Course Descriptions
Faculty of Communication, CULTURE & SOCIETY, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI)
Cultures of Healing (3 ECTS; starting in 2022)
What does it mean to be “healthy” and to “heal” in different cultures? What medical, ritual, or religious expertise authorizes different kinds of “healers” and forms of healing? What conceptions of the human body and its capabilities are assumed by these different traditions? These important questions probe the problematic entanglement of culturally diverse approaches to health and medicine that currently challenge us with global health matters, particularly in the context of rapidly advancing globalization.
Throughout history, cultures and societies have developed concepts about healers, healing processes, diagnosis, treatments and healing practices. In this process, definitions of “disease”
and responses to illness have been influenced by diverse social dynamics, collective expectations and cultural values. This course illuminates these cultural conceptions of “human health”, “disease” and “curing” from a global perspective. It explores medical systems, healers and healing approaches from all over the world. In this context, students will actively explore how health, illness, and healing are conceptualized and experienced by these different cultures. They will learn about differences and similarities in the ways that humans approach illness and healing by relying heavily on examples from these cultural origins. Students will also understand the roles of “healers” in these diverse traditions, such as physicians, shamans, witch doctors, curanderos/as, midwives, wise men and women, as well as their uses of medicinal herbs, music, healing aids, and pharmaceuticals in the healing process. Informed self-reflection and critical analysis of one’s own worldview assumptions and medical belief systems are fundamental for gaining insights from this course.
Storytelling, Self, and Society (3 ECTS; 2021 – present)
Storytelling is what makes us human. In fact, it is as old as human existence. Countless writers, historians, anthropologists, and renowned voices in politics, technology and business have demonstrated the enormous power of narration. Whether we need to interview for a job, advance in our career, lead an organization, motivate employees, build brands, sustain a reputation, or work effectively with stakeholders – all successful managers, entrepreneurs, and companies share one common, potent skill: they appreciate the importance of stories, they develop and maintain effective strategic narratives, and they know how to tell them.
In this course, students will learn how to critically account for the ways in which stories shape our perceptions of identity, culture, society and the world around us. Reflecting on case studies, they will find out how companies have succeeded and failed to control their narratives. Students will also learn to identify, refine, and share their own personal stories – and acquire the means to shape their own present and future narratives.
In today’s chaotic and quick-paced political, cultural, economic and technological environment, this skill set has become more important than ever before. With that in mind, this course will particularly challenge students to consider the viability of narratives in current times, where expressions such as “alternative facts,” “fake news” and other “post-truth” world phenomena constantly change the way we use stories in our lives.
Interpersonal Communication and Health (3 ECTS; 2011 – present)
For a more holistic understanding of interpersonal interactions in our everyday lives and the effects they can have on our health and well-being, we need to attend to both the “bright” and “dark” sides of communication. Surely, each of us has experienced the enabling and disabling effects of interpersonal interactions, the latter of which might include lying, gossip, loneliness, harassment, irresolvable conflicts, and rejection. Furthermore, we inevitably make mistakes that, at times, can inadvertently harm others and even ourselves. This course illuminates this “dark side” of interpersonal communication across various contexts, to complement the far more common “bright side” notions of interpersonal interactions. By doing so, it provides a wellrounded orientation for students to fully comprehend the complexity of human relations and their effects on our health and well-being. Exemplary case studies and guest speakers will make this class an unforgettable experience for students, as it will empower them to take charge of enabling the “bright side” and confronting the “dark side” potential of their own interpersonal interactions in their personal lives with the insights they will have gained from this course. For course lectures, click here.
Qualitative Research Methods (3 ECTS; 2016 –2021)
This course exposes students to the core historical, epistemological and theoretical approaches to qualitative research. The course will highlight the various aspects of qualitative research, and compare its strength and weaknesses to quantitative research approaches. Students will also learn about the process of developing and conducting qualitative research in an applied sense (i.e., research designs, data collection, data analysis, and writing up the results). Students will apply various qualitative techniques to collect and analyze actual data. Finally, students will gain an understanding of the “quality” of qualitative research, particularly in light of common issues related to scientific validity and research ethics.
Statistical Data Analysis (6 ECTS; 2011 – 2021)
This seminar focuses on the statistical analysis of social scientific data sets. The course is especially designed to provide students with the ability to demonstrate knowledge of various data-analytical objectives and techniques; critically consume empirical research findings presented in scholarly journals and popular culture reports; assess the appropriateness of various data-analytical techniques in response to questions asked by communication researchers; select appropriate data-analytical strategies based on certain variables of interest; and conduct a variety of statistical analyses on their own empirical data sets. Upon completion of this seminar, students will be able to produce (i.e., conduct and properly write up) a complete empirical communication study.
The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University
Advanced Multivariate Statistics (COM 608, with Prof. Kory Floyd; 2008 – 2009)
This course addresses statistical analysis of multivariate data. Students learn various multivariate statistical tests (i.e., k-way ANOVA, MANOVA, multiple regression analysis, multiple discriminant analysis, and factor analysis), the instances in which they are appropriate, and how to interpret the results of such tests.