2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Courses of Instruction
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Mathematics |
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MTH 345 - Combinatorics & Graph Theory 1 course unit
An advanced course in discrete mathematics emphasizing counting and finite structures. Topics include fundamental laws of counting, generating functions, recursion, partitions, existence and optimization problems, graphs and digraphs, networks, the relationships between graphical invariants, lattices, Latin squares, design and coding theory, and Ramsey Theory.
Prerequisite(s): MTH 240 Transition to Abstract Mathematics .
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MTH 347 - Number Theory 1 course unit
Selected classic topics in elementary number theory will be covered, including divisibility of integers, modular arithmetic, linear congruences, quadratic reciprocity, continued fractions, and, if time permits, basic theory of elliptic curves. A computational point of view is emphasized.
Prerequisite(s): MTH 240 Transition to Abstract Mathematics
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MTH 353 - CUE: Landmarks of Mathematics 1 course unit
This course examines major developments in mathematics of historical importance from ancient through modern times. Concepts from geometry, algebra, calculus, analysis, number theory, and modern mathematics are analyzed in historical and cultural contexts, including the ancient Mesopotamian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek and Indian civilizations, the medieval Islamic caliphate, and modern Europe and the Americas.
Prerequisite(s): MTH 240 Transition to Abstract Mathematics .
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MTH 370 - CUE: The Art of Problem Solving 1 course unit
Intended for students who enjoy solving mathematical problems in a variety of areas and who want to strengthen their creative mathematical skills as well as their ability to write and present mathematical arguments. Topics include recreational problems (concise intellectual challenges), contest problems (precisely formulated mathematical challenges), logic problems (generally qualitative in nature), and modeling problems (quantitative and posed in a context).
Prerequisite(s): MTH 240 Transition to Abstract Mathematics and at least one 300-level mathematics course.
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MTH 970 - Mathematics Independent Study/Research
Each independent study/research course is to be designed in consultation with a faculty sponsor.
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MTH 975 - CUE: Directed Research 1 course unit
Students will design, execute, and complete a mathematical research project which involves at most two students. This project will be supervised by a department faculty member. A project can involve original research initiated at Muhlenberg or it may be a follow-up independent study to extend summer work completed during a Research Experience for Undergraduates. A CUE project must be formally proposed by the student(s) and approved by the department by the end of spring semester of the junior year. Project requirements will include a paper detailing the mathematical work completed and a presentation at an appropriate local/regional/national mathematics’ meeting outside of Muhlenberg, as well as any additional requirements imposed by the faculty supervisor. Open only to mathematics majors who are completing their last two semesters in which they registered for classes on campus.
Prerequisite(s): MTH 240 Transition to Abstract Mathematics , departmental and instructor approval.
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Media and Communication Required |
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COM 201 - Media & Society 1 course unit
Examines influences of mass media on participatory democracy and its cultural forms and the history, production, representation, and consumption of media in society. Introduces students to social science approaches to the study of communication phenomena, including the logic of inquiry, standards of evidence, and grounds for making claims about communicative behaviors. Topics may include social media, images and effects, corporate media culture, organizational structures of journalism, emergence of consumer culture, the Internet and digital media environments, and audience identification and interpretation of media.
Meets general academic requirement SL.
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COM 231 - Documentary Research 1 course unit
Explores the American tradition of social documentary, focusing on milestone projects, including the work of James Agee and Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, William Carlos Williams, and Robert Coles. Oral, visual, and textual modes of production are examined. Special focus is given to new digital forms of representation and their impact on production, distribution, and consumption. Framing this investigation are the ethical issues that emerge when rendering and representing individuals’ lives. Students are introduced to the fundamental skills of investigative research, interviewing, gathering and interpreting information, and using print and electronic archives and research, and produce their own multi-media documentary projects.
Required 8-week lab.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society .
Meets general academic requirement W.
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COM 301 - Media Theory & Methods 1 course unit
Explores classic and contemporary media theories and research methodologies, including the historical and philosophical foundations of paradigm formation in media research, the social and institutional contexts that led to the emergence of the communication discipline, and current controversies within the field. This course builds upon principles and concepts introduced in Media & Society.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society and COM 231 Documentary Research .
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Discovery These introductory courses emphasize the breadth of media and communication. They provide an overview of different sub-specializations within the field.
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COM 208 - Global Media 1 course unit
Provides a comparative analysis of the principles guiding the organization, development, and operations of media systems in different political, economic, social, and cultural contexts. Considers the global expansion of mass media and the increasing connections of world citizens in a “global community.” Compares the production, distribution, reception, and effects of mass mediated messages in countries around the world. Topics explored include media systems and their social and political contexts, media and revolution, global media intersections with local audiences, and politics of international news and entertainment flows.
Meets general academic requirement DE.
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COM 212 - New Information Technologies 1 course unit
Explores the prospects and problems that surround the introduction and diffusion of new information technologies in society. Students consider the social, political, economic, and cultural impacts of new information technologies on personal privacy, self-identity, social relationships, information access, and global citizenship. Thematic focus varies from semester to semester with case studies drawn from gaming, social media, virtual communities and realities, and computers and the organization of work and learning.
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COM 218 - Media & Patriotism 1 course unit
This course looks at the contested relationship between media and government in both historical and contemporary contexts. Students explore the representation of war in American news and entertainment media, taking an historical view of popular narratives around military interventions from conventional wars to the twenty-first century war on terror. Students will develop an understanding of the historical relationship between American foreign policy, popular history, media, and the press. Among the questions to be explored are the public’s right to know, reporters’ access to information, and government censorship.
