Character notes for "Dealing with Historical Events and Characters" Part 1
These are the character notes for " Dealing with Historical Events and Characters" Part 1.
Phillis Rivers -- She has caramel skin, black eyes, and woolly brown hair. She is tall and sturdy with a statuesque figure. Her heritage includes African, American, and a little Navajo. She speaks English, Esperanto, French, Italian, Luganda, Malagasy, Spanish, and Swahili. She is 39 years old in 2016.
Phillis grew up in foster care, never found a family, and soaked the state of Pennsylvania for everything it was worth by collecting college degrees and other classes. And they couldn't even complain about that, because they said they wanted people to get a good education. She began with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication: Advocacy & Activism plus a double minor in Africana Studies and in African Languages at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. There she joined the Black Wharton Undergraduate Association, Book Club of Love, Esperanto at Penn, Wharton Leadership Ventures outdoor teamwork club, and Wharton Women.
Next Phillis earned a Master of Journalism with Graduate Certificates in Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution and in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There she participated in the Conflict Education Resource Team, Cycling Club, The Progressive NAACP, Temple University Gamers' Guild, and Women of Color Creatives.
Phillis went on to get a Doctor of Philosophy in African-American History with a Graduate Certificate in Alcohol Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Tthere she joined the Bellydance Troupe, Graduate History Association, READ: the Rutgers University Book Club, Wanawake African diaspora club, and WRSU-FM New Brunswick college radio station. She also volunteered with alcohol reduction programs through the local sobering center.
After graduating, Phillis went to work at Urbanburg University in Illinois. She teaches African-American history and journalism, with a particular interest in freedom papers and other black publications. Sometimes she runs a booth at Reconstruction Era faires. Phillis is married with a daughter (12), a son (9), a daughter (6), a son (3), and is pregnant again. She wears fashionable women's clothes. Her base colors are black and white, accented with turquoise, coral, and plum. She likes accents of leather and lace, often worn together.
Qualities: Master (+6) African-American History, Expert (+4) Stamina, Expert (+4) Journalist, Good (+2) Activist, Good (+2) Conflict Resolution, Good (+2) Languages, Good (+2) Leadership
Poor (-2) Needs Glasses
Courses
Bachelor of Arts in Communication: Advocacy & Activism
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
College General Education Requirements and Free Electives
Foundational Approaches + Sectors1 + Free Electives 20
Major Requirements
Introductory Core Survey Courses
Select two of the following: 2
COMM 1230 Critical Approaches to Popular Culture
COMM 1300 Media Industries and Society
Research Methods Course
Select one: 1
COMM 2100 Quantitative Research Methods in Communication
Or, Research Methods course from an approved list. 2
Concentration-Advocacy & Activism
COMM concentration specific courses - Intermediate
COMM 2600 Media Activism Studies 1
COMM 1000:2999 (Attribute ACAA)
COMM 2620 Social Movements
COMM concentration specific courses - Advanced 3
COMM 3780 Journalism and Public Service
COMM 4110 Communication, Activism, and Social Change 2
COMM 3000:4999 (Attribute ACAA)
COMM Electives - Intermediate 4
COMM 2011 The Art and Science of Story-Centered Research
COMM 2012 Journalism, Crime, and Justice
COMM 2320 Gender and Media 3
COMM 1000:2999
COMM Electives - Advanced 5
COMM 3890 Black Visual Culture and Its Archives
COMM 3010 Global Media and Society: Perspectives on Africa 2
COMM 3000:4999
COMM 3280 Drawing the Blue Line: Police and Power in American Popular Culture
COMM 3730 Black Geographies: Race and Visual Culture
Approved Non-COMM Electives 6,7,8
GSWS 3360 Feminism and the Internet
PSCI 4208 Media and Politics
URBS 2445 Civil Dialogue Seminar: Civic Engagement In A Divided Nation 3
Select up to three non-COMM electives related to the Comm major
Total Course Units 34
Communications Courses
COMM 2011 The Art and Science of Story-Centered Research
Stories are a powerful communication tool that can be used to entertain, connect, inform, and inspire. Stories also play varied and vital roles in communication research. This course explores the relationship between storytelling, inquiry, and knowledge production. Engaging with interdisciplinary and multi-modal scholarship, students will learn how stories can be used to formulate and answer research questions, shape and share knowledge, and create meaningful change. Students will develop foundational knowledge in a variety of qualitative methods (e.g., interviewing, observation, textual analysis), and foster their skills producing accessible, ethical, critical, and creative research.
1 Course Unit
COMM 2012 Journalism, Crime, and Justice
This class explores the politics of crime reporting in an age of mass incarceration, police expansionism, and endemic racial and gender injustice and economic inequality. Students will be introduced to the various institutional, legal, economic, symbolic, and material entanglements between news agencies and journalists, on the one hand, and criminal justice institutions, on the other. Adopting a critical cultural approach, we will consider issues such as: accuracy, bias, and distortion in crime reporting; the newsworthiness of crime; stereotyping and criminalization; access and gatekeeping; moral panics and electoral politics; ‘copaganda’ and the professionalization of police public relations; the rise of citizen journalism and ‘cop watching’; and emerging practices of self-mediation and storytelling. The class will also introduce students to important critical perspectives on how practices of journalistic storytelling and representation are implicated in the politics of crime control and broader struggles for safety and justice.
1 Course Unit
COMM 2320 Gender and Media
This course examines various images and performances of gender in media focusing on the late 20th century to the present. Using theories from cultural and media studies, film and gender studies, and communication studies, we will explore different processes and practices of gender, specifically in terms of media representations of femininity, masculinity, and other genders. The purpose of the course is to gain insight into the ways in which gender, and its intersections with race, ethnicity, and class, is enacted, represented, and has an impact on cultural formations and communication. We will explore the socio-cultural mechanisms that shape our individual and collective notions of identity and essentially teach us what it means to be gendered masculine or feminine or align with other identifications. The media plays a major role in "constructing" gender, and popular views of what “appropriate” gendering is, in turn, shape how we communicate with each other. In examining cultural myths about gender as well as ongoing debates on gender construction, we will consider how gender is tied in with notions of power, identity, voice, and other defining identity categories (race, socio-economic status, sexuality, etc.) Throughout the course, we will examine a variety of media forms, from film to television to streaming platforms, as well as social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 2600 Media Activism Studies
This seminar provides an introduction to the politics and tactics underlying various types of media activism. The class will examine interventions aimed at media representations, labor relations in media production, media policy reform, activists' strategic communications, and "alternative" media making. The course will draw from an overview of the existing scholarship on media activism, as well as close analyses of actual activist practices within both old and new media at local, national, and global levels. We will study how various political groups, past and present, use media to advance their interests and effect social change. Each member of the class will choose one case study of an activist group or campaign to explore throughout the semester.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 2620 Social Movements
This course examines the main sociological theories and concepts in the analysis of revolutions, popular protest, and social movements. Special attention will be given to three theoretical traditions: resource mobilization, political process, and cultural analysis. We will study narratives, symbols, performances, and old and new media forms in the construction of identities and solidarities and the mobilization of publics. Historical and contemporary cases from the U.S. and around the world will be examined.
Also Offered As: SOCI 2620
1 Course Unit
COMM 3010 Global Media and Society: Perspectives on Africa
This course offers an introduction to media, culture, and society in postcolonial Africa. It takes into account diverse media forms and cultures across the continent, to examine ways in which media interconnect with globalization, colonialism and imperialism, development, and social change. The course is designed to train students to do critical comparative analyses of media across nations. Suggested readings, activities, and assignments are designed to help students situate media technologies, forms, and artifacts in relation to broader political, economic, social, and cultural contexts. At the end of the course, students will be able to contextualize media across national borders paying attention to the ways in which media both shape and are shaped by social, political, religious, and economic factors.
