THOMAS CONNER
COURSES DESIGNED & TAUGHT
General communication theory
Introduction to Communication
COMM 10 @ UC San Diego
This flagship Communication course surveys the basics of human communication (and this unique department’s particular approaches) and is a valuable vehicle for equipping all students with foundational perspectives on everyday engagements with mediating technologies as well as constructions and negotiations of social identity. (A campuswide DEI offering)
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Professor Connor did an amazing job during lecture. ... It was a nice balance of knowledge and empathy. His teaching abilities really grasped my attention and I always felt well prepared after leaving lecture." ... "Applying course concepts to modern times made it more engaging and understandable to know these are ideas are applicable to today. I was happy to hear the enthusiasm in the professor voice, because it made me excited to hear what is to be learned for that day."
Comm in the Wild!
COMM 190 (Junior Seminar) @ UC San Diego
I designed this senior seminar as a means of applying the department’s core theoretical perspectives — “institutions and power,” “culture and representation,” and “the person and the everyday” — to real-world observation and analysis. Built almost entirely around field work, students in this course visit numerous public places (a coffee shop, the primary campus pedestrian path, another classroom, San Diego’s Chicano Park, and more) to conduct ethnography about how each of these perspectives is manifested within (and by) the spaces. Unique and rewarding!
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Prof. Conner always related the new information/material back to information we already knew. This made making connections a lot easier." ... "Dr. Connor was wonderful!"
COMM 10 @ UC San Diego
This flagship Communication course surveys the basics of human communication (and this unique department’s particular approaches) and is a valuable vehicle for equipping all students with foundational perspectives on everyday engagements with mediating technologies as well as constructions and negotiations of social identity. (A campuswide DEI offering)
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Professor Connor did an amazing job during lecture. ... It was a nice balance of knowledge and empathy. His teaching abilities really grasped my attention and I always felt well prepared after leaving lecture." ... "Applying course concepts to modern times made it more engaging and understandable to know these are ideas are applicable to today. I was happy to hear the enthusiasm in the professor voice, because it made me excited to hear what is to be learned for that day."
Comm in the Wild!
COMM 190 (Junior Seminar) @ UC San Diego
I designed this senior seminar as a means of applying the department’s core theoretical perspectives — “institutions and power,” “culture and representation,” and “the person and the everyday” — to real-world observation and analysis. Built almost entirely around field work, students in this course visit numerous public places (a coffee shop, the primary campus pedestrian path, another classroom, San Diego’s Chicano Park, and more) to conduct ethnography about how each of these perspectives is manifested within (and by) the spaces. Unique and rewarding!
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Prof. Conner always related the new information/material back to information we already knew. This made making connections a lot easier." ... "Dr. Connor was wonderful!"
Media history
Media History
MSTU 2623 @ The University of Tulsa
Surveying an astonishing amount of history, this course first sprints through the centuries, collecting important insights about the evolution of communication media — from oral traditions and writing to print and broadcast — concluding in an exam. In the second half, we focus entirely on the emergence of digital communication, with the birth of internet technologies and social media. Students then produce both a brief history of an existing social-media service and a "future history" speculating on the upcoming evolution of a selected medium.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He is kind and cares about his students, and makes topics like Media History interesting somehow." ... "I love Professor Conner. Please don’t get rid of him!"
American News Media
COMM 109N @ UC San Diego
A history of the origin of news, this course covers the professionalization of news gathering and the situation of journalism amid literary styles, social forces, and national politics. We consider the evolving culture of journalism and its organization, the economics of news production, and the relationships between journalists and other social actors (such as government officials and social movements), as well as debating “media bias” and the notion of “objectivity.”
— Syllabus
Arts Criticism in America
MSTU 4863 @ The University of Tulsa
COMM 190 @ UC San Diego
In this upper-class seminar, we examine foundational debates about cultural criticism and manifestos by contemporary working critics, before reading a significant body of critique of music, movies, and more, leading to considerations of YouTube reaction videos and the migration of pop-culture critique to social media. Students then spend several weeks producing their own studied critiques, which are discussed in peer-review class sessions.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He was always so passionate when it came to teaching us. He was also able to make us excited when it came to our turn to revise things." ... "the class is more educational, engaging, and enjoyable than I thought it would be"
MSTU 2623 @ The University of Tulsa
Surveying an astonishing amount of history, this course first sprints through the centuries, collecting important insights about the evolution of communication media — from oral traditions and writing to print and broadcast — concluding in an exam. In the second half, we focus entirely on the emergence of digital communication, with the birth of internet technologies and social media. Students then produce both a brief history of an existing social-media service and a "future history" speculating on the upcoming evolution of a selected medium.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He is kind and cares about his students, and makes topics like Media History interesting somehow." ... "I love Professor Conner. Please don’t get rid of him!"