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COM 220, 221 - Free Culture 1 course unit
This course explores current debates surrounding free culture, specifically, 1) the history and development of notions of copyright in the nineteenth century and “intellectual property” in the twentieth century, 2) processes of media convergence and digitalization in today’s media, 3) the development of the free, open source software (FOSS) movement in the late 1970s and the challenge to proprietary software found in the Linux operation system, 4) digital distribution of music, the Napster debate, and remix culture in the music industry, 5) Wikimedia and the new power of “crowdsourcing” in knowledge labor, 6) Net neutrality, and 7) the philosophy and development of the digital commons, enshrined in the Creative Commons license and the legal implications of such licenses for artists, musicians, audiences, and citizens. Students will use an open source computer OS (Linux) and free software tools to contribute to a class digital project on a topic related to the free culture movement.
Meets general academic requirement SL (and W when offered as 221).
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COM 223, 224 - Feminist Media Studies 1 course unit
Feminist scholars have long studied the relationship between gender and media. This course will explore how television, film, popular music, and cyber culture play a central role in representing, defining, circulating, and constructing gender. This class takes a multi-media approach; for example, we will study how cultural forms depict different gendered characters on TV shows like Sex and the City and Modern Family, how certain genres are particularly open to queer interpretations like the musical, and how teen girls appropriate the magazine format to produce and circulate their own stories. This course will be oriented historically to examine how gender roles are constructed by media in specific historical contexts, and then how those representations change (or do not change) over time. Since much research on gender and the media has historically focused on femininity, this course will likewise focus on femininity, but we will also study the relationship between media and masculinity and sexuality, as well as how gendered identities are always also informed by other relations of power, such as race, class, ethnicity, and age.
Meets general academic requirement SL and is a cluster (CL) course and a linked (IL) course when offered as 223.
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COM 225 - Journalistic Traditions 1 course unit
Introduces students to the great traditions of interpretive, documentary, and advocacy journalism and photojournalism. Includes analysis of exemplary works in the tradition and provides some opportunities to develop skills through individual projects.
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COM 227, 228 - Science Communication 1 course unit
This course is designed to introduce students to the many aspects of science communication, exploring how the information scientists produce gets to other scientists, the media, policymakers, the public at large, and back. Students will examine the history of the field, current models and best practices, past and future barriers to effective science communication, power structures that influence the life cycle of science information, and case studies from current literature. Students will also learn to identify and create credible science resources.
Meets general academic requirement SL and is a linked (IL) course when offered as 228.
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COM 240 - Introduction to Film Analysis 1 course unit
Introduces different strategies and different approaches for analyzing film and video texts, including formal, narrative, social/cultural, and feminist. Students will develop an understanding of the grammar, vocabulary, and conventions of film and video production and the factors that shape viewers’ reception.
Meets general academic requirement HU.
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COM 242 - Twentieth Century Media: Film, Radio, & Television 1 course unit
Analyzes the historical development of radio, film, and television genres, technologies, and formats and considers the cultural, economic, political, and social climates in which they evolved.
Meets general academic requirement HU
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COM 251 - Introduction to Moviemaking 1 course unit
Introduces basic concepts of time-based visual media (film, video, digital) with an emphasis on the perception, operation, and experience of moving images, kinesics, and the structure and aesthetics of cinematic language. Students will learn how to work with cameras and audio and post-production equipment
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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Structure These courses use media and communication theories and methodologies to provide in-depth exploration of significant media and communication institutions, traditions, or cultural forms.
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COM 205 - Asian/American Media 1 course unit
Students will examine diverse Asian media representations in cinema, television, and new media in relationship to the geopolitical and community history of Asian diaspora in the U.S. It will critically interrogate stereotypical images of Asian/Asian-American identities, culture, religions, and politics as well as representations that challenge and contest such stereotypes. In doing so, the course will locate the politics of Asian media representation within a broader historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic context that includes issues of cross-cultural appropriation, globalization, immigration, nationalism and citizenship, race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality.
Meets general academic requirements SL and DE and is a cluster course.
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COM 210 - Media Law 1 course unit
Knowledge of media law and the First Amendment is key for daily consumers of news and the Internet, including print, radio, advertising and electronic media outlets. This course navigates the legal landscape as it relates to communications, including important concepts such as defamation and slander, confidentiality, liability, advertising and privacy. Students will examine the history and case law behind these topics and discuss both real world and hypothetical examples within the changing media and advertising fields. Understanding the delicate balance between the rights of news gatherers and advertisers, and the rights of the subject, will help students become more savy media consumers and professionals.
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COM 244, 245 - Media & Social Movements 1 course unit
Examines the interrelationship between mass media and twentieth century social movements in the United States. How have actors within social movements used mass media to raise awareness, mobilize, and/or demand redress? How have various mass media portrayed those movements, actors, and events? Using an historical approach, we will explore how context - technological change, political, social, and economic climates - deeply influence how mass media and social movements interact. Primary attention will be given to social movements during the age of the Cold War (1945-1990), including the Civil Rights/Black Power, the New Left, the New Right, Feminist, and Gay Rights Movements. Students will be challenged to consider local examples of present-day social change advocacy in relation to media use and representation.
Meets general academic requirement HU (and W when offered as 245).
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COM 246 - Copyright & Culture 1 course unit
Copyright was envisioned in the United States as a motivating force for creativity in “science and useful arts.” Yet the scope and duration of copyright have expanded dramatically in recent decades. How does this expansion affect both the user and producer of creative works? Has copyright achieved its creative ends, or outgrown its usefulness to become a hindrance to creativity? Students in all disciplines will benefit from learning in this course the fundamentals of copyright law that pervade our everyday lives, affecting our use and authoring of creative works. The course will cover among other key elements the history of copyright, the process of acquiring copyright, the scope and duration of copyright, the public domain, fair use, acquiring permission, and the Creative Commons.
