Communication Pedagogy
Graduate study focuses on teaching communication within the discipline and communication principles in a variety of instructional contexts. Emphasis is given to a critical-cultural theoretical perspective, with development of qualitative methodological tools for researching aspects of communication pedagogy. Communication Pedagogy reflects interests in intercultural communication, multicultural pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, critical pedagogy, teaching methods, at-risk students, special populations, and learning styles.

Gender, Sexuality & Communication
Graduate study examines the construction and representation of gender and sexuality from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Courses offered in this area explore and promote the viability of bodies and sexualities as powerful sites of cultural creativity, critique, and resistance. In concert with issues in class, race and culture, this area of specialization focuses on such topics as gender and social movements; feminist perspectives on pedagogy, spirituality, persuasion, conflict, sports, performance, organization communication, and health communication; eco-feminism; queer theory; and postcolonial perspectives on gender and sexuality.

Intercultural Communication
Graduate study emphasizes theory and praxis, examining both U.S. national and international cultures with a focus on intercultural and intracultural communication. Courses examine the theoretical aspects of symbols, beliefs, premises, and rules that constitute the system of culture, how these components affect language use, nonverbal communication, and rituals, as well as how they shape identities. Courses are taught emphasizing intercultural communication in the classroom, as well as in business and training settings.

Interpersonal Communication
Graduate study involves primarily qualitative approaches to the study of everyday interpersonal communication in various relational settings, including friendship, family, workplace, and intimate relationships. Methodological training includes ethnography, conversation analysis, focus groups, case studies, and other interpretive methods. Additional coursework is offered in family communication, interpersonal conflict, social construction of gender and identity, relational communication, language and culture, health communication, organizational communication, and performance in everyday life.

Performance Studies
Graduate study combines an interest in theory and praxis. Performance Studies reflects interests in performance as a way of knowing, including historical and theoretical approaches to performance, literary criticism, performance criticism, writing as performance, conversational performance, gender and performance, and teaching as performance, as well as interests in performing literature (poetry, prose fiction, drama and creative non-fiction) staging literature, narrative theatre, oral history and storytelling, performance art, and performance composition.

Rhetoric and Philosophy of Communication
Graduate study prepares students for research and teaching that conceptualizes communication from perspectives developed in the philosophical and rhetorical traditions. Focus is upon (1) Phenomenology of Communication, reflecting interest in hermeneutic and semiotic phenomenological orientations deriving from French and German scholarship and informed by postmodern theories; (2) Philosophy of Rhetoric, reflecting interests in argumentation theory, gender studies, philosophy of rhetoric, pragmatic theories of communication, rhetoric of inquiry, and theories of communication, culture, and language. (3) Rhetorical Studies, reflecting interests in classical and contemporary rhetorical theory in the American and Continental traditions, public address, and rhetorical criticism.

Theater
See the Department of Theater homepage or contact Dr. Ronald Naversen: (rnav@siu.edu), 618-453-3076