Department of Communication Studies

For information regarding the GRADUATE PROGRAM, click here. 

Communication Studies explores how people sustain and change, experience, and make sense of the world through symbolic action. Students develop conceptual skills to analyze written, oral, and visual messages. Students gain practical experience in areas such as public speaking, group decision-making, performance, and film. Such skills are elemental to careers in business, government, law, social services, and the arts.

The program consists of three areas: rhetoric, performance studies, and communication theory. In rhetoric, students examine public discourse and persuasion. Course topics include rhetorical criticism, political communication, and visual rhetoric. In performance studies, students investigate everyday life performance, experimental forms, and the performance of literature and other texts, including film and video. In communication theory, students focus on personal and organizational settings, studying such topics as family, health, and nonverbal communicative processes.

Students are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities, including public performances in the HopKins Black Box and the Mixon Lyceum, our forensics and debate team.

Programs

• Communication Studies, B.A.

• Communication Studies Minor