Meets general academic requirement SL and W.
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COM 312 - Media Industries 1 course unit
Considers the forces (legal, political, economic, historical, and cultural) that shape what we watch on television, read in books, or hear on the radio. Explores a wide range of print and electronic media industries as well as developing media like the Internet. Economic and critical analysis is used to examine both the institutional forces and individualized decisions that ultimately shape the content and format of mass media messages. Selected topics include media conglomeration, target marketing, media integration and digital television, and globalization of media markets.
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COM 314 - Audience Analysis 1 course unit
Examines the concept of audiences from a variety of qualitative and quantitative research perspectives: as “victims,” users, subcultures, and market commodities. Television ratings, public opinion polls, and other strategies for measuring audience feedback are analyzed and assessed.
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COM 316 - Propaganda & Promotional Cultures 1 course unit
Examines the historical development, social roles, communicative techniques, and media of propaganda. Thematic emphasis varies from semester to semester with case studies drawn from wartime propaganda, political campaigns, advertising, and public relations.
Meets general academic requirement SL.
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COM 319 - Play & Interactive Media 1 course unit
Examines videogames as a theoretically contested object and pervasive cultural form. Considering questions of play, pleasure, narrative, computation, genre, art, industry, embodiment, violence, race, gender, and sexuality, students will closely play videogames and critically analyze them in terms of their formal structure and aesthetics as well as their social and ideological contexts.
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COM 341 - Social Media & the Self 1 course unit
Explores the performance of identity on social networking sites like Facebook and Tumblr, against the backdrop of the history of consumer culture. A core theme is the tension and overlap between ideals of authenticity and self-possession. Other themes include subcultural style, emotional labor in the workplace, and self-help culture. Students explore the online self with the emergence of the internet and into the Facebook era, with an emphasis on changing definitions of public and private, algorithmic memory, gender and sexuality, and the economics of sharing.
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COM 344 - Documentary Film & Social Justice 1 course unit
Examines documentary and other non-fiction based modes of film, video, and digital media production and the assumptions these forms make about truth and authenticity and how they shape our understandings of the world. Both historical and contemporary forms will be considered.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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COM 346 - Exploratory Cinema 1 course unit
Examines the origin and growth of “avant-garde” cinema. Traces the history of film and video art from the early 1920s to the present, focusing on its structural evolution, thematic shifts, coexistence with commercial cinema, and its impact on contemporary media.
Meets general academic requirement HU.
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COM 370 - Popular Culture & Communication 1 course unit
Traces the development of popular forms with emphasis on the ways that social class has structured access, use, and creation of cultural artifacts and practices. Topics explored include both commercial and non-commercial forms of amusements, leisure, and entertainment.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society .
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COM 372, 373 - Race & Representation 1 course unit
Explores the social construction of the concept of race and barriers to communication erected by prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization of minority voices. Examines topics in multicultural, cross-cultural, and interpersonal communication as well as analysis of documents, personal narratives, and media images. Primary emphasis is placed upon African American experience in the U.S.
Meets general academic requirement DE (and W when offered as 373).
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COM 374 - Gender, Communication, & Culture 1 course unit
This course explores how culture establishes, maintains, and cultivates gender through forms of social movements, communication, and institutional structures, particularly commercialized media. Students will examine how youth and adults are socialized to think, talk, and make sense in American culture; the implications of these differences for the construction of gendered identities (e.g., masculinity, femininity, transsexuality), communication, and relationships; and the construction of gender in media, including digital and print advertising, television programs, the Internet, books, magazines, video games, and the cinema.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society .
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COM 378, 379 - Sport, Culture, & Media 1 course unit
Explores the cultural artifacts, historical developments, and related systems of power that comprise sport media. Students observe, document, and analyze mediated sport and its prominence in our cultural environment. Includes analysis of the conventions of sports journalism (electronic and print) and transformations in those arenas. Emphasizes writing.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society .
Meets general academic requirement W when offered as 379.
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COM 442 - Children & Communication 1 course unit
This course investigates the meanings of media in children’s lives. It adopts a cultural historical approach to understanding the role of media in children’s cognitive, social, and moral development. Looking at children’s interactions with media artifacts, it considers how childhood is constituted by the languages and images of media and situates these interactions within the broader political economic context constructing the child consumer. Children’s media studied include television programs, video and computer games, films, books, toys, and the Internet.
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COM 450 - The Dublin Seminar 1 course unit
The Dublin Seminar is offered every spring by the Resident Director of the Media & Communication and Film Studies dedicated study abroad program in the Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The course is taught at Dublin City University in an accelerated format. Each spring has its own focal topic, designated by the faculty member, and may include mobile media, community media, image ethics, media spaces, or contemporary European cinema.
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COM 470 - Media & Communication Honors Seminar 1 course unit
Each year this course will have a different thematic focus which will allow honors and non-honors seniors to engage with faculty and visiting lecturers in challenging dialogues and research experiences, culminating in the production and presentation of an original research project or creative work based on the seminar theme. Provides students with extensive opportunities to work closely with faculty mentors in developing their research project and creative work.
Fall only
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
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Practice These courses provide students with opportunities to become producers, not merely consumers, of print, video, digital, and audio information. Each course gives students in-depth opportunities to put theory into practice in research, writing, or digital media production.