1 Course Unit
COMM 3280 Drawing the Blue Line: Police and Power in American Popular Culture (SNF Paideia Program Course)
The police are one of the most heavily imagined institutions in American popular culture. From Cagney and Lacey to Colors, Law & Order, The Wire and The Watchmen, evolving depictions of law enforcement help us to understand larger socio-cultural shifts that have occurred from the post-1968 riots to the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement in the mid-2010s and police abolition in the early 2020s. Using case study and textual analysis approaches, students will examine how specific police procedurals, movies, and other cultural texts showcase police authority in relation to certain communities, and consider how these texts reflect, uphold, and/or challenge prevailing views on law and order and criminal justice. Our explorations of how media and cultural industries have framed policing will pay particular attention to questions of power, race, gender, sexuality, class, and geography. These explorations will also include learning about and learning to dialogue, given the diverse - and often contentious - views about policing in America. Students will have an opportunity to interact with speakers representing different positions that relate to mediated perceptions -- as well as lived experiences of -- policing. Class assignments and activities will enhance students' abilities to productively discuss complex issues that are frequently sanitized or homogenized within U.S. popular culture.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 3730 Black Geographies: Race and Visual Culture
What is the relationship between the Flint water crisis, the hyper-policing of racialized people, and the increased surveillance of neighborhoods deemed “poverty-stricken” or “at risk?” How do regimes of security, surveillance, policing, and forms of violence depend upon the concept of “risk” as central to their operation? How is risk informed by systemic racism and forms of anti-Blackness? How does visual culture (e.g., media coverage, documentary photographs, etc.) inform how we come to see and define certain people, communities, and ways of life as “risky?” How have those living in racialized geographies of “risk” found ways to live in, make do, and challenge the faulty narratives of risk? This interdisciplinary course will examine critical debates and key moments-historical (e.g., MOVE bombing in Philadelphia) and contemporary (e.g., Ferguson riots)-that have informed the concept of risk. Over the course of the semester, we will read scholarly texts and engage with objects such as archival documents, photographs, conceptual art, performance art and installations, journalistic texts, and films. This communications course will be approached from a cultural studies perspective, with particular attention to race, gender, and sexuality.
1 Course Unit
COMM 3780 Journalism and Public Service
In this course we examine links between journalism and public service by scrutinizing core concepts involved, practices that sometimes put journalism and public service in conflict (e.g., investigative reporting, coverage of war), and how journalism stacks up against other forms of public service from NGO work to government employment. Beginning with a reading of Robert Coles's classic The Call of Service, we dissect the notion of the "public," assess so-called public-service journalism by reading Pulitzer-Prize-winning examples, and reflect on the news media as a political institution. Individual weeks focus on such topics as the conflict that arises when a journalist's obligation to a confidential source clashes with a duty to the judicial system, whether the business of journalism is business, how journalism and NGO work compares as public service, and whether journalism by committed political activists (such as I.F. Stone) surpasses mainstream "neutral" journalism as a form of public service.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 3890 Black Visual Culture and Its Archives
This undergraduate seminar examines the intersections of visual culture and race in the United States. It aims to provide a historical, cultural, and visual foundation for understanding the representation of and by Black people from the 19th to the 21st centuries, including texts such as, but not limited to, photography, film, television, conceptual art, and performance. Students will be introduced to critical concepts in the field of visual studies, black studies, communication, cultural studies, and rhetorical studies. The course will pay special attention to concepts such as Blackness, visuality, visibility and invisibility, surveillance, photographic theory, the gaze, and spectatorship. We will consider questions such as: What is "black visual culture"? What are its archives? How is Blackness produced, represented, and negotiated through visual modes? In what ways does Blackness and Black people challenge, refract, and rewrite the various visual modes that have sought to represent it? The course will explore various theoretical and methodological approaches to answering the aforementioned questions and enable students develop their own questions for understanding the complex ways in which race and the visual have been, and continue to be, entangled.
1 Course Unit
COMM 4110 Communication, Activism, and Social Change
This course examines the communication strategies of 20th and 21st-century social movements, both U.S. and global. We analyze the communication social movements create (including rhetorical persuasion, art activism, bodily argumentation, protest music, media campaigns, public protest, and grassroots organizing), and the role of communication in the identity formation, circulation, and efficacy of social movements. We also consider the communication created by forces seeking to undermine social change, define the study of social movements from a communication perspective, identify major historical and contemporary movements, and apply theories of communication and social change to "real world" activism. Students are required to research and design their own social movement campaign.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
GSWS 3360 Feminism and the Internet
From the earliest message boards and email chains, the internet has given people a way to connect, not just digitally but sexually. Porn, online dating, sex education: digital technology has made it easier for people to find each other and explore sexuality, but these same tools have also been used in relationships that are exploitative and criminal. In this course, we look at the different connections between sex, gender, queerness and the internet: changing policies regulating sex (like FOSTA and SESTA), the platforms that have created controversies around sex (for example, craigslist, tumblr and Grindr) and shifting norms around how sex and sexuality manifest online. This is an interdisciplinary course that brings together internet studies, queer theory, and cultural studies in order to understand the social and historical dimensions of sex, sexuality and digital technologies.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: COMM 3360
1 Course Unit
PSCI 4208 Media and Politics
Media and Politics will examine multiple issues specific to the past and present political media environment in the United States. Focus will be primarily, though not exclusively, on the contemporary news media. Topics covered will include political primaries, how elections have been influenced by the rise of partisan media, selective exposure, freedom of political speech as it relates to elections, the theoretical purpose of elections, money and media, political targeting, etc. We will also explore the quantitative and qualitative methods underlying what is and is not known about how elections work. Under the supervision of the professor, students will write an original research paper examining a specific topic in greater depth.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: COMM 4040, PSCI 2208
1 Course Unit
URBS 2445 Civil Dialogue Seminar: Civic Engagement In A Divided Nation
The goal of this course is to help students develop concepts, tools, dispositions, and skills that will help them engage productively in the ongoing experiment of American democracy. This nation's founders created a governmental structure that sets up an ongoing and expansive conversation about how to manage the tensions and tradeoffs between competing values and notions of the public good. These tensions can never be fully resolved or eliminated; they are intrinsic to the American experiment. Every generation must struggle to find its own balance, in no small part because in every era people who previously had been unjustly excluded from the conversation find a way to be heard. That inevitably introduces new values and changes how enduring ones get interpreted. The challenge of each generation is to develop that capacity to its fullest. The goal of this course is to equip you to engage fully in your generation's renewal of the conversation. Class sessions will use a variety of modalities: lecture, discussion, case studies, opportunities to experiment with the tools and techniques of civil dialogue and writing. Each session will include some theory or historical context, a case study, exploration of a key concept of civic dialogue with a related tool or technique, and an interactive exercise. This course is part of a larger effort by the university (called the Paideia program) to help Penn students build these skills
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: COMM 2445 EDUC 2445
1 Course Unit
COMM 4050 Media, Public Opinion, and Globalization
This seminar will examine American attitudes toward globalization and the role of the media in shaping public opinion toward events and people beyond our borders. Students will participate in original research on attitudes toward issues tied to globalization such as immigration, international trade, support for international organizations, isolationism, and so forth. Students will also spend time systematically studying the implications of American media coverage of these issues.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: PSCI 4209
1 Course Unit
Africana Studies, Minor
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study devoted to the critical and systematic examination of the cultural, political, social, economic, and historical experiences of African Americans, Africans, and peoples of African descent around the world. Our course of study is designed to provide students with an integrated understanding and appreciation for a new global black studies. An undergraduate degree in Africana Studies prepares students for graduate work in the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools, as well as a range of careers in teaching, business, public service, and the arts, among others.
African Language courses do not count toward the Minor Requirements.
Code Title Course Units
Minor Requirements
AFRC 1001 Introduction to Africana Studies 1
Electives
Select 5 course units of African American or Caribbean or Latin American centered courses with 3 course units intermediate or upper level and no more than 2 African Caribbean or Latin American centered courses
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
AFRC 1121 The American South
AFRC 2402 The Haitian Revolution
AFRC 3173 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar
AFRC 3700 Abolitionism: A Global History 5
Total Course Units 6
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: ASAM 1510, LALS 1060, SOCI 1060, URBS 1060
1 Course Unit
AFRC 1121 The American South
Southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to seccession. Traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War.
