I teach a number of courses at the University of Minnesota, but this semester (Spring 2003) I'm teaching COMM 3615 and 4616. Next Fall (2003), I'll be teaching a brand new class called: The Rhetoric of the 1960s. Below you will find brief descriptions and links to course materials for all of my classes.

You are welcome to appropriate or borrow the materials on my web site, but if you do so please send me an email message and give credit, in your syllabus, where credit it due--Thank you.

This page contains descriptions of my courses and links to course syllabi. If something looks interesting, poach what you need. If you teach a similar course or if you have comments about the offering here, please contact me via email. I would love to hear about your experiences.

Course Descriptions and Links to Syllabi

COMM 1101: Public Speaking, SEAM Section

This course is an "Introduction to Public Speaking" class with a difference. That is, it begins with the goals of COMM 1101, but it extends these aims considerably. Not only will class participants complete assignments designed to enhance their public speaking skills, but they also will complete assignments in legal and political research and parliamentary debate. The assignments and discussion for the class will range across several issues, but each issue will focus on themes related to multiculturalism, ethnicity, politics, and the law. The course is designed for freshmen, but it also assumes that participants are willing to extend themselves by reading difficult material and by engaging in public debate over often contentious issues.

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/1101.html

COMM 3110: Cultural and Political Rhetoric of the 1960s

This course examines the major controversies, political discourse, and cultural phenomena of the 1960s. Its purpose is to understand not just the historical events of that period but also how the rhetoric of the decade shaped a generation and America’s culture and politics. By focusing on the public discourse that surrounded events such as the civil rights movement, the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, the Vietnam war and anti-war protests, the New Left, modern feminism, and ‘60s popular culture, this class seeks to uncover the complex dynamics of a decade that forever altered U.S. public life.

The syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/3110.html

COMM 3605: Persuasive Speaking

Whereas "Introduction to Public Speaking" (COMM 1101) emphasizes the student's ability to create and perform speeches, Persuasive Speaking combines performance with critical inquiry into the theories and assumptions of rhetoric. As a result, this course strengthens each student's writing and thinking skills as well as her or his speaking abilities. Moreover, critical discussion is central to this class because collaborative inquiry allows us to pursue its fundamental question: How do humans use language so that words and symbols adjust ideas to people and people to ideas?

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/perspk.htm

COMM 3615: Argumentation

This course extends the principles of COMM 1313 to broader philosophies, methods of analysis, and social controversies. It considers the idea of argument(s) from multiple perspectives including logic, dialectics, and rhetorical performance. Class discussion covers topics such as structured reasoning, informal conversation, familial arguments, debates in technical professions, communication ethics, and public/social argumentation. Moreover, we will apply the philosophies, theories, and methods we discuss to two contemporary debates: U.S. race relations and the welfare system. This course seeks to increase the student’s research, writing, and reasoning skills as well as her or his knowledge.

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/argument.htm

COMM 4616: The Rhetoric of African American Civil Rights

This class is about civil rights discourse and its relationship to equality and participation. Using the struggle of African Americans as an instructive exemplar, it will come to terms with the philosophical concepts, political issues, moral complexities, and discursive characteristics of civil rights rhetoric. Its purpose is to answer three fundamental questions: What is the history of Black participation and equality in America? What is the nature of rhetoric that either advocates or opposes African American civil rights, and, finally, what can this history and rhetoric tell us about civil rights controversies in general? As the class answers these questions, it will come to appreciate what is at stake when Americans debate individual liberties and the rights of communities. 

The syllabus for this class is located at: http:/www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/4616.html

COMM 5617: History and Criticism of American Public Address, 1630-1860

This class perceives U.S. history as a series of contingent moments when interested parties used discourse to establish, maintain, or revive power. It asks two questions: How did early Americans employ rhetoric to mitigate the uncertainty of particular moments and conflicts, and how do we analyze the public discourse of previous eras? Focusing primarily on speeches, pamphlets, sermons, and public debates, this class surveys American public address from the Puritan sermons of the seventeenth century to the Civil War. It examines Native American--European relations, the American Revolution, the ratification debates, foreign policy conflicts, early feminist discourse, and the struggle for black freedom and equality. Finally, the course explores recent trends in public address analysis to decipher its role in the larger enterprise of rhetorical criticism.

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/5617.html

COMM 5618: History and Criticism of American Public Address, 1860-1945

 This class perceives the past as a series of contingent moments when interested parties used discourse to establish, maintain or revive power. It asks two questions: How have Americans used persuasion to mitigate the uncertainty of particular moments and conflicts, and how do we analyze the public discourse of previous eras? Focusing primarily on public texts, it surveys U.S. public address from the Civil War to World War II. Our objectives are: to develop rhetorical interpretations of dominant social and political forces, to examine the patterns of persuasion that these forces spawned, to consider, from a rhetorical perspective, this nations enduring themes, to practice and test the theoretical concepts prevalent in communication scholarship.

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/5618.html

COMM 8110: Rhetoric, Race, and Culture

In the latter half of the twentieth century, race and ethnicity are recognized influences on public life. This seminar explores their effect on theories of rhetoric and the practice of rhetorical criticism. The primary goals of the course are a) to provide participants with an appreciation of non-European perspectives, b) to locate the utility of such perspectives for rhetorical studies, and c) to facilitate student exploration in non-European critical approaches. 

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/8110.html

COMM 8504: Textual Analysis and Criticism

In recent years one strain of rhetorical criticism has turned away from "theory" and toward "the text." In essays that purport to be thick descriptions, textured interpretations and close textual analyses, critics have argued that discursive practice, as embodied in a coherently bounded object, should be criticisms primary focus. Emphasizing variously the internal dynamics of single texts, the relationship between text and context, and inter-textuality, this criticism has revitalized the analysis of history and rhetoric while it has been attacked as a thinly veiled New Criticism or Neo-Aristotelianism.  This course investigates the strengths and weaknesses of textual analysis as a mode of inquiry in rhetorical studies. It asks the following questions: What is textual criticism and how does it differ from other critical enterprises? What are the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of textual analysis? How does a critic produce and evaluate textual scholarship? Arranged in three parts, this seminar challenges students to theorize what supposedly cannot be theorized and to practice a critical "art" that takes its shape from the object of study.

The Syllabus for this class is located at: http://www.comm.umn.edu/~kwilson/8504.html