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COM 216 - Communication & Public Relations 1 course unit
Explores public relations from a critical perspective with emphasis on communication theory and research into public relations practices. Topics include the origins and development of public relations, its role in society, principles of public relations theory and practice, and the ethical issues raised by various philosophies and practices of public relations.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society .
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COM 233, 234 - Environmental Journalism 1 course unit
This course will introduce students to examples of award winning journalism covering the environment. Students will read examples from newspapers, magazines and books, analyze the writing for best practices in reporting and critique writing style and storytelling technique through reflections and discussion. The course will culminate with an original reporting project with the goal of publishing it online.
Meets general academic requirement W when offered as 234.
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COM 236 - Writing for the Media 1 course unit
Against the backdrop of today’s media environment, Writing for the Media will ground students in the practice of uncluttered and precise writing as it applies across media professions - from journalism to public relations. Practical advice from the instructor and guest speaker-mentors will play an important role. The Associated Press Style Guide and other industry standards will be used to assist students through writing exercises, with an emphasis on editing and revision. Students will learn to find stories and hone their interviewing, research, reporting and writing skills. Also will ground students in news values, and foster an awareness of legal and ethical issues essential to the success of any future media practitioner, as well as build awareness of the essential digital components of the trade, such as SEO.
Meets general academic requirement W.
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COM 256 - Introduction to Interactive Web Design 1 course unit
This course explores how (and what it means) to create, design, and build your own digital online cyberspace environment. The class focuses on visual (game) encounters, virtual reality, and mobile media. Students map out original project idea(s) learning and using multimedia apps and HTML code. This course is for students exploring the convergence of art, music, film, and media. Working on their projects, students learn the skills for conceiving, designing, and constructing a Web 2.0 (interactive) environment. This class does not require students to have any pre-existing design skills or computer knowledge.
Meets general academic requirement AR and IL.
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COM 334 - Health Communication 1 course unit
Examines interpersonal as well as mediated dimensions of health communication, including theories and case studies that address issues in physician and patient communication; gender, race, and cultural constituents in health communication; social marketing techniques for the production, distribution, and assessment of health-care information; the design and implementation of public health campaigns; and the use of communication technologies in the production of health communications.
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COM 336, 337 - Environmental Communication 1 course unit
Explores theories, models, and strategies for production and assessment of environmental communications. Examines environmental media and campaigns; provides students with skills to identify and solve problems in environmental communications and in the production of environmental media. Emphasizes writing.
Meets general academic requirement W when offered as 337.
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COM 338 - Organizational Communication 1 course unit
Explores theories, models, and strategies for internal and external communication within organizations. The constituents, constraints, values, practices, and media of organizational cultures are investigated from historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary practices. Primary emphasis is on the corporate experience in the United States.
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COM 349 - Media Advocacy 1 course unit
This course introduces students to the strategic use of media to advance social and public health initiatives. Students will investigate principles, ethics, and theories underlying media advocacy; monitor and analyze framing and message development; and use both traditional and new communication tools to construct and implement media interventions, messages and/or campaigns to address public health problems and social justice issues. Students will participate in a service learning opportunity in partnership with a not-for-profit organization in the Lehigh Valley.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society or PBH 201 Issues in Public Health
Meets general academic requirement IL.
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COM 351, 352 - Video Production 1 course unit
Refines an understanding of video/television concepts and operations through the application of advanced production techniques. Provides hands-on experience beginning with the development of a professional project, treatment, script, and storyboard. Focuses on production tools and skills, class workshops, and outside exercises that facilitate becoming comfortable with camera and editing equipment and with the overall production process. Conceiving, coordinating, shooting, and editing the project, production teams will encounter real-time pressure and problem-solving situations.
Required lab.
Prerequisite(s): COM 251 - Introduction to Moviemaking .
Meets general academic requirement AR (and IL when offered as 352.)
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COM 361 - Audio Production 1 course unit
Introduces the tools, techniques, and principles of radio production. Students develop awareness of sound, the ability to structure information on the radio, and the capacity to sustain attention and build an audio documentary. Students will plan, produce, and evaluate audio projects in a variety of modes, including news, documentary, dramatic, and commercial.
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COM 367 - Studio Workshop in Television & Film 1 course unit
Beginning with a survey of the promise and demands, historical, economic, and political circumstances surrounding community television, this course broadens students’ exposure to television formats beyond mainstream commercial media. The course examines the history and innovation of community television in the United States and overseas. It provides students an opportunity to explore how to channel ideas into practice by expanding students’ established skills (research, writing, scripting, producing, directing, multi-camera and audio strategies, staging and lighting, post-production). Toward that goal, the course engages students in the production of a regular series of documentary, narrative, and experimental television and film projects that will be realized during a multi-week intensive studio experience. Multimedia and interdisciplinary projects involving theatre, art, dance, and music will be welcome.
Prerequisite(s): COM 251 Introduction to Moviemaking recommended.
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COM 376, 377 - Youth Media 1 course unit
This course introduces students to the theory, practice, and impact of youth media programs in local and international contexts. Students will also use media production to participate in fieldwork activities that contribute to HYPE, a media/youth development program housed in the department of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College. Class projects will document and explore the possibilities of media making to promote young people’s twenty-first century skills of digital communication and critical literacy, and their participation as agents of community change.
Prerequisite(s): COM 201 Media & Society and COM 231 Documentary Research .
Meets general academic requirement W when offered as 377.