Two Term Class, Student may enter either term; credit given for either
Also Offered As: HIST 1121
1 Course Unit
AFRC 2402 The Haitian Revolution
In August 1791, enslaved Africans on the northern plain of Saint Domingue (colonial Haiti) rose up in a coordinated attack against their French colonial masters, launching the initial revolt in what would come to be known as the Haitian Revolution. In the years that followed, their actions forced the abolition of racial discrimination and slavery throughout the French Empire. When Napoleon Bonaparte threatened to return slavery to Saint Domingue, they waged a war for independence, declaring Haiti the world's first "Black Republic" in 1804. This seminar will examine some of the major themes and debates surrounding Haiti's colonial and revolutionary history. We will begin by considering the colonial paradox: France's leading role in the intellectual movement called the "Enlightenment" coincided with its ascent as a slaveholding colonial power. The seminar will also explore parallels and points of connection between the revolutionary movements in France and Saint Domingue: how did increasingly radical ideas in France shape events in the Caribbean? Likewise, how did west African traditions and political ideologies influence insurgents and their leaders? And how, in turn, did revolution in the Caribbean impact the revolution in France? Finally, we will ask how the Haitian Revolution influenced ideas about liberty, sovereignty and freedom throughout the Atlantic World. We will read a combination of primary and secondary materials each week. A final research paper will be required of all students.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 2402, LALS 2402
1 Course Unit
AFRC 3173 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar
This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial orientation to archival research, students will plunge in to doing actual research at the Kislak Center, the University Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company, and various online sources. During the final month of the semester, students will begin drafting research reports and preparing for a public presentation of the work. During the semester, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a certified genealogist, a data management and website expert, a consultant on public programming, and a Penn graduate whose research has been integral to the Penn Slavery Project.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 3173
1 Course Unit
AFRC 3700 Abolitionism: A Global History
This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.*
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 3700, LALS 3700
1 Course Unit
Minor in African Languages (T-American)
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
Required:
AFRC 2250 African Languages and Culture
Electives:
Choose 6 credits of African languages.
AFRC 0100 African Language Tutorial I: Luganda I
AFRC 0200 African Language Tutorial II: Luganda II
MALG 0100 Elementary Malagasy
MALG 0201 Malagasy (Elementary II) Language in a Cultural Context
SWAH 0100 Elementary Swahili I
SWAH 0200 Elementary Swahili II
AFRC 2250 African Languages and Culture
The aim of the course is to provide an overall perspective on African languages and linguistics. No background in linguistics is necessary. Students will be introduced to theoretical linguistics-its concepts, theories, ways of argumentation, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. The focus will be on the languages and linguistics of Africa to provide you with the knowledge and skills required to handle the language and language-related issues typical of African conditions. We will cover topics related to formal linguistics (phonology/phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics), aspects of pragmatics as well as the general socio-linguistic character of African countries. We will also cover language in context, language and culture, borrowing, multilingualism, and cross-cultural communication in Africa.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
AFRC 0100 African Language Tutorial I: Luganda I
This is a course in beginning level of an African language that could be offered to students interested in particular region or country. The courses offerings are flexible and could be scheduled based on student requests.
Fall
1 Course Unit
AFRC 0200 African Language Tutorial II: Luganda II
Part II of the Luganda language course
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Malagasy Courses
MALG 0100 Elementary Malagasy
The main objective of this course is to allow students to study an African language of their choice, depending on the availability of the instructor. The course will provide students with linquistics tools which will facilitate their research work in the target country. Cultural aspects of the speakers of the language will be introduced and reinforced.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
MALG 0201 Malagasy (Elementary II) Language in a Cultural Context
This class will create a communicative language environment where students will explore the language and culture of Madagascar. The course offers a unique opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of an island that has remained largely isolated from the rest of the world while fulfilling a language requirement. Emphasis will be placed on exposing students to Malagasy culture through speaking, reading, writing and listening, and students will be expected to use the target language in class as much as possible. At the end of the semester, students will travel to become fully immersed in the Malagasy language and to deepen their understanding of the history, environment, and unique culture of Madagascar. Students who are interested in taking this seminar must complete Malagasy Elementary I or Malagasy Intermediate I in the preceding fall. Malagasy Elementary I is available to all students.
Not Offered Every Year
Prerequisite: MALG 0100
1 Course Unit
Swahili Courses
SWAH 0100 Elementary Swahili I
The Elementary Swahili I course can be taken to fulfill a language requirement, or for linguistic preparation to do research on East Africa/Africa-related topics. The course emphasizes communicative compentence to enable the students to acquire linguistic and extra-linguistic skills in Swahili. The content of the course is selected from various everyday life situations to enable the students to communicate in predictable common daily settings. Culture, as it relates to language use, is also part of the course content. Students will acquire the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills at the mid-high novice level, based on the ACTFL scale. The mid-high level proficiency skills that the students will acquire constitute threshold capabilities of the second semester range of proficiency to prepare students for Elementary Swahili II course materials.
Fall
1 Course Unit
SWAH 0200 Elementary Swahili II
This course continues to introduce basic grammar, vocabulary, and the reading and writing of Swahili to new speakers. During this term, folktales, other texts, and film selections are used to help introduce important aspects of Swahili culture and the use of the language in wide areas of Africa.
Spring
Prerequisite: SWAH 0100
1 Course Unit
Clubs
Black Wharton Undergraduate Association
Black Wharton Undergraduate Association (BW) is a student-run organization dedicated to enhancing the collegiate experience and accelerating the professional aspirations of our members. In order to meet these goals, BW provides its members with internship information, interactive business conferences, community service opportunities, and alumni networking among other initiatives. BW holds monthly general body meetings (GBMs) to foster community and professionally develop members of the Black Penn community. BW is composed of high-potential students whose interests vary across numerous industries. Our organization serves as an intermediary between our diverse corporate sponsors and our members as well as a support system for our members’ academic, personal, and pre-professional endeavours.
Book Club of Love
Through a common love for good books, students from different disciplines at Penn will get connected to share their lives with each other. The Book Club of Love is a student club at the University of Pennsylvania that encourage interdiciplianry communications and mental health/wellness discussion.
Esperanto at Penn
Esperanto was created in 1887 to be an easy to learn language for communication all around the world! Today, there are Esperanto speakers in just about every country, and annual events around the world for speakers to get together. Also, the service Pasporta Servo allows you to stay over at the homes of Esperanto speakers around the world for free! All you need to take advantage of this and make connections in an international community is to learn the language. Join the Esperanto at Penn student club to learn more about this language, its history, and the culture that's grown out of it.
Wharton Leadership Ventures
Wharton Leadership Ventures are outdoor experiences that facilitate self-discovery, leadership, and character development. Participants are able to step out of their comfort zone, exceed personal limitations, and experience leadership firsthand.
Venture Fellows are a group of committed students who coordinate and help facilitate the learning opportunities on each venture. This unique and talented group of students meet weekly throughout the year, participate in annual leadership trainings and have dedicated themselves to being service focused students.
Wharton Women
Wharton Women is an undergraduate student organization at the University of Pennsylvania. We facilitate the personal and career development of women and underrepresented gender identities in business by building a network of exceptional undergraduates, professionals and faculty. Wharton Women aims to provide direction, insight, and camaraderie to women from all four of Penn's undergraduate schools who are interested in business or intend to enter the business world upon graduation. We were voted Wharton's Best Large Club in 2021.
Master of Journalism
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Program Requirements
General Program Requirements:
Number of Credits Required Beyond the Baccalaureate: 30
Required Courses:
Year 1
Summer II
JRN 5301
Introduction to Urban Journalism 3
Term Credit Hours 3
Fall
JRN 5302 Urban Reporting Lab 1 6
JRN 5303 Journalism Concepts 3
JRN 5304 Editing the News 3
Term Credit Hours 12
Spring
JRN 5305 Urban Reporting Lab 2 6
JRN 5306 Journalism and the Public Interest 3
JRN Elective 3
Term Credit Hours 12
Year 2
Summer I
JRN 5307 Capstone Reporting Experience 3
Term Credit Hours 3
Total Credit Hours: 30
Culminating Events:
Capstone Project: JRN 5307 Capstone Reporting Experience constitutes the culminating event.
GRADUATE CERTIFICATE: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS
Number of Credits Required to Complete the Certificate: 12
Required Courses:
Code Title Credit Hours
CMGT 5002 Leadership in Crises and Conflict Management 3
CMGT 5004 Cross-Cultural Leadership 3
CMGT 5101 Conflict Management Processes in the Workplace 3
CMGT 5102 Designing Workplace Dispute Systems 3
Total Credit Hours 12
Course List
Graduate Certificate in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gain the practical and theoretical skills essential to navigating diverse leadership contexts with the Graduate Certificate in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership in the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple. Acquire the cultural awareness and strategic competence to develop and manage collaboration within your organization.
