Graduate Courses in Communication Studies 2019-2020

Fall 2019

COMS 616 (CRN 1594) (3 credits)
Staff-Student Colloquium 1: Professional Seminar in Communication Studies
Prof. Gabriella Coleman
Wednesday, 2:35 PM-5:25 PM
Leacock 638

This course introduces incoming AHCS graduate students to the field of communication studies and to the specific orientations and research interests of faculty teaching within the MA and PhD programs in communication studies at McGill University. The course is organized as three weeks of overviews of methodological, theoretical and disciplinary questions, followed by a series of guest presentations by departmental and associated faculty and postdoctoral fellows. We will dedicate a number of classes to grant and thesis writing as well.

COMS 630 (CRN 12473) (3 credits)
Readings in Communications Research 1

Advisor's approval required.

COMS 635 (CRN 27670) (3 credits)
Communication and Postcolonial Thought: Racial Capitalism
Prof. Jenny Burman
Friday, 11:35 AM-2:25 PM
Arts W-220

This graduate seminar examines critiques of industrial and post-industrial "racial capitalism", which is a framework for understanding capitalism as inextricable from racial oppression and expropriation. We will read Marx, Cedric Robinson*, Claudia Jones, Lisa Lowe, Jodi Melamed, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Macarena Gomez-Barris, Laura Pulido, David Roediger, and others.

*For a good introduction to Cedric Robinson's work on racial capitalism and the Black radical tradition, see: http://bostonreview.net/race/robin-d-g-kelley-what-did-cedric-robinson-m...)
 

COMS 675 (CRN 27657) / ARTH 731 (3 credits)
Media and Urban Life
Prof. Will Straw
Wednesday, 11:35 AM-2:25 PM
SH688 465

This course deals with a variety of ways in which we might think about the relationship of cities to media. Cities “contain” media, of course, but the relationship between the two goes beyond this. Cities are themselves media-like in the ways in which they process information, structure cultural expression and give material form to social history and memory. This course will examine a variety of relationships between cities, media and cultural expression.


 

COMS 683 (CRN 22003) (3 credits)
Special Topics in Media and Politics: Sabotage
Prof. Darin Barney
Tuesday, 2:35 PM-5:25 PM
Ferrier 230

This course will examine the history and philosophy of sabotage as a form of political action, and will involve extended speculation into whether sabotage is a form particularly suited to conditions in which democratic publicity has reached its limit. It will begin by situating sabotage in relation to other forms of militancy, and will proceed to examine sabotage as it has been theorized and performed across a range of traditions and contexts, including militant labour movements, neo-anarchism, anti-colonial struggles, slave resistance, indigenous peoples’ struggles, and environmental and energy politics.
 

COMS 692 (CRN 3404) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 1

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 693 (CRN 3405) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 2

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 694 (CRN 3406) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 3

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 695 (CRN 3407) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 4

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 702 (CRN 7097) (0 credits)
Comprehensive Exam

Comprehensive examination as per departmental procedure.

COMS 703 (CRN 4271) (0 credits)
Dissertation Proposal

Dissertation proposal.

COMS 730 (CRN 3408) (3 credits)
Readings in Communication Research 2

Supervisor's approval required.
 

Winter 2020

COMS 500 (CRN 19536) (3 credits)
Special Topics in Communication Studies 1: Critical Policy Studies: Confronting dominant paradigms of public decision-making
Prof. TBA
Thursday, 2:35 PM-5:25 PM
Arts W-220

This course explores the value of applying critical (and) interpretive inquiry methods to traditional “policy studies” as its research object. The goal is to explore how these alternative approaches confront and challenge technical governance paradigms of decision-making that (un)intentionally work against aims of social justice, democracy, and civic empowerment.

Keywords: critical policy studies, critical discourse theory, technocratic governance, democratizing participation, policy literacy, advocacy & activism

COMS 541 (CRN 18334) (3 credits)
Cultural Industries
Prof. Gabriella Coleman
Tuesday, 2:35 PM-5:25 PM
Arts W-220

Description coming soon.

COMS 630 (CRN 4374) (3 credits)
Readings in Communications Research 1

Supervisor’s approval required.

COMS 681 (CRN 18139) (3 credits)
Special Topics: Media and Culture: Death, the Body, and Visual Culture
Prof. Bobby Benedicto
Monday, 2:35 PM-5:25 PM
Ferrier 230

This seminar will investigate approaches to the representation of death and dead bodies across various media. It will draw on a range of theoretical perspectives, from the writings of Georges Bataille, Sigmund Freud, and Michel Foucault to recent works in queer, feminist, and critical race theory. Potential topics include: suicide and new media, the photography of lynching and racial violence, queer death and cinema, HIV/AIDS art, true crime documentary, torture and sacrifice, and the aesthetics of modern ruins.

Keywords: death studies, media and mortality, Bataille, psychoanalysis, queer theory

COMS 692 (CRN 1458) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 1

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 693 (CRN 1459) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 2

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 694 (CRN 1460) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 3

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 695 (CRN 1461) (6 credits)
M.A. Thesis Preparation 4

Preparatory work towards the Master's thesis.

COMS 702 (CRN 6119) (0 credits)
Comprehensive Exam

Comprehensive examination as per departmental procedure.

COMS 703 (CRN 3269) (0 credits)
Dissertation Proposal

Dissertation proposal.

COMS 730 (CRN 1462) (3 credits)
Readings in Communications Research 2

Supervisor's approval required.