Code	Name	Description
RHCS100	Public Speaking	Introduction to the art of public speaking. Students will learn the classical canons of rhetoric: the arts of invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery. Emphasis is placed on the design and delivery of speeches.
RHCS101	Key Terms in Communication	Examines a dozen of the most important terms in the field of rhetoric and communication studies. The course is not an end-point for the study of communication, but, rather, an inquiry into a vocabulary that informs discussions in virtually every clas...
RHCS246	Data and Society	Explores how topics such as algorithmic decision making, media manipulation, and “big” data effect our daily lives in the past and present.
RHCS250	Critical Intercultural Communication	Provides an introduction to the study of intercultural communication through a critical lens, with a special emphasis on how power affects communication between different types of cultures on a transnational, national, and local level. The course hig...
RHCS253	Rhetorical Theory	Introduction to theoretical study of rhetoric where we learn to think about language, speech, argument, and symbolic action at large as social forces, influencing how we perceive ourselves and others, how we understand our relationship to local and g...
RHCS255	Media, Culture and Identity	Basic theoretical frameworks and concepts in media studies. Through close analysis of a variety of texts including, but not limited to, films, music, television programs, newspapers, magazines, and websites, explores the ways in which culture is prod...
RHCS271	Communication Research: Digital Humanities	Brings together computational methods with humanities questions. Explores the possibilities and limits of methods such as data visualization, network analysis, and text analysis for analyzing humanities data and modes of communication for scholarly a...
RHCS272	Communication Research: Ethnography of Communication	Explores ethnography as a communication research method. Ethnography involves participant observation of a community in a naturalistic setting combined with other forms of data collection such as interviews, artifact analysis, and textual analysis....
RHCS273	Communication Research: Performance Studies	Techniques for using embodied performance as a research method. Development and analysis of live classroom performances designed to explore how performance can be used to shed light on literary texts and everyday speech, deconstruct harmful and oppre...
RHCS274	Communication Research: Historiography	The study of how we understand, interpret, and communicate the past over time. Examines how the past can be used to create and sustain social structures, with a special focus on the methods and frameworks we use to interpret history.
RHCS275	Communication Research: Vision and Visuality	Explores how the visual image has changed the study of rhetoric in profound ways and broadened understanding of the relationship between symbols and cultures. Introduction to the rhetorical criticism and research of visual texts will be administered...
RHCS276	Rhetorical Criticism	Develops ability in thinking critically about the theory, strategies, and performance of public discourse by com-bining an examination of the symbolic strategies designed to secure and resist social or institutional change with critical analysis of t...
RHCS277	Communication Research: Media Activism	How do we study or make sense of media? What does our “how” of studying media enable us to know and not know about the media we study? Using activism as a case study, this course engages with the above questions. This course is an introduction to met...
RHCS279	Special Topics in Rhetoric and Communication Studies	Special topics course offering lower-level/introductory inquiry in rhetoric and communication studies.
RHCS340	Rhetoric in South Asia	Seminar on the rhetorical production of “South Asia” in contemporary U. S. media cycles, drawing attention to contemporary issues of public attention in and about South Asia. Using the critical and creative work of such writers as Gayatri Spivak, Aru...
RHCS342	Rhetoric and Gender Violence	We explore in this seminar rhetorics of gender violence, resistance, and abolition. Taking a rhetorical approach, we explore “tropes” of gender violence: how social discourses focus on gender violence, how public beliefs about gender are produced thr...
RHCS343	Rhetoric and Politics	Analysis of American political systems from rhetorical perspective using several theoretical frameworks and applied research. Examine interpretive processes on which political arguments and ideologies are based. Study impact of language on issues, ca...
RHCS349	Memory and Memorializing in the City of Richmond	Examines various sites of memory production (i.e. films, museums, monuments) -- how they have been conceptualized and debated -- and asks students to consider memory not only as an entity used in reconstructing the past but capable of being reconstru...
RHCS350	Rhetoric in a Globalized World	Exploration of the rhetoric of U.S. internationalism in the 20th century and its impact on the discourse of globalization in the 21st century through close analysis of speeches, public documents, maps, photos, posters, radio, and films. A broad histo...
RHCS352	Media Theory	Introduces alternative media and communication studies theories that include and exceed questions of representation, with special emphasis on the implications of media form on media content. Asks questions about how media are implicated in what many...
RHCS353	Rhetoric and Law	Inquiry into the law from rhetorical perspectives, using the history and theory of rhetoric and its long-standing association with law and justice. Examination of interpretive processes on which legal arguments and ideologies are based. Exploration o...
RHCS359	Media and War	Engages students in an inquiry into the rhetorical and communicative dimension of war in the twenty-first century.
RHCS360	Digital Humanities Workshop	The workshop builds a digital humanities project around a specific topic, bringing together the exploration of data and the humanities. The topic is chosen for each semester and often involves a collaboration with a community partner.
RHCS387	Independent Study	No more than one unit of independent study may count toward the major or minor.
RHCS388	Individual Internship	Practical application of speech communication principles and skills in a supervised, out-of-class environment. Graded pass/fail only. No more than one unit of internship may count toward rhetoric and communication studies major. Open to majors and mi...
RHCS406	Summer Undergraduate Research	Documentation of the work of students who receive summer fellowships to conduct research [or produce a creative arts project] in the summer. The work must take place over a minimum of 6 weeks, the student must engage in the project full-time (at leas...
RHCS412	Special Topics Seminar	Special topics courses allow for advanced inquiry and research in Rhetoric and Communication Studies.
RHCS490	Senior Capstone	Special topics seminar for seniors only focusing on research with an oral presentation requirement. Course is required for the major.
RHCS498	Honors Thesis Writing	Special topics seminar for seniors only focusing on research with an oral presentation requirement. Course is required for the major.
RHCS499	Honors Thesis Writing	Advanced research and writing opportunity for departmental honors students. Requires completion and presentation of honors thesis.

Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Subpages