The 12-credit Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership graduate certificate is ideal for individuals aspiring to leadership positions, as well as those who currently hold leadership positions and want to increase their ability to
• deal with cross-cultural conflicts,
• manage diverse teams and
• make responsible decisions.
An online format provides students flexibility in how they access resources, submit assignments, and balance their studies with job constraints and personal responsibilities.
Program Format & Curriculum
The 12-credit Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership graduate certificate is an online program of study that can be completed over two years of full- or part-time study. There are no prerequisites, and courses can be taken in any order.
The following are required courses for this program.
• Communicating Organizational Leadership
• Cross-Cultural Leadership
• Leadership in Crises and Conflict Management
• Leading Diverse Teams
Clubs
Conflict Education Resource Team
The Conflict Education Resource Team (CERT) believes that conflict is a natural part of life and can be a positive and productive experience. The Peer Educators of CERT provide free coachings, presentations, and mediation to the Temple University community. CERT assists in the management of interpersonal conflict and provides information and education regarding the nature of the conflict.
Cycling Club
The Temple Cycling Club is comprised of a group of Temple University students who ride primarily for recreation. By completing the Prospective Player form, you can choose to sign-up on the club email list and learn more about upcoming events on campus, in Philadelphia, and throughout the northeast U.S. region. The email list provides updates for members when upcoming recreational rides are scheduled. Some members of our club participate in local and regional races. The Temple Cycling Club participates in Road, Mountain and Track Cycling; however, most of the riders are primarily road cyclists.
The Progressive NAACP
Our Vision
The Vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
Our Mission
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
Our Objectives
Provide young people with personal and leadership development training
Proactive political and community activism
Public awareness of the necessity of positive youth engagement
Our Issues
Economic Development
Education
Health
Juvenile Justice
Voter Empowerment
Temple University Gamers' Guild
Temple University Gamers' Guild (TUGG) is an entertainment organization which allows Temple students who share an interest in games of all kinds to collaborate, share, play, and learn more about the games they love and discover new ones to love. These interests include video games, trading card games, tabletop RPGs, board games, and more. We aim to provide a safe, inclusive club environment to have fun, meet new people, and socialize over games both new and old.
We host a number of events each semester, such as game tournaments, Extra Life, and organization parties to strengthen the community within the organization.
Women of Color Creatives
In Women of Color Creatives, our mission is to empower and build connections for women of color that have artistic passions or creative goals through networking discussions and events geared towards our creative aspirations at Temple University. We are a collective that is dedicated to being a safe space that represents diversity, inclusivity, as well as freedom of expression. We focus on topics that surround women of color in art, music, literature, dance, and other creative fields. Most of all we are a sisterhood dedicated to build, achieve, and inspire each other!
Doctor of Philosophy in African-American History
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick
The Program
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has a long-standing commitment to teaching and research in the African-American experience, which is exemplified by its creation more than a quarter-century ago of the Martin Luther King, Jr., University Professorship. The graduate program of the Department of History at Rutgers, where the King professorship now resides, is among the nation’s leading programs in African-American history. Publications by the faculty specializing in this field have won the Bancroft, Parkman, and Pulitzer prizes. The faculty’s expertise ranges across the major time-periods and subdisciplines. Post- Civil War strengths include biography, class, gender, and civil rights. Pre-Civil War strengths of the faculty center in studies of the African Diaspora and Atlantic Cultures.
The department’s outstanding reputation (it has a wealth of offerings not only in African American history but in political, women’s, cultural, African, comparative, and Latin American history as well), augmented by a variety of competitive departmental and university fellowship, has attracted outstanding graduate students. Students find a challenging, friendly environment in which small classes, independent research, accessible professors, and superb facilities optimize success in course work and prospects for employment. Students and faculty are all provided with modern computer facilities.
Graduate students are expected to become involved in teaching and to participate in the vigorous graduate-student organization’s scholarly and social programs. The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis is also a vital feature of the graduate student experience and offers cutting-edge lectures and panels by world-class scholars in temporary residence.
Degree Options
The Ph.D. degree program is primarily intended for full-time students. Requirements include 48 credits of approved course work, including those earned for the master’s degree; applicants already holding a master’s degree may have substantial number of their credits counted towards the Ph.D. requirement.
Graduate Certificate in Alcohol Studies
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick
This certificate is designed for individuals with an interest in alcohol and drug use disorders. Students receive foundational knowledge in the biomedical, cultural, historical, and psychological aspects of alcohol and associated dependency. They receive knowledge about clinical treatment and assessment of alcohol and drug use disorders and learn how to work effectively in the field through independent study practicum/internship/research placements.
Phillis did her independent study on "The Correlation Between Alcohol Abuse and Freedom or Lack Thereof in the African Diaspora." She did her practicum through a community peer counseling program instead of a clinical one.
Curriculum
Courses Course Number Credits
Foundations in Alcohol Studies: Biology, Psychology, and Sociology
Provides a review of the essential information about alcohol's acute and chronic effects on biology and behavior and the sociology of its use and misuse. 18:821:680 3
Independent Study of Alcohol-Related Issues
Opportunity to pursue an area of interest concerning alcohol use and misuse under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member. 18:821:679 3,3
Practicum: Clinical Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Use Disorder
Required for students in degree programs that provide specific training in counseling or psychotherapy, such as clinical psychology (Ph.D. or Psy.D.), counseling psychology, social work, or psychiatric nursing.
Prerequisite: Previous experience in direct patient care. 18:821:681 3,3
TOTAL 15
Clubs
Bellydance Troupe (Rutgers)
The Rutgers Belly Dance Troupe was established in 2005 to promote women’s empowerment and draw attention to the true art form of belly dance through traditional and modern pieces. We aim to represent Middle Eastern dance, spread cultural awareness, and promote body positivity. It is essential to ensure that our members progress in their dancing in a way that is ergonomic and both physically and mentally positive. We are committed to combating the social stigma sometimes associated with belly dancing so that it is represented positively and to the original intentions of the dance.
Graduate History Association (Graduate Organization)
The purpose of this organization is to enhance the experience of graduate study within the History Department by supporting professional development activities, academic discussion groups, and the cultural interests of members. The GHA shall be the primary liaison between the graduate student body and the History Department administration. It shall regularly collect information from graduate students, represent graduate student concerns to the Department, and facilitate the Department’s efforts to address graduate student needs. All History Ph.D. students currently enrolled in the program are automatically members.
READ, the Rutgers University Book Club
Calling all passionate and casual readers! READ is Rutgers’ primary book club. We are a group of students who love reading - and discussing - books across the literary world on a biweekly basis. During the course of the semester, you will find us reading and talking about a variety of titles, including YA bestsellers, classic novels, and even the occasional short story (all of which are chosen by our READ members!) Beyond the books, however, we hope to create a space for engaging discussion and connection here at Rutgers!
Fall 2021 - Spring 2022 READ books included: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, & There There by Tommy Orange.
Wanawake (Rutgers University)
To serve as a breed of excellent leaders of integrity, vision, mission, and love, in lieu of the African history and experience, both on the continent and in the Diaspora. To promote Pan-Africanism and improve the economic and social conditions of Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora, and to unite college women for the interests of Africa, the promotion of its cultures, and the uplifting of its people all over the world, enabling them to achieve their full potential and purpose.
WRSU-FM New Brunswick
Founded in 1948, WRSU-FM is one of the oldest college radio stations in the nation. Since its inception as WRSU-AM, the station has evolved through many styles, including oldies, top 40, and its transition in the 1980s, to the variety of sounds it is renowned for today. WRSU on-air personalities range from first-semester Rutgers freshmen to longtime alumni and community members, and all are engaged in the long-standing WRSU tradition of designing their own playlists. WRSU boasts many shows featuring specialty programming, with Sunday devoted primarily to the sounds of world music. The station broadcasts all Rutgers football and basketball games from around the country, and is the flagship radio station of the Rutgers Womens’ Basketball team. WRSU news broadcasts a variety of news updates and issues talk shows, sending student reporters into the streets for original stories. The station is a non-commercial, non-profit radio station and is student-managed under the guidance of a faculty broadcast administrator. Station management is governed by the WRSU Radio Council, an oversight board consisting of station members, Rutgers professors and alumni, and local broadcast professionals.
