Program Overview

Introduction

Sustaining a proud tradition of pedagogy and scholarship, the Communication Arts Department graduates outstanding researchers, teachers, and intellectuals who serve on the faculties of leading universities, in research institutions and other organizations, and public and private agencies throughout the world. Throughout its history, the Department has compiled a celebrated faculty roster of innovative and influential scholars who have shaped the study of communication and associated fields.

The Communication Arts Department—originally called the Department of Public Speaking, which was established in 1906—has been at the center of communication pedagogy and scholarship since the founding of the modern field. John Bascom, for whom the central administration building and main campus quadrangle at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are named, taught and wrote about speech, and Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (“Fighting Bob”) was an early student of speech. The Department started granting PhDs in 1922, making the Communication Arts Department (then the Department of Speech) the first in the United States to offer a PhD in the field. (https://commarts.wisc.edu/about/history)

Continually developing and engaging political