Department of Communication Studies

Department of Communication
Studies

Communication...

The mission of the Department of Communication Studies is to examine human symbolic activity as it shapes and is shaped by relationships, institutions, and societies. This work concerns the creation, analysis, and critique of messages. The department's research, teaching, and service devote particular attention to understanding the ways in which communication erodes and sustains collaboration within and among local, national, and global communities.

Communication Studies helps students succeed in an increasingly pluralistic, global, and mediated culture. Students are immersed in mastering the intellectual capacities of public advocacy, analysis of argument, communicating across difference, negotiation and conflict management, family interaction, relational competencies, textual criticism, and empirical research. In each course, students create and test ideas, explore how meaning is communicatively constructed across different contexts, and acquire knowledge and methods that apply to nearly every aspect of their personal, professional, and public lives.