Phillis Rivers -- She has caramel skin, black eyes, and woolly brown hair. She is tall and sturdy with a statuesque figure. Her heritage includes African, American, and a little Navajo. She speaks English, Esperanto, French, Italian, Luganda, Malagasy, Spanish, and Swahili. She is 39 years old in 2016.
Phillis grew up in foster care, never found a family, and soaked the state of Pennsylvania for everything it was worth by collecting college degrees and other classes. And they couldn't even complain about that, because they said they wanted people to get a good education. She began with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication: Advocacy & Activism plus a double minor in Africana Studies and in African Languages at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. There she joined the Black Wharton Undergraduate Association, Book Club of Love, Esperanto at Penn, Wharton Leadership Ventures outdoor teamwork club, and Wharton Women.
Next Phillis earned a Master of Journalism with Graduate Certificates in Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution and in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There she participated in the Conflict Education Resource Team, Cycling Club, The Progressive NAACP, Temple University Gamers' Guild, and Women of Color Creatives.
Phillis went on to get a Doctor of Philosophy in African-American History with a Graduate Certificate in Alcohol Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Tthere she joined the Bellydance Troupe, Graduate History Association, READ: the Rutgers University Book Club, Wanawake African diaspora club, and WRSU-FM New Brunswick college radio station. She also volunteered with alcohol reduction programs through the local sobering center.
After graduating, Phillis went to work at Urbanburg University in Illinois. She teaches African-American history and journalism, with a particular interest in freedom papers and other black publications. Sometimes she runs a booth at Reconstruction Era faires. Phillis is married with a daughter (12), a son (9), a daughter (6), a son (3), and is pregnant again. She wears fashionable women's clothes. Her base colors are black and white, accented with turquoise, coral, and plum. She likes accents of leather and lace, often worn together.
Qualities: Master (+6) African-American History, Expert (+4) Stamina, Expert (+4) Journalist, Good (+2) Activist, Good (+2) Conflict Resolution, Good (+2) Languages, Good (+2) Leadership
Poor (-2) Needs Glasses
Courses
Bachelor of Arts in Communication: Advocacy & Activism
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
College General Education Requirements and Free Electives
Foundational Approaches + Sectors1 + Free Electives 20
Major Requirements
Introductory Core Survey Courses
Select two of the following: 2
COMM 1230 Critical Approaches to Popular Culture
COMM 1300 Media Industries and Society
Research Methods Course
Select one: 1
COMM 2100 Quantitative Research Methods in Communication
Or, Research Methods course from an approved list. 2
Concentration-Advocacy & Activism
COMM concentration specific courses - Intermediate
COMM 2600 Media Activism Studies 1
COMM 1000:2999 (Attribute ACAA)
COMM 2620 Social Movements
COMM concentration specific courses - Advanced 3
COMM 3780 Journalism and Public Service
COMM 4110 Communication, Activism, and Social Change 2
COMM 3000:4999 (Attribute ACAA)
COMM Electives - Intermediate 4
COMM 2011 The Art and Science of Story-Centered Research
COMM 2012 Journalism, Crime, and Justice
COMM 2320 Gender and Media 3
COMM 1000:2999
COMM Electives - Advanced 5
COMM 3890 Black Visual Culture and Its Archives
COMM 3010 Global Media and Society: Perspectives on Africa 2
COMM 3000:4999
COMM 3280 Drawing the Blue Line: Police and Power in American Popular Culture
COMM 3730 Black Geographies: Race and Visual Culture
Approved Non-COMM Electives 6,7,8
GSWS 3360 Feminism and the Internet
PSCI 4208 Media and Politics
URBS 2445 Civil Dialogue Seminar: Civic Engagement In A Divided Nation 3
Select up to three non-COMM electives related to the Comm major
Total Course Units 34
Communications Courses
COMM 2011 The Art and Science of Story-Centered Research
Stories are a powerful communication tool that can be used to entertain, connect, inform, and inspire. Stories also play varied and vital roles in communication research. This course explores the relationship between storytelling, inquiry, and knowledge production. Engaging with interdisciplinary and multi-modal scholarship, students will learn how stories can be used to formulate and answer research questions, shape and share knowledge, and create meaningful change. Students will develop foundational knowledge in a variety of qualitative methods (e.g., interviewing, observation, textual analysis), and foster their skills producing accessible, ethical, critical, and creative research.
1 Course Unit
COMM 2012 Journalism, Crime, and Justice
This class explores the politics of crime reporting in an age of mass incarceration, police expansionism, and endemic racial and gender injustice and economic inequality. Students will be introduced to the various institutional, legal, economic, symbolic, and material entanglements between news agencies and journalists, on the one hand, and criminal justice institutions, on the other. Adopting a critical cultural approach, we will consider issues such as: accuracy, bias, and distortion in crime reporting; the newsworthiness of crime; stereotyping and criminalization; access and gatekeeping; moral panics and electoral politics; ‘copaganda’ and the professionalization of police public relations; the rise of citizen journalism and ‘cop watching’; and emerging practices of self-mediation and storytelling. The class will also introduce students to important critical perspectives on how practices of journalistic storytelling and representation are implicated in the politics of crime control and broader struggles for safety and justice.
1 Course Unit
COMM 2320 Gender and Media
This course examines various images and performances of gender in media focusing on the late 20th century to the present. Using theories from cultural and media studies, film and gender studies, and communication studies, we will explore different processes and practices of gender, specifically in terms of media representations of femininity, masculinity, and other genders. The purpose of the course is to gain insight into the ways in which gender, and its intersections with race, ethnicity, and class, is enacted, represented, and has an impact on cultural formations and communication. We will explore the socio-cultural mechanisms that shape our individual and collective notions of identity and essentially teach us what it means to be gendered masculine or feminine or align with other identifications. The media plays a major role in "constructing" gender, and popular views of what “appropriate” gendering is, in turn, shape how we communicate with each other. In examining cultural myths about gender as well as ongoing debates on gender construction, we will consider how gender is tied in with notions of power, identity, voice, and other defining identity categories (race, socio-economic status, sexuality, etc.) Throughout the course, we will examine a variety of media forms, from film to television to streaming platforms, as well as social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 2600 Media Activism Studies
This seminar provides an introduction to the politics and tactics underlying various types of media activism. The class will examine interventions aimed at media representations, labor relations in media production, media policy reform, activists' strategic communications, and "alternative" media making. The course will draw from an overview of the existing scholarship on media activism, as well as close analyses of actual activist practices within both old and new media at local, national, and global levels. We will study how various political groups, past and present, use media to advance their interests and effect social change. Each member of the class will choose one case study of an activist group or campaign to explore throughout the semester.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 2620 Social Movements
This course examines the main sociological theories and concepts in the analysis of revolutions, popular protest, and social movements. Special attention will be given to three theoretical traditions: resource mobilization, political process, and cultural analysis. We will study narratives, symbols, performances, and old and new media forms in the construction of identities and solidarities and the mobilization of publics. Historical and contemporary cases from the U.S. and around the world will be examined.
Also Offered As: SOCI 2620
1 Course Unit
COMM 3010 Global Media and Society: Perspectives on Africa
This course offers an introduction to media, culture, and society in postcolonial Africa. It takes into account diverse media forms and cultures across the continent, to examine ways in which media interconnect with globalization, colonialism and imperialism, development, and social change. The course is designed to train students to do critical comparative analyses of media across nations. Suggested readings, activities, and assignments are designed to help students situate media technologies, forms, and artifacts in relation to broader political, economic, social, and cultural contexts. At the end of the course, students will be able to contextualize media across national borders paying attention to the ways in which media both shape and are shaped by social, political, religious, and economic factors.