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COM 431 - Documentary Field Work 1 course unit
Documentary Field Work develops advanced skills in documentary inquiry and practice. Provides tools and opportunities for developing skills in interviewing for archival, journalistic (print and electronic), social scientific, and administrative purposes. Introduces the principles and practices that archivists and records managers apply, including appraisal, arrangement, preservation, and management. Course is organized using an interconnected design 1) to identify, select, organize, preserve, and make accessible historical materials in a variety of archival formats to the public at large and 2) to design and develop individual or group documentary projects in selected media. Completed project(s) will be exhibited in some campus or public forum and online.
Prerequisite(s): COM 231 Documentary Research or instructor permission.
Meets general academic requirement IL.
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Individualized Instruction |
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COM 960 - Communication Internship 1 course unit
Designed to provide both an educational experience and an opportunity to work with professionals in practical preparation for a career; the internship includes a significant academic (written and/or production) component. Under faculty supervision, students will serve as interns with newspapers, television and radio stations, advertising agencies, public relations firms, publishers, health, environmental, sports, and human and public service organizations. Students must have completed the sophomore year. Does not count toward the nine courses required by the major.
Prerequisite(s): COM 231 Documentary Research and instructor permission.
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COM 970 - Media and Communication Independent Study/Research
Each independent study/research course is to be designed in consultation with a faculty sponsor.
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CUE Courses |
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COM 401 - CUE: Seminar in Media & Communication 1 course unit
Each seminar has its own focal topic and includes an inquiry-driven project requiring students to generate an integrative research or grant proposal and oral presentation about their proposal. The grant proposal is designed to build on the core scholarly-knowledge assignments in the department’s required-course sequence. Focal topics may include children and communication, media reform, race and representation, media and the home, or media and social theory. The Seminar in Media and Communication is offered at least once a semester by different members of the department on a rotating basis.
Seniors only
Prerequisite(s): COM 301 Media Theory & Methods
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COM 467 - CUE: Advanced Video Production 1 course unit
Students explore the convergence of video and digital media while studying the problems of constructing narrative and documentary texts within emerging experimental formats. Through their research-production projects, students learn to work with more advanced visual and organizational concepts and tools. Legal and ethical issues involved in media production are considered. Students present ongoing work and final projects in either an online or broadcast venue.
Prerequisite(s): COM 351, 352 Video Production
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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COM 472 - CUE: Honors Advanced Research Seminar 1 course unit
This course is modeled on a graduate seminar and is oriented towards giving select students the opportunity to write work that is original and rigorous, builds on your coursework as a major in Media and Communication, and if desired could be used as a writing sample in graduate school applications. In our course meetings, we will work on refining your honors thesis draft, as well as discuss readings and other resources designed to help you develop your research presentation skills and a public and academic audience for your thesis research. Students will also participate in peer review workshops to provide feedback to each other about their drafts. These drafts and peer review workshops are part of the overall grade for the course.
Spring only.
Prerequisite(s): COM 470 Media & Communication Honors Seminar
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COM 490 - CUE: Digital Media Design Lab 1 course unit
Students plan, develop, produce, and present CUE productions (whether video, web-based, digital storytelling, audio, animation, documentary, print, or multimedia) in a collaborative workshop setting. Students planning to enroll in this course prepare a project proposal to be approved by a CUE faculty advisor late in the junior year. Students design and develop a website, blog, e-book, or e-portfolio to present themselves as graduates prepared for positions in media related fields or students prepared for advanced graduate study in the discipline. They build their websites/e-portfolios to include representative work - writing, research, media artifacts - as well as representations of learning in the context of co-curricular activities (community service, student organizations, etc.), internship profiles, and study abroad reflections.
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment limited to majors during the senior year.
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COM 965 - CUE: Communication Practicum 1 course unit
Designed to provide both an educational experience and an opportunity to work with professionals in practical preparation for a career, the practicum includes a significant academic (written and/or production) component. Under faculty supervision, students will serve as interns with newspapers, television and radio stations, advertising agencies, public relations firms, publishers, health, environmental, sports, and human and public service organizations.
Prerequisite(s): COM 231 - Documentary Research and instructor permission; enrollment limited to majors during the senior year.
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Muhlenberg Scholars |
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MBS 450 - Muhlenberg Scholars Capstone Seminar 1 course unit
An advanced, Capstone seminar in which Muhlenberg Scholars critically and constructively engage with questions of enduring, human significance. The principal goal of the seminar is to foster intellectual exploration and greater self-understanding in community through dialogue, critical analysis, and creative problem solving. By the end of the term, students are expected to produce a substantial scholarly project that explores the issues raised in the seminar.
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Music |
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MUS 101 - Introduction to Music 1 course unit
This course focuses on Western music in its historical and cultural contexts while also introducing students to issues of music perception, taste and musical values, and the role of music in our everyday lives. The emphasis is on Western art music (beginning with music of the Middle Ages through the present), but students will also explore current popular music. By understanding more about the musical past, students will deepen their connection to and understanding of the musical present. No musical background is needed. May not be counted toward the music major or minor.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 102 - Fundamentals of Music 1 course unit
An introductory survey of the elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color, form, and expression. Skill development in reading, writing, listening, and analyzing music are applied to performance, composition, and an understanding of cultural influences on these practices. Analytical studies in various styles and periods are included and connected to the other arts, which may include poetry and the visual arts. Primarily for students without extensive musical training. This course can be used as preparation for Music Theory I. May not be counted toward the music major or minor.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 104 - Pop, Rock, & Soul 1 course unit
In this course students will explore the vital role of popular music in U.S. society, gaining a deeper understanding of this music’s relationship to politics, the marketplace, technology, and racial, sexual, and class identities. Students will develop music analytical skills to help them identify key stylistic features of pop music’s various genres, including rhythm & blues, rockability, doo-wop, soul, folk rock, psychedelia, progressive rock, funk, disco, new wave, and hip hop. Throughout the semester, we will investigate these styles by studying a repertory of hits by performers and producers including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Phil Spector, The Supremes, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, The Clash, and Public Enemy. In discussions, listening exercises, and writing assignments, students will engage with recent scholarship from the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, history, sociology, and popular culture studies.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 111 - Music Theory I 1 course unit
The foundational course in music theory introduces the materials and structural elements of tonal music: scales, key signatures, intervals, chords, rhythm and meter, and the principles of voice-leading and harmonic progression. Students will develop conceptual, aural, and keyboard skills; incorporate those skills into listening and analysis; and connect the concepts of music theory with interpretation and performance.
