes linked to the practice of commodified travel and the way space for tourist use is represented and used. Urban place-making and branding strategies are examined as part of the journalistic approach to travel writing.