1 Course Unit
COMM 3280 Drawing the Blue Line: Police and Power in American Popular Culture (SNF Paideia Program Course)
The police are one of the most heavily imagined institutions in American popular culture. From Cagney and Lacey to Colors, Law & Order, The Wire and The Watchmen, evolving depictions of law enforcement help us to understand larger socio-cultural shifts that have occurred from the post-1968 riots to the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement in the mid-2010s and police abolition in the early 2020s. Using case study and textual analysis approaches, students will examine how specific police procedurals, movies, and other cultural texts showcase police authority in relation to certain communities, and consider how these texts reflect, uphold, and/or challenge prevailing views on law and order and criminal justice. Our explorations of how media and cultural industries have framed policing will pay particular attention to questions of power, race, gender, sexuality, class, and geography. These explorations will also include learning about and learning to dialogue, given the diverse - and often contentious - views about policing in America. Students will have an opportunity to interact with speakers representing different positions that relate to mediated perceptions -- as well as lived experiences of -- policing. Class assignments and activities will enhance students' abilities to productively discuss complex issues that are frequently sanitized or homogenized within U.S. popular culture.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 3730 Black Geographies: Race and Visual Culture
What is the relationship between the Flint water crisis, the hyper-policing of racialized people, and the increased surveillance of neighborhoods deemed “poverty-stricken” or “at risk?” How do regimes of security, surveillance, policing, and forms of violence depend upon the concept of “risk” as central to their operation? How is risk informed by systemic racism and forms of anti-Blackness? How does visual culture (e.g., media coverage, documentary photographs, etc.) inform how we come to see and define certain people, communities, and ways of life as “risky?” How have those living in racialized geographies of “risk” found ways to live in, make do, and challenge the faulty narratives of risk? This interdisciplinary course will examine critical debates and key moments-historical (e.g., MOVE bombing in Philadelphia) and contemporary (e.g., Ferguson riots)-that have informed the concept of risk. Over the course of the semester, we will read scholarly texts and engage with objects such as archival documents, photographs, conceptual art, performance art and installations, journalistic texts, and films. This communications course will be approached from a cultural studies perspective, with particular attention to race, gender, and sexuality.
1 Course Unit
COMM 3780 Journalism and Public Service
In this course we examine links between journalism and public service by scrutinizing core concepts involved, practices that sometimes put journalism and public service in conflict (e.g., investigative reporting, coverage of war), and how journalism stacks up against other forms of public service from NGO work to government employment. Beginning with a reading of Robert Coles's classic The Call of Service, we dissect the notion of the "public," assess so-called public-service journalism by reading Pulitzer-Prize-winning examples, and reflect on the news media as a political institution. Individual weeks focus on such topics as the conflict that arises when a journalist's obligation to a confidential source clashes with a duty to the judicial system, whether the business of journalism is business, how journalism and NGO work compares as public service, and whether journalism by committed political activists (such as I.F. Stone) surpasses mainstream "neutral" journalism as a form of public service.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
COMM 3890 Black Visual Culture and Its Archives
This undergraduate seminar examines the intersections of visual culture and race in the United States. It aims to provide a historical, cultural, and visual foundation for understanding the representation of and by Black people from the 19th to the 21st centuries, including texts such as, but not limited to, photography, film, television, conceptual art, and performance. Students will be introduced to critical concepts in the field of visual studies, black studies, communication, cultural studies, and rhetorical studies. The course will pay special attention to concepts such as Blackness, visuality, visibility and invisibility, surveillance, photographic theory, the gaze, and spectatorship. We will consider questions such as: What is "black visual culture"? What are its archives? How is Blackness produced, represented, and negotiated through visual modes? In what ways does Blackness and Black people challenge, refract, and rewrite the various visual modes that have sought to represent it? The course will explore various theoretical and methodological approaches to answering the aforementioned questions and enable students develop their own questions for understanding the complex ways in which race and the visual have been, and continue to be, entangled.
1 Course Unit
COMM 4110 Communication, Activism, and Social Change
This course examines the communication strategies of 20th and 21st-century social movements, both U.S. and global. We analyze the communication social movements create (including rhetorical persuasion, art activism, bodily argumentation, protest music, media campaigns, public protest, and grassroots organizing), and the role of communication in the identity formation, circulation, and efficacy of social movements. We also consider the communication created by forces seeking to undermine social change, define the study of social movements from a communication perspective, identify major historical and contemporary movements, and apply theories of communication and social change to "real world" activism. Students are required to research and design their own social movement campaign.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
GSWS 3360 Feminism and the Internet
From the earliest message boards and email chains, the internet has given people a way to connect, not just digitally but sexually. Porn, online dating, sex education: digital technology has made it easier for people to find each other and explore sexuality, but these same tools have also been used in relationships that are exploitative and criminal. In this course, we look at the different connections between sex, gender, queerness and the internet: changing policies regulating sex (like FOSTA and SESTA), the platforms that have created controversies around sex (for example, craigslist, tumblr and Grindr) and shifting norms around how sex and sexuality manifest online. This is an interdisciplinary course that brings together internet studies, queer theory, and cultural studies in order to understand the social and historical dimensions of sex, sexuality and digital technologies.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: COMM 3360
1 Course Unit
PSCI 4208 Media and Politics
Media and Politics will examine multiple issues specific to the past and present political media environment in the United States. Focus will be primarily, though not exclusively, on the contemporary news media. Topics covered will include political primaries, how elections have been influenced by the rise of partisan media, selective exposure, freedom of political speech as it relates to elections, the theoretical purpose of elections, money and media, political targeting, etc. We will also explore the quantitative and qualitative methods underlying what is and is not known about how elections work. Under the supervision of the professor, students will write an original research paper examining a specific topic in greater depth.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: COMM 4040, PSCI 2208
1 Course Unit
URBS 2445 Civil Dialogue Seminar: Civic Engagement In A Divided Nation
The goal of this course is to help students develop concepts, tools, dispositions, and skills that will help them engage productively in the ongoing experiment of American democracy. This nation's founders created a governmental structure that sets up an ongoing and expansive conversation about how to manage the tensions and tradeoffs between competing values and notions of the public good. These tensions can never be fully resolved or eliminated; they are intrinsic to the American experiment. Every generation must struggle to find its own balance, in no small part because in every era people who previously had been unjustly excluded from the conversation find a way to be heard. That inevitably introduces new values and changes how enduring ones get interpreted. The challenge of each generation is to develop that capacity to its fullest. The goal of this course is to equip you to engage fully in your generation's renewal of the conversation. Class sessions will use a variety of modalities: lecture, discussion, case studies, opportunities to experiment with the tools and techniques of civil dialogue and writing. Each session will include some theory or historical context, a case study, exploration of a key concept of civic dialogue with a related tool or technique, and an interactive exercise. This course is part of a larger effort by the university (called the Paideia program) to help Penn students build these skills
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: COMM 2445 EDUC 2445
1 Course Unit
COMM 4050 Media, Public Opinion, and Globalization
This seminar will examine American attitudes toward globalization and the role of the media in shaping public opinion toward events and people beyond our borders. Students will participate in original research on attitudes toward issues tied to globalization such as immigration, international trade, support for international organizations, isolationism, and so forth. Students will also spend time systematically studying the implications of American media coverage of these issues.
Not Offered Every Year
Also Offered As: PSCI 4209
1 Course Unit
Africana Studies, Minor
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
Africana Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study devoted to the critical and systematic examination of the cultural, political, social, economic, and historical experiences of African Americans, Africans, and peoples of African descent around the world. Our course of study is designed to provide students with an integrated understanding and appreciation for a new global black studies. An undergraduate degree in Africana Studies prepares students for graduate work in the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools, as well as a range of careers in teaching, business, public service, and the arts, among others.
African Language courses do not count toward the Minor Requirements.
Code Title Course Units
Minor Requirements
AFRC 1001 Introduction to Africana Studies 1
Electives
Select 5 course units of African American or Caribbean or Latin American centered courses with 3 course units intermediate or upper level and no more than 2 African Caribbean or Latin American centered courses
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
AFRC 1121 The American South
AFRC 2402 The Haitian Revolution
AFRC 3173 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar
AFRC 3700 Abolitionism: A Global History 5
Total Course Units 6
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: ASAM 1510, LALS 1060, SOCI 1060, URBS 1060
1 Course Unit
AFRC 1121 The American South
Southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to seccession. Traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War.