American News Media
COMM 109N @ UC San Diego
A history of the origin of news, this course covers the professionalization of news gathering and the situation of journalism amid literary styles, social forces, and national politics. We consider the evolving culture of journalism and its organization, the economics of news production, and the relationships between journalists and other social actors (such as government officials and social movements), as well as debating “media bias” and the notion of “objectivity.”
— Syllabus
Arts Criticism in America
MSTU 4863 @ The University of Tulsa
COMM 190 @ UC San Diego
In this upper-class seminar, we examine foundational debates about cultural criticism and manifestos by contemporary working critics, before reading a significant body of critique of music, movies, and more, leading to considerations of YouTube reaction videos and the migration of pop-culture critique to social media. Students then spend several weeks producing their own studied critiques, which are discussed in peer-review class sessions.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He was always so passionate when it came to teaching us. He was also able to make us excited when it came to our turn to revise things." ... "the class is more educational, engaging, and enjoyable than I thought it would be"
Cultural studies & pop culture
Media & Pop Culture
MSTU 3293 @ The University of Tulsa
A course open to all majors, this survey of theories about popular culture begins by defining culture and what makes it “pop” (making visible the mediating stuff students swim in throughout their everyday lives). After glancing back at pop culture’s deep history, we consider major cultural theories from Adorno to Zizek, with students delivering regular analyses of pop-culture objects and two major deconstruction assignments. This course also features student-led design, leaving them to program three weeks of the course with topics submitted and voted on by the class.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He created a safe environment for us to be able to speak up. We were able to converse about current pop culture events together as a class. He gave us room to be creative when choosing which pop culture artifacts we wanted to study!" ... "I particularly enjoyed how active and engaging his classes are, with him always including components of discussions and activities. He is one of the rare few professors that put in a LOT of effort to prepare for the class, ensuring that everything he wants to be said is said and carried out in class."
Music as Social Action
MSTU 4863 @ The University of Tulsa
COMM 190 and COMM 113T @ UC San Diego
My most popular offering, this seminar surveys the contributions of popular music in the maintenance and circulation of social-movement discourses. Students first read the primary scholarship defining and analyzing protest songs, propaganda songs, and “socially conscious” music. This theory is then applied to a historical study of pop genres from early 20th century folk music to contemporary hip-hop. Students write concept papers, annotate playlists, and have the option of writing their own song as a final project.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "This has been such a fun class. One of my favorites Ive ever taken!" (TU) ... "The assignments of writing a blog post and options for interviewing musicians or writing a song were a practical way of demonstrating course material, and will carry over into application outside of UCSD setting" (UCSD)
Performance & Cultural Studies
COMM 111P @ UC San Diego
I adapted this listed course to focus the primary inquires of both fields on the current historical moment, asking how the performance of individual and cultural identities had been reshaped by a greater usage of and reliance on digital communication platforms during the coronavirus pandemic. Mixing traditional theoretical readings with hot-off-the-presses scholarship about Zoom and ways social life had been increasingly digitized during lockdowns, the course resulted each time in rich engagement and stellar student performance.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "I really like Professor Thomas Conner uses different kinds of online resources and even gives us chance to talk to the people who have great acheivements in specific field that relevant to the course materials." ... "Engaging and affirming during discussions both inside and out of the classroom. Thomas invites outside happenings that are relevant to the course!"
English Literature (Honors)
ENG: 1213 @ Tulsa Community College
Your basic English lit course, hopscotching a subjective path through mostly American poetry and prose, with several stops at song lyrics along the way.
MSTU 3293 @ The University of Tulsa
A course open to all majors, this survey of theories about popular culture begins by defining culture and what makes it “pop” (making visible the mediating stuff students swim in throughout their everyday lives). After glancing back at pop culture’s deep history, we consider major cultural theories from Adorno to Zizek, with students delivering regular analyses of pop-culture objects and two major deconstruction assignments. This course also features student-led design, leaving them to program three weeks of the course with topics submitted and voted on by the class.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He created a safe environment for us to be able to speak up. We were able to converse about current pop culture events together as a class. He gave us room to be creative when choosing which pop culture artifacts we wanted to study!" ... "I particularly enjoyed how active and engaging his classes are, with him always including components of discussions and activities. He is one of the rare few professors that put in a LOT of effort to prepare for the class, ensuring that everything he wants to be said is said and carried out in class."