Prerequisite(s): Ability to read music is assumed.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 112 - Music Theory II 1 course unit
Continued development of skills from Music Theory I and introduction to additional concepts: small forms, non-chord tones, seventh chords, secondary functions, and modulation. Increased emphasis on listening and analysis and integrating theory and performance.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 111 Music Theory I or exam.
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MUS 140 - Music and Technology 1 course unit
This course will consider contemporary and historical classical, popular, and experimental genres of music that use twentieth and twenty-first century mechanical, analog, and digital technologies - from the player piano to the laptop orchestra. It will invite students to ask ethical questions about using recorded samples; grapple with philosophies of technology and notation; and explore changing definitions of sound and music. Students will also create original works using the program Ableton Live. Projects will include designing an original ringtone, constructing a soundscape, and an individual final project that, depending on individual interests, might take any of the following forms: writing an EDM song or hip hop track, recording a multi-track solo a cappella recording, building an electronic instrument, or constructing a sound walk.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 211 - Music Theory III 1 course unit
Further development of skills and the study of chromatic harmony: altered chords and borrowed chords, modulation to distant keys, and extended chromatic techniques. Introduction to twentieth century compositional procedures and analytical techniques. Analysis includes logical reasoning and argumentation.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 112 Music Theory II .
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MUS 215 - Women in Music 1 course unit
This course is an interdisciplinary survey of the history of women in music. From Sappho in ancient Greece to today’s pop divas, women have been active as composers, performers, patrons, teachers, and scholars. As the subject of musical works, women have been alternately deified, as in opera, and vilified, as in Eminem’s rap songs. As we study the roles of women in music, we will investigate the origins of feminist music criticism and consider the future of feminist thought in music.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 217 - American Music 1 course unit
The subject of this course is vernacular and cultivated music of the United States from the Colonial period to the present. Students will come to understand how musical life not only reflected contemporary issues and events, but actively shaped them, exerting a powerful influence on American history and culture. Topics may include sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music; the musical traditions of African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, and Anglo-Celtic Americans, among others; the influence of European and African practices in concert music and jazz; and the rise of musical institutions in the context of the developing nation. Students may undertake an archival assignment using Special Collections in Trexler Library and complete a culminating research project on music in the Lehigh Valley.
Meets general academic requirement AR.
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MUS 219 - Opera 1 course unit
This course approaches opera from an interdisciplinary perspective, celebrating the genre as one that brings together music, literature, drama, performance, and design. Course repertory will explore opera from its origins to the present, with greatest attention to works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Debussy, Berg, and Adams. Reading, listening, and viewing assignments; course may include field trips to performances; reviews; semester project.
Offered every other year.
Prerequisite(s): Ability to read music or permission of the instructor.
Meets general academic requirement HU.
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MUS 221 - Western Music History I: Medieval to 1750 1 course unit
This course concerns the history of music from the early Christian period through the mid-eighteenth century and addresses current debates in historical musicology. Readings, score analysis, listening, and writing assignments trace the development of composition and performance practices and their relationship to cultural and intellectual perspectives. In these ways, students will consider music as a way of knowing our world and the composers, performers, patrons, and listeners who made this music possible. Topics may include Gregorian chant, the development of polyphony, sacred and secular vocal music during the Renaissance, the rise of national styles, the music of the Lutheran Baroque, ending with the High Baroque, and music by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Fredric Handel.
Meets general academic requirements AR and W.
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MUS 222 - Western Music History II: 1750 to the Present 1 course unit
This course concerns the history of music from the mid-eighteenth century through the present and addresses current debates in historical musicology. Readings, score analysis, listening, and writing assignments trace the development of composition and performance practices and their relationship to cultural and intellectual perspectives. In these ways, students will consider music as a way of knowing our world and the composers, performers, patrons, and listeners who made this music possible. Topics may include mid-eighteenth century musical styles and schools, the Viennese classicists (Haydn and Mozart), Beethoven and the Romantic expansion of form and technique, opera, the beginnings of modernism (Debussy, Stravinsky), and more recent developments since World War II extending into the twenty-first century.
Meets general academic requirements AR and W.
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MUS 223 - Jazz Theory & Improvisation 1 course unit
A study of improvisational techniques from the jazz tradition. Readings and listening assignments; analysis and performance projects; semester project.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 112 Music Theory II .
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MUS 229 - World Music 1 course unit
A study of the role of music and musical-theoretical systems in non-Western cultures. Class discussions based on primary and secondary source readings and writing assignments are balanced with music practicums to insure musical-theoretical, historical, and cultural issues are grounded in musical performance. Issues of authenticity, power, and cultural confluences are examined through a variety of methodological approaches to develop analytical and creative thinking skills. A culminating research paper and aural presentation provide students with an opportunity to explore an area of their own interest in greater depth, refine their written and aural communication skills, and increase breadth of knowledge for the entire class.