Two Term Class, Student may enter either term; credit given for either
Also Offered As: HIST 1121
1 Course Unit
AFRC 2402 The Haitian Revolution
In August 1791, enslaved Africans on the northern plain of Saint Domingue (colonial Haiti) rose up in a coordinated attack against their French colonial masters, launching the initial revolt in what would come to be known as the Haitian Revolution. In the years that followed, their actions forced the abolition of racial discrimination and slavery throughout the French Empire. When Napoleon Bonaparte threatened to return slavery to Saint Domingue, they waged a war for independence, declaring Haiti the world's first "Black Republic" in 1804. This seminar will examine some of the major themes and debates surrounding Haiti's colonial and revolutionary history. We will begin by considering the colonial paradox: France's leading role in the intellectual movement called the "Enlightenment" coincided with its ascent as a slaveholding colonial power. The seminar will also explore parallels and points of connection between the revolutionary movements in France and Saint Domingue: how did increasingly radical ideas in France shape events in the Caribbean? Likewise, how did west African traditions and political ideologies influence insurgents and their leaders? And how, in turn, did revolution in the Caribbean impact the revolution in France? Finally, we will ask how the Haitian Revolution influenced ideas about liberty, sovereignty and freedom throughout the Atlantic World. We will read a combination of primary and secondary materials each week. A final research paper will be required of all students.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 2402, LALS 2402
1 Course Unit
AFRC 3173 Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar
This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial orientation to archival research, students will plunge in to doing actual research at the Kislak Center, the University Archives, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company, and various online sources. During the final month of the semester, students will begin drafting research reports and preparing for a public presentation of the work. During the semester, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a certified genealogist, a data management and website expert, a consultant on public programming, and a Penn graduate whose research has been integral to the Penn Slavery Project.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 3173
1 Course Unit
AFRC 3700 Abolitionism: A Global History
This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.*
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: HIST 3700, LALS 3700
1 Course Unit
Minor in African Languages (T-American)
at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
Required:
AFRC 2250 African Languages and Culture
Electives:
Choose 6 credits of African languages.
AFRC 0100 African Language Tutorial I: Luganda I
AFRC 0200 African Language Tutorial II: Luganda II
MALG 0100 Elementary Malagasy
MALG 0201 Malagasy (Elementary II) Language in a Cultural Context
SWAH 0100 Elementary Swahili I
SWAH 0200 Elementary Swahili II
AFRC 2250 African Languages and Culture
The aim of the course is to provide an overall perspective on African languages and linguistics. No background in linguistics is necessary. Students will be introduced to theoretical linguistics-its concepts, theories, ways of argumentation, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. The focus will be on the languages and linguistics of Africa to provide you with the knowledge and skills required to handle the language and language-related issues typical of African conditions. We will cover topics related to formal linguistics (phonology/phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics), aspects of pragmatics as well as the general socio-linguistic character of African countries. We will also cover language in context, language and culture, borrowing, multilingualism, and cross-cultural communication in Africa.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
AFRC 0100 African Language Tutorial I: Luganda I
This is a course in beginning level of an African language that could be offered to students interested in particular region or country. The courses offerings are flexible and could be scheduled based on student requests.
Fall
1 Course Unit
AFRC 0200 African Language Tutorial II: Luganda II
Part II of the Luganda language course
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Malagasy Courses
MALG 0100 Elementary Malagasy
The main objective of this course is to allow students to study an African language of their choice, depending on the availability of the instructor. The course will provide students with linquistics tools which will facilitate their research work in the target country. Cultural aspects of the speakers of the language will be introduced and reinforced.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
MALG 0201 Malagasy (Elementary II) Language in a Cultural Context
This class will create a communicative language environment where students will explore the language and culture of Madagascar. The course offers a unique opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of an island that has remained largely isolated from the rest of the world while fulfilling a language requirement. Emphasis will be placed on exposing students to Malagasy culture through speaking, reading, writing and listening, and students will be expected to use the target language in class as much as possible. At the end of the semester, students will travel to become fully immersed in the Malagasy language and to deepen their understanding of the history, environment, and unique culture of Madagascar. Students who are interested in taking this seminar must complete Malagasy Elementary I or Malagasy Intermediate I in the preceding fall. Malagasy Elementary I is available to all students.
Not Offered Every Year
Prerequisite: MALG 0100
1 Course Unit
Swahili Courses
SWAH 0100 Elementary Swahili I
The Elementary Swahili I course can be taken to fulfill a language requirement, or for linguistic preparation to do research on East Africa/Africa-related topics. The course emphasizes communicative compentence to enable the students to acquire linguistic and extra-linguistic skills in Swahili. The content of the course is selected from various everyday life situations to enable the students to communicate in predictable common daily settings. Culture, as it relates to language use, is also part of the course content. Students will acquire the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills at the mid-high novice level, based on the ACTFL scale. The mid-high level proficiency skills that the students will acquire constitute threshold capabilities of the second semester range of proficiency to prepare students for Elementary Swahili II course materials.
Fall
1 Course Unit
SWAH 0200 Elementary Swahili II
This course continues to introduce basic grammar, vocabulary, and the reading and writing of Swahili to new speakers. During this term, folktales, other texts, and film selections are used to help introduce important aspects of Swahili culture and the use of the language in wide areas of Africa.
Spring
Prerequisite: SWAH 0100
1 Course Unit
Clubs
Black Wharton Undergraduate Association
Black Wharton Undergraduate Association (BW) is a student-run organization dedicated to enhancing the collegiate experience and accelerating the professional aspirations of our members. In order to meet these goals, BW provides its members with internship information, interactive business conferences, community service opportunities, and alumni networking among other initiatives. BW holds monthly general body meetings (GBMs) to foster community and professionally develop members of the Black Penn community. BW is composed of high-potential students whose interests vary across numerous industries. Our organization serves as an intermediary between our diverse corporate sponsors and our members as well as a support system for our members’ academic, personal, and pre-professional endeavours.
Book Club of Love
Through a common love for good books, students from different disciplines at Penn will get connected to share their lives with each other. The Book Club of Love is a student club at the University of Pennsylvania that encourage interdiciplianry communications and mental health/wellness discussion.
Esperanto at Penn
Esperanto was created in 1887 to be an easy to learn language for communication all around the world! Today, there are Esperanto speakers in just about every country, and annual events around the world for speakers to get together. Also, the service Pasporta Servo allows you to stay over at the homes of Esperanto speakers around the world for free! All you need to take advantage of this and make connections in an international community is to learn the language. Join the Esperanto at Penn student club to learn more about this language, its history, and the culture that's grown out of it.
Wharton Leadership Ventures
Wharton Leadership Ventures are outdoor experiences that facilitate self-discovery, leadership, and character development. Participants are able to step out of their comfort zone, exceed personal limitations, and experience leadership firsthand.
Venture Fellows are a group of committed students who coordinate and help facilitate the learning opportunities on each venture. This unique and talented group of students meet weekly throughout the year, participate in annual leadership trainings and have dedicated themselves to being service focused students.
Wharton Women
Wharton Women is an undergraduate student organization at the University of Pennsylvania. We facilitate the personal and career development of women and underrepresented gender identities in business by building a network of exceptional undergraduates, professionals and faculty. Wharton Women aims to provide direction, insight, and camaraderie to women from all four of Penn's undergraduate schools who are interested in business or intend to enter the business world upon graduation. We were voted Wharton's Best Large Club in 2021.
Master of Journalism
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Program Requirements
General Program Requirements:
Number of Credits Required Beyond the Baccalaureate: 30
Required Courses:
Year 1
Summer II
JRN 5301
Introduction to Urban Journalism 3
Term Credit Hours 3
Fall
JRN 5302 Urban Reporting Lab 1 6
JRN 5303 Journalism Concepts 3
JRN 5304 Editing the News 3
Term Credit Hours 12
Spring
JRN 5305 Urban Reporting Lab 2 6
JRN 5306 Journalism and the Public Interest 3
JRN Elective 3
Term Credit Hours 12
Year 2
Summer I
JRN 5307 Capstone Reporting Experience 3
Term Credit Hours 3
Total Credit Hours: 30
Culminating Events:
Capstone Project: JRN 5307 Capstone Reporting Experience constitutes the culminating event.
GRADUATE CERTIFICATE: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS
Number of Credits Required to Complete the Certificate: 12
Required Courses:
Code Title Credit Hours
CMGT 5002 Leadership in Crises and Conflict Management 3
CMGT 5004 Cross-Cultural Leadership 3
CMGT 5101 Conflict Management Processes in the Workplace 3
CMGT 5102 Designing Workplace Dispute Systems 3
Total Credit Hours 12
Course List
Graduate Certificate in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership
at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gain the practical and theoretical skills essential to navigating diverse leadership contexts with the Graduate Certificate in Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership in the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple. Acquire the cultural awareness and strategic competence to develop and manage collaboration within your organization.
