Program Identity and Vision
Because daily communication is second nature, people often fail to grasp the complexities of communication processes. Therefore, we teach students to embrace an understanding of communication as the central means of creating, maintaining, and transforming our world.
Communication in its many forms profoundly affects our communities, for better or worse. Communication Studies equips students to carefully analyze the way we co-create meaning and cultures through communication processes. We interrogate how our communication processes create our current social realities and conditions, and we discover and produce knowledge about new communication practices that might transform those realities and create more just, equitable, and inclusive social worlds.
We seek to foster students’ critical awareness of, appreciation for, and engagement with multiple and diverse perspectives. Our focus on social justice prepares graduates to address contemporary issues and challenges. Majors and minors gain experience analyzing and proposing solutions to complex problems confronting the human condition. We immerse students in problem-oriented learning environments that extend beyond the classroom and into their roles as leaders in the community, the public arena, and the world.
Communication Studies complements a variety of fields within the humanities through our engagement with questions of meaning and interpretation. Our focus on meaning-making, symbolic action, and persuasion offers a distinctive worldview that enriches and contributes to conversations in every disciplinary field including the sciences and social sciences.