About Us

Communication studies is a broad disciple encompassing the social sciences, humanities, liberal arts that leverages this broad foundation to act skillfully in a broad range of applied areas including digital creativity, integrated marketing communication, journalism, HR, sales, entrepreneurship and more.

Communication studies comes from one of the oldest formal areas of study in the world: rhetoric. One of the first teachers of rhetoric noted the following:   

"... because there has been implanted in us the power to persuade each other and to make clear to each other whatever we desire, not only have we escaped the life of wild beasts, but we have come together and founded cities and made laws and invented arts; and, generally speaking, there is no institution devised by man which the power of speech has not helped us to establish." - Isocrates, Antidosis 

Communication has also been an ongoing theme in many aspects of the human condition, large and small. A more contemporary communication scholar. W. Barnette Pearce offered a similarly compelling reminder of the centrality of communication: 

"More importantly, there is a revolutionary discovery that communication is, and always has been, far more central to whatever it means to be a human being than had ever before been supposed. 

Prior to this century, no major analysis of international relations explained inequitable standards of life or power as the result of a particular pattern of communication between nations, but this is a common theme today. No major analysis of the form of government focused on media and channels of communication, but this is a common orientation today. 

No interpretation of pathologies of individual or families cited patterns of communication as the causes of problems or the means of their solution. But this is a unifying concept in half a dozen disciplines today. Some social scientists claim that "the world" exists in communication; that the apparently stable even/objects of the social world—from economic systems to personality traits to "dinner with friends"—are collectively constructed patterns of conversations; and that "solution" to (some? most? all?) problems consists in changing the conversations we have about them." - W. Barnett Pearce, Communication and the Human Condition

In sum . . .  we’re kind of a big deal.     

Many of our students enjoy taking a wide range of courses in our department.  Others prefer to specialize.  There are many specialty and sub-discipline areas of communication studies represented in our curriculum. Primary areas are: 

• integrated marketing communication (pr/advertising) 
• intercultural/interracial communication 
• interpersonal communication 
• media studies 
• media production and digital creativity 
• organizational and group communication 
• performance studies

We do not require you to select a track or declare a formal area of study. You have the flexibility to customize your degree program based on aspirations for graduate study and professional career paths.  We have students who thrive as laser-focused specialists and wide-ranging explorers.   

Graduate study options at the master’s and doctoral levels are available in specialty areas represented in the department and many more!

We have a graduate program in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). Our graduates have gone on to graduate programs directly related to our undergraduate areas as well as related areas such as health communication, MBAs, MPAs, JD, and many more.

It is helpful if students discuss their aspirations with their advisor early in their time with us so we can help them prepare to be a competitive applicant for graduate school.   

The ideal communication studies student enjoys making connections between theory and practice. Our best students find ways to connect the insights derived from the study of communication with their practice in all its forms including: 

• conversations 
• presentations 
• writing
• digital creativity and more 

Essentially, we want students who strive to make excellent communication choices and can explain WHY they made that choice! 

We focus on “professional readiness” broadly and with specific skillsets for those that pursue them while they are here. We have students go into media production, marketing and social media management, start their own businesses, get hired to do a wide variety of client services (recruiting, onboarding, training), sales, wealth management, graphic design and more. Others pursue graduate school in areas such as law, MBA, MPA and even public health, educational leadership and more.  

Our mission statement states:  

"Above all, our primary purpose is to provide our majors with an undergraduate and graduate degree programs in which the philosophy, practice, criticism, and study of communication are emphasized and balanced." 

See the full Mission Statement.