COMM 3053 Family & Communication
The Family and Communication seminar focuses on a specific context-the family-where gender roles and cultural identities are constructed and contested through conversational practices. Emphasis will be placed on the verbal and non-verbal communication behaviors that are developed and preferred in different kinds of families, and through which people constitute and perform their gender and cultural identities. This course provides a communication perspective on traditional and non-traditional family configurations, roles, rules, interaction patterns, and conflict over the life span. It includes an examination of the ways media depictions of families and family interaction prescribe particular gender schema and enactments, as well as current social and political issues related to the family. Through reading, writing, online discussion board, classroom activities, observations and personal reflections, we will explore the nature of communication within families. Prerequisites: COMM 1001 (required), COMM 2010 (suggested) or instructor approval.