Music as Social Action
MSTU 4863 @ The University of Tulsa
COMM 190 and COMM 113T @ UC San Diego
My most popular offering, this seminar surveys the contributions of popular music in the maintenance and circulation of social-movement discourses. Students first read the primary scholarship defining and analyzing protest songs, propaganda songs, and “socially conscious” music. This theory is then applied to a historical study of pop genres from early 20th century folk music to contemporary hip-hop. Students write concept papers, annotate playlists, and have the option of writing their own song as a final project.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "This has been such a fun class. One of my favorites Ive ever taken!" (TU) ... "The assignments of writing a blog post and options for interviewing musicians or writing a song were a practical way of demonstrating course material, and will carry over into application outside of UCSD setting" (UCSD)
Performance & Cultural Studies
COMM 111P @ UC San Diego
I adapted this listed course to focus the primary inquires of both fields on the current historical moment, asking how the performance of individual and cultural identities had been reshaped by a greater usage of and reliance on digital communication platforms during the coronavirus pandemic. Mixing traditional theoretical readings with hot-off-the-presses scholarship about Zoom and ways social life had been increasingly digitized during lockdowns, the course resulted each time in rich engagement and stellar student performance.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "I really like Professor Thomas Conner uses different kinds of online resources and even gives us chance to talk to the people who have great acheivements in specific field that relevant to the course materials." ... "Engaging and affirming during discussions both inside and out of the classroom. Thomas invites outside happenings that are relevant to the course!"
English Literature (Honors)
ENG: 1213 @ Tulsa Community College
Your basic English lit course, hopscotching a subjective path through mostly American poetry and prose, with several stops at song lyrics along the way.
Research methods & argumentation
Media Inquiry
MSTU 3613 @ The University of Tulsa
This methods course surveys research strategies particular to media studies. After an introductory boot camp perfecting scholarly literature searches and writing tactics, students sample a variety of inquiry methods — quantitative, textual, and qualitative — producing annotated bibliographies and proposing research designs for each module, ending with a mini-conference allowing them to practice visual communication and public speaking.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "This class has been so rewarding for me. Conducting research can be so intimidating, but this class has made it feel 100% achievable." ... "I enjoyed how un-stressful it felt."
Critical Writing I
MCWP 40 @ UC San Diego (Muir College Writing Program)
The first of a requisite two-course sequence, MCWP 40 introduces students to the basic elements of academic argument and analysis. Students engage in close reading of selected texts, dissecting each for the (Toulmin) elements of argument. After an initial written exam covering those basics, students produce a synthesis of two scholarly articles followed by an in-depth analysis of a book-length argument.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He was very helpful compared to other instructors." ... "Professor Conner was very approachable and I could tell that he cared about our success as students. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!"
Critical Writing II
MCWP 50 @ UC San Diego (Muir College Writing Program)
The second of a requisite two-course sequence, MCWP 50 focuses on advanced skills of academic argument and analysis. Individual instructors design their own research themes for this course — my themes included “Ghosts in the Machine,” “Media & Materiality,” and “The Social Roles of Arts Criticism” — in which students select their own topic, producing a research proposal, an annotated bibliography, and an original, research-supported argument.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Instructor Conner was very helpful in providing feedback on all the assignments in the course." ... "My professor for this course did an amazing job in teaching the course knowing that we are all online and going through different things back home. Professor Thomas makes sure his students are doing well and managing with thier time and he is very understanding. Personally I feel like he has strongly helped me push throughout this quarter in finishing and helping me prepare for my final paper."
Freshman Composition I (Honors)
ENG: 1113 @ Tulsa Community College
Mastering the five-paragraph essay!
MSTU 3613 @ The University of Tulsa
This methods course surveys research strategies particular to media studies. After an introductory boot camp perfecting scholarly literature searches and writing tactics, students sample a variety of inquiry methods — quantitative, textual, and qualitative — producing annotated bibliographies and proposing research designs for each module, ending with a mini-conference allowing them to practice visual communication and public speaking.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "This class has been so rewarding for me. Conducting research can be so intimidating, but this class has made it feel 100% achievable." ... "I enjoyed how un-stressful it felt."
Critical Writing I
MCWP 40 @ UC San Diego (Muir College Writing Program)
The first of a requisite two-course sequence, MCWP 40 introduces students to the basic elements of academic argument and analysis. Students engage in close reading of selected texts, dissecting each for the (Toulmin) elements of argument. After an initial written exam covering those basics, students produce a synthesis of two scholarly articles followed by an in-depth analysis of a book-length argument.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "He was very helpful compared to other instructors." ... "Professor Conner was very approachable and I could tell that he cared about our success as students. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!"