Prerequisite(s): Ability to read music or permission of the instructor.
Meets general academic requirements AR and DE and the IL requirement.
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MUS 235 - History of Jazz 1 course unit
A study of Jazz that traces its roots and origins from late nineteenth century blues and ragtime to recent innovations in the twenty-first century. Swing, the big band era, bebop, modal jazz, free jazz, and “modern” jazz will be explored through primary and secondary source readings, score analysis, class discussions, writing, and listening assignments that examine technical, cultural, and performance issues. Topics will include gender, race, representation, power, authenticity, and identity. Various approaches to improvisation will be considered relative to compositional and theoretical strategies, historical and cultural trends, and performance practices to facilitate the development of analytical and creative thinking.
Prerequisite(s): Ability to read music or permission of the instructor.
Meets general academic requirement AR and IL.
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MUS 238 - Empire, Madness, & Decadence in Viennese Music 1 course unit
In this course, paired with GRM 257 Freud’s Vienna , we examine music in Vienna (and beyond to the broader Hapsburg empire) from the time of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to the early interwar era. By focusing on a relatively narrow temporal and geographical span, we are able to closely examine the ways in which historical and cultural debates shaped and were shaped by musical works. The questions that will shape our discussions include: What does Beethoven Symphony no. 9 mean for the future of the genre? What role do composers play in shaping ideas about identity in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual state like the Hapsburg empire? What correlations do musical events in discourses have? How are political trends - Viennese liberalism and the reaction against it - reflected in musical works and in the discourse about them? What consequences did the revolutions in thought about psychoanalysis, gender, and sexuality have for musical works, and how did musical works shape the ways these ideas were disseminated and understood?
Meets general academic requirement HU and is a cluster course and a linked (IL) course.
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MUS 240 - Computer & Algorithmic Music 1 course unit
Continuing study of computer applications used in various musical settings. These will include sequencing programs such as Digital Performer, live performance programs such as Ableton Live, interactive programs MaxMSP, and recording software Pro Tools. Periodic quizzes on programs and composition projects.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 140 - Music and Technology or permission of the instructor.
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MUS 244 - Music & Gender 1 course unit
In the last thirty years, work in musicology and ethnomusicology has dramatically altered the ways that we understand gender and its role in shaping the way music is created, performed, produced, consumed, and understood. This class builds upon the foundations of that scholarship. In it, we will think both historically and comparatively about the ways that ideas about the meanings of gender and its role in shaping ideas about and roles within particular musical practices. Reading may include selections from feminist theory, queer theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology, and listening examples may include examples of concert music by women composers (from Hildegard to Tania Leon), Western and Chinese operas, popular and traditional music from around the globe, blues and jazz.
Meets general academic requirement DE and IL.
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MUS 246 - Musics of Brazil 1 course unit
This course examines Brazilian musics in the folk, popular, and concert traditions attending particularly to the way Brazilian musics articulate ideas about ethnic, racial, regional, and national identities in a globalized world. We consider the ways Brazilian music takes shape within and against the country’s tumultuous political history, examining moments of political and cultural critique and collaboration. Texts for the class are drawn from both secondary sources-articles and books written by scholars-and primary sources, including movement manifestos, song texts, and first-person accounts by performers and composers. Many of the traditions that we will discuss are aurally and orally transmitted, and we will perform them in order to develop a visceral understanding of the music’s organization.
Meets general academic requirement AR and DE.
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MUS 313 - Form & Analysis 1 course unit
A study of musical forms from the smallest units of sectional forms (motive, phrase) through binary, ternary, rondo, and sonata forms. Analysis of music of all common-practice periods embodying various structural principles and incorporating historical context and performance implications. Extensive analysis and listening; may include reading and writing assignments.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 211 - Music Theory III .
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MUS 317 - Counterpoint 1 course unit
A study of composition focusing on the contrapuntal practices of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Readings from historical treatises and secondary source readings, analysis of selected compositions addressing technical, performance, and musical-rhetorical issues. Intensive written exercises leading to several compositional projects.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 112 Music Theory II or permission of the instructor.
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MUS 331 - The English Ayre 1 course unit
A study of the English Ayre and its cultural role in late-Elizabethan and Jacobean England. This course will examine the structural and rhetorical practices shared by poets and composers, applying analytical techniques specific to the ayre’s texts, music, and their synthesis as song. These analyses will be placed within the social and political contexts of the period to demonstrate the ways in which the ayre reflected its cultural milieu and articulated social trends. Texts for the course will include treatises on poetic, music-compositional, and performance practices from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and secondary source readings in literary theory and musicology. The analyses of musical, literary, cultural, and performance practices will be applied in weekly practicums in class to create informed performances of the English Ayre repertoire culminating in a concert performed by the class.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 111 Music Theory I and MUS 112 Music Theory II .
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MUS 335 - Techniques of the Avant Garde 1 course unit
A study of the compositional techniques and styles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Exploration of recent pitch languages and music in which aspects other than pitch become central features. Influence of technology, rock styles, and other issues will be discussed. Score study, analysis, and written exercises leading to compositional projects in a variety of styles. Reading and listening assignments; semester project.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 211 Music Theory III .
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MUS 340, 341, 440, 441 - Composition Workshops 0.5 course unit
This course alternates between group meetings and individual lessons. Group meetings will provide an introduction to orchestration and instrumentation, as well as score study. Students will present sketches and have these sketches sight-read by the group. On alternating weeks students will have individual lessons. A Student Composers concert will conclude each semester.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 211 Music Theory III or permission of the instructor.
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MUS 350 - Orchestration 1 course unit
A systematic study of the capabilities of the instruments of the orchestra in musical composition. A thorough understanding of these capabilities will be mastered through a study of selected works for solo instruments, chamber works, and orchestral literature. Readings and listening assignments; analysis and written exercises; semester project.
Prerequisite(s): MUS 211 Music Theory III .
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MUS 960 - Music Internship
Each internship is to be designed in consultation with a faculty sponsor and an on-site supervisor, and will include an academic project to be defined by and submitted to the faculty sponsor for evaluation. Will be graded pass/fail.
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MUS 970 - Music Independent Study/Research
Each independent study/research course is to be designed in consultation with a faculty sponsor.
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Applied Music Study in voice, piano, organ, and the various string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Departmental permission is required for enrollment. Depending on the instructor, students take either thirteen 45-minute lessons or ten 60-minute lessons per semester. A minimum of five hours individual practice time per week is expected from each student. Attendance at recitals, concerts, and/or studio classes may be required. An additional fee is charged for this instruction which is not refundable after the drop deadline. Applied Music may not be taken on a pass/fail basis and may only be taken as an audit when it constitutes an overload and when it does not constitute the initial semester of a student’s applied music study; permission from both the instructor and department chair is required in this exceptional case. Two semesters of Applied Music may be used to complete the general academic requirement in the Arts (AR).
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MUS 900 - Class Applied Music 0.5 course unit
Class study in voice, piano, conducting, or diction, as available. An extra fee is charged.
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MUS 901 - Individual Applied Music - First Area 0.5 course unit
Individual lessons. An extra fee is charged.
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MUS 911 - Individual Applied Music - Additional Area 0.5 course unit
Individual lessons in another area. An extra fee is charged.
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MUS 920 - Techniques Course 0.25 course unit
Technique development for students involved in the Moravian Music Education Certification Program.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
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MUS 931 - Applied Music - Senior Recital I 0.5 course unit
Preparation for a senior recital. An extra fee is charged.
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MUS 932 - Applied Music - Senior Recital II 0.5 course unit
Preparation for a senior recital. An extra fee is charged.
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Performing Ensembles Ensembles are offered only as zero course unit experiences graded on a satisfactory (S) or unsatisfactory (U) basis.
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MUS 935 - College Choir 0 course unit
College Choir is a large mixed chorus, open to all students by audition or permission of the instructor. Previous choral experience and music literacy skills are helpful but not required. Students are introduced to a wide variety of sacred and secular music in various styles and languages. In addition to learning pieces for performance, students also investigate their repertoire in terms of historical context, social significance, religious and philosophical tradition, stylistic interpretation, textual meaning, poetic construction, and music compositional techniques. Singers hone their musicianship skills (hearing, sight-reading, intonation, ensemble awareness), increase their musical vocabulary, expand their stylistic horizons, improve their abilities in diction and text interpretation, and develop a confident and professional stage presence. The College Choir rehearses twice weekly, performs several times each semester, and constitutes the musical core of the annual Candlelight Carols services in December.
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MUS 936 - Chamber Choir 0 course unit
Chamber Choir is a small, select choral ensemble open to all students by audition or permission of the instructor. Advanced musical skills are required. Students are introduced to a wide variety of sacred and secular music in various styles and languages. In addition to learning pieces for performance, students also investigate their repertoire in terms of historical context, social significance, religious and philosophical tradition, stylistic interpretation, textual meaning, poetic construction, and music compositional techniques. Singers hone their musicianship skills (hearing, sight-reading, intonation, ensemble awareness), increase their musical vocabulary, expand their stylistic horizons, improve their abilities in diction and text interpretation, and develop a confident and professional stage presence. The Chamber Choir rehearses twice weekly and performs several times each semester, including the annual Candlelight Carols services in December.
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MUS 937 - Women’s Ensemble 0 course unit
A female-only vocal ensemble open to students by audition or permission of the instructor. Previous choral experience is recommended but not required. The Ensemble meets once a week. Because there are two to four student-led sectionals each semester, students are expected to spend additional time learning music independently. Women’s Ensemble performs concerts of various styles each semester on campus and, occasionally, off-campus.
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MUS 938 - Opera Workshop 0 course unit
The Opera Workshop is designed to give advanced vocalists an opportunity to explore and perform operatic solo and ensemble pieces. Members should be concurrently enrolled for Individual Applied Music or College Choir.
Open to advanced students by instructor permission.
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MUS 939 - Collegium Musicum 0 course unit
The Collegium musicum is a select group of vocalists and instrumentalists. The ensemble is dedicated to the performance of late Renaissance and early Baroque music. Vocalists develop their skills singing one voice per part and instrumentalists perform on period instruments. The Collegium musicum performs one concert per semester.
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MUS 940 - Chamber Orchestra 0 course unit
The Chamber Orchestra consists of 20-30 string players plus winds, brass, and percussion, and performs works from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. The ensemble performs one concert each semester.
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MUS 941 - Musica da Camera 0 course unit
This ensemble performs chamber music for winds and strings from the Baroque to the twentieth century. Rehearsals are collaborative, and students take leadership roles. One concert each semester and special events by request.
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MUS 942 - Wind Ensemble 0 course unit
The Wind Ensemble provides performance opportunities in traditional and contemporary concert music for interested and qualified wind and percussion players.
Open to all students with permission of the director. Rehearsals are held twice weekly. Participation in all performances required.
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MUS 943 - Jazz Big Band 0 course unit
The Jazz Ensemble is a select group of 20-25 members that performs a wide variety of jazz styles. There is one rehearsal a week and several performances take place during the year.
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