The 12-credit Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership graduate certificate is ideal for individuals aspiring to leadership positions, as well as those who currently hold leadership positions and want to increase their ability to
• deal with cross-cultural conflicts,
• manage diverse teams and
• make responsible decisions.
An online format provides students flexibility in how they access resources, submit assignments, and balance their studies with job constraints and personal responsibilities.
Program Format & Curriculum
The 12-credit Strategic Communication and Cross-Cultural Leadership graduate certificate is an online program of study that can be completed over two years of full- or part-time study. There are no prerequisites, and courses can be taken in any order.
The following are required courses for this program.
• Communicating Organizational Leadership
• Cross-Cultural Leadership
• Leadership in Crises and Conflict Management
• Leading Diverse Teams
Clubs
Conflict Education Resource Team
The Conflict Education Resource Team (CERT) believes that conflict is a natural part of life and can be a positive and productive experience. The Peer Educators of CERT provide free coachings, presentations, and mediation to the Temple University community. CERT assists in the management of interpersonal conflict and provides information and education regarding the nature of the conflict.
Cycling Club
The Temple Cycling Club is comprised of a group of Temple University students who ride primarily for recreation. By completing the Prospective Player form, you can choose to sign-up on the club email list and learn more about upcoming events on campus, in Philadelphia, and throughout the northeast U.S. region. The email list provides updates for members when upcoming recreational rides are scheduled. Some members of our club participate in local and regional races. The Temple Cycling Club participates in Road, Mountain and Track Cycling; however, most of the riders are primarily road cyclists.
The Progressive NAACP
Our Vision
The Vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
Our Mission
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
Our Objectives
Provide young people with personal and leadership development training
Proactive political and community activism
Public awareness of the necessity of positive youth engagement
Our Issues
Economic Development
Education
Health
Juvenile Justice
Voter Empowerment
Temple University Gamers' Guild
Temple University Gamers' Guild (TUGG) is an entertainment organization which allows Temple students who share an interest in games of all kinds to collaborate, share, play, and learn more about the games they love and discover new ones to love. These interests include video games, trading card games, tabletop RPGs, board games, and more. We aim to provide a safe, inclusive club environment to have fun, meet new people, and socialize over games both new and old.
We host a number of events each semester, such as game tournaments, Extra Life, and organization parties to strengthen the community within the organization.
Women of Color Creatives
In Women of Color Creatives, our mission is to empower and build connections for women of color that have artistic passions or creative goals through networking discussions and events geared towards our creative aspirations at Temple University. We are a collective that is dedicated to being a safe space that represents diversity, inclusivity, as well as freedom of expression. We focus on topics that surround women of color in art, music, literature, dance, and other creative fields. Most of all we are a sisterhood dedicated to build, achieve, and inspire each other!
Doctor of Philosophy in African-American History
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick
The Program
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has a long-standing commitment to teaching and research in the African-American experience, which is exemplified by its creation more than a quarter-century ago of the Martin Luther King, Jr., University Professorship. The graduate program of the Department of History at Rutgers, where the King professorship now resides, is among the nation’s leading programs in African-American history. Publications by the faculty specializing in this field have won the Bancroft, Parkman, and Pulitzer prizes. The faculty’s expertise ranges across the major time-periods and subdisciplines. Post- Civil War strengths include biography, class, gender, and civil rights. Pre-Civil War strengths of the faculty center in studies of the African Diaspora and Atlantic Cultures.
The department’s outstanding reputation (it has a wealth of offerings not only in African American history but in political, women’s, cultural, African, comparative, and Latin American history as well), augmented by a variety of competitive departmental and university fellowship, has attracted outstanding graduate students. Students find a challenging, friendly environment in which small classes, independent research, accessible professors, and superb facilities optimize success in course work and prospects for employment. Students and faculty are all provided with modern computer facilities.
Graduate students are expected to become involved in teaching and to participate in the vigorous graduate-student organization’s scholarly and social programs. The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis is also a vital feature of the graduate student experience and offers cutting-edge lectures and panels by world-class scholars in temporary residence.
Degree Options
The Ph.D. degree program is primarily intended for full-time students. Requirements include 48 credits of approved course work, including those earned for the master’s degree; applicants already holding a master’s degree may have substantial number of their credits counted towards the Ph.D. requirement.
Graduate Certificate in Alcohol Studies
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick
This certificate is designed for individuals with an interest in alcohol and drug use disorders. Students receive foundational knowledge in the biomedical, cultural, historical, and psychological aspects of alcohol and associated dependency. They receive knowledge about clinical treatment and assessment of alcohol and drug use disorders and learn how to work effectively in the field through independent study practicum/internship/research placements.
Phillis did her independent study on "The Correlation Between Alcohol Abuse and Freedom or Lack Thereof in the African Diaspora." She did her practicum through a community peer counseling program instead of a clinical one.
Curriculum
Courses Course Number Credits
Foundations in Alcohol Studies: Biology, Psychology, and Sociology
Provides a review of the essential information about alcohol's acute and chronic effects on biology and behavior and the sociology of its use and misuse. 18:821:680 3
Independent Study of Alcohol-Related Issues
Opportunity to pursue an area of interest concerning alcohol use and misuse under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member. 18:821:679 3,3
Practicum: Clinical Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Use Disorder
Required for students in degree programs that provide specific training in counseling or psychotherapy, such as clinical psychology (Ph.D. or Psy.D.), counseling psychology, social work, or psychiatric nursing.
Prerequisite: Previous experience in direct patient care. 18:821:681 3,3
TOTAL 15
Clubs
Bellydance Troupe (Rutgers)
The Rutgers Belly Dance Troupe was established in 2005 to promote women’s empowerment and draw attention to the true art form of belly dance through traditional and modern pieces. We aim to represent Middle Eastern dance, spread cultural awareness, and promote body positivity. It is essential to ensure that our members progress in their dancing in a way that is ergonomic and both physically and mentally positive. We are committed to combating the social stigma sometimes associated with belly dancing so that it is represented positively and to the original intentions of the dance.
Graduate History Association (Graduate Organization)
The purpose of this organization is to enhance the experience of graduate study within the History Department by supporting professional development activities, academic discussion groups, and the cultural interests of members. The GHA shall be the primary liaison between the graduate student body and the History Department administration. It shall regularly collect information from graduate students, represent graduate student concerns to the Department, and facilitate the Department’s efforts to address graduate student needs. All History Ph.D. students currently enrolled in the program are automatically members.
READ, the Rutgers University Book Club
Calling all passionate and casual readers! READ is Rutgers’ primary book club. We are a group of students who love reading - and discussing - books across the literary world on a biweekly basis. During the course of the semester, you will find us reading and talking about a variety of titles, including YA bestsellers, classic novels, and even the occasional short story (all of which are chosen by our READ members!) Beyond the books, however, we hope to create a space for engaging discussion and connection here at Rutgers!
Fall 2021 - Spring 2022 READ books included: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, & There There by Tommy Orange.
Wanawake (Rutgers University)
To serve as a breed of excellent leaders of integrity, vision, mission, and love, in lieu of the African history and experience, both on the continent and in the Diaspora. To promote Pan-Africanism and improve the economic and social conditions of Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora, and to unite college women for the interests of Africa, the promotion of its cultures, and the uplifting of its people all over the world, enabling them to achieve their full potential and purpose.
WRSU-FM New Brunswick
Founded in 1948, WRSU-FM is one of the oldest college radio stations in the nation. Since its inception as WRSU-AM, the station has evolved through many styles, including oldies, top 40, and its transition in the 1980s, to the variety of sounds it is renowned for today. WRSU on-air personalities range from first-semester Rutgers freshmen to longtime alumni and community members, and all are engaged in the long-standing WRSU tradition of designing their own playlists. WRSU boasts many shows featuring specialty programming, with Sunday devoted primarily to the sounds of world music. The station broadcasts all Rutgers football and basketball games from around the country, and is the flagship radio station of the Rutgers Womens’ Basketball team. WRSU news broadcasts a variety of news updates and issues talk shows, sending student reporters into the streets for original stories. The station is a non-commercial, non-profit radio station and is student-managed under the guidance of a faculty broadcast administrator. Station management is governed by the WRSU Radio Council, an oversight board consisting of station members, Rutgers professors and alumni, and local broadcast professionals.