Critical Writing II
MCWP 50 @ UC San Diego (Muir College Writing Program)
The second of a requisite two-course sequence, MCWP 50 focuses on advanced skills of academic argument and analysis. Individual instructors design their own research themes for this course — my themes included “Ghosts in the Machine,” “Media & Materiality,” and “The Social Roles of Arts Criticism” — in which students select their own topic, producing a research proposal, an annotated bibliography, and an original, research-supported argument.
— Syllabus
— Student feedback: "Instructor Conner was very helpful in providing feedback on all the assignments in the course." ... "My professor for this course did an amazing job in teaching the course knowing that we are all online and going through different things back home. Professor Thomas makes sure his students are doing well and managing with thier time and he is very understanding. Personally I feel like he has strongly helped me push throughout this quarter in finishing and helping me prepare for my final paper."
Freshman Composition I (Honors)
ENG: 1113 @ Tulsa Community College
Mastering the five-paragraph essay!
Media skills & advising
Interviewing & Communication
COM 311 @ University of Illinois-Chicago
Designed to introduce students to the communication principles applicable to various types of interviews, this class covers what most students expect from it — job interviews and journalism — as well as everyday interview contexts (healthcare, persuasion, etc.). Students discuss and practice nonverbal communication, listening skills, planning and conducting interviews, questioning strategies, and interaction factors.
Features Writing
COMM 3493 @ The University of Tulsa
The hybrid of theory discussion and lab practice leads students from prerequisite news-writing skills into the more expansive styles available to features writing. Students balance reading selected examples of historical and current features with practice in writing their own, from personality profiles and interviews to entertainment reporting and criticism.
Editing for Print Media
COMM 3523 @ The University of Tulsa
A traditional lab for practicing and mastering basic news-editing skills, from line editing and copy editing to story selection and headline writing. I also included a module dealing with the people skills of guiding and working with writers.
Faculty adviser
The Collegian @ The University of Tulsa
During part of my work as an adjunct instructor at TU (2004-2005), I also advised the annual staff of the student newspaper, The Collegian, by coaching student journalists’ daily practices and providing guidance through regular evaluation meetings and a weekly critique.
"Working With the Media" workshops
Alongside my professional journalism at the Tulsa World newspaper, I led occasional workshops for local businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to learn basic skills in messaging and marketing through the news media. These events covered how to write news releases, how to engage with the right media personnel, and some behind-the-scenes understanding of the news production process.
COM 311 @ University of Illinois-Chicago
Designed to introduce students to the communication principles applicable to various types of interviews, this class covers what most students expect from it — job interviews and journalism — as well as everyday interview contexts (healthcare, persuasion, etc.). Students discuss and practice nonverbal communication, listening skills, planning and conducting interviews, questioning strategies, and interaction factors.
Features Writing
COMM 3493 @ The University of Tulsa
The hybrid of theory discussion and lab practice leads students from prerequisite news-writing skills into the more expansive styles available to features writing. Students balance reading selected examples of historical and current features with practice in writing their own, from personality profiles and interviews to entertainment reporting and criticism.
Editing for Print Media
COMM 3523 @ The University of Tulsa
A traditional lab for practicing and mastering basic news-editing skills, from line editing and copy editing to story selection and headline writing. I also included a module dealing with the people skills of guiding and working with writers.
Faculty adviser
The Collegian @ The University of Tulsa
During part of my work as an adjunct instructor at TU (2004-2005), I also advised the annual staff of the student newspaper, The Collegian, by coaching student journalists’ daily practices and providing guidance through regular evaluation meetings and a weekly critique.
"Working With the Media" workshops
Alongside my professional journalism at the Tulsa World newspaper, I led occasional workshops for local businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to learn basic skills in messaging and marketing through the news media. These events covered how to write news releases, how to engage with the right media personnel, and some behind-the-scenes understanding of the news production process.
Teaching assistantships
@ UC San Diego
Introduction to Communication (COMM 10)
Situated Practices (COMM 100A)
— I also was invited to deliver one main lecture of my own, titled “Creativity as a Spatial Practice.”
The Internet Industry (COMM 106i)
— I guest-lectured twice here, and I created a thorough online guide to preparing and conducting project interviews, which is still used in the course.
Introduction to Communication (COMM 10)
Situated Practices (COMM 100A)
— I also was invited to deliver one main lecture of my own, titled “Creativity as a Spatial Practice.”
The Internet Industry (COMM 106i)
— I guest-lectured twice here, and I created a thorough online guide to preparing and conducting project interviews, which is still used in the course.
Guest lectures
I have been asked to guest lecture in numerous courses, in context of both the extension of my scholarly research
and my professional journalism experience. Some samples:
I have been asked to guest lecture in numerous courses, in context of both the extension of my scholarly research
and my professional journalism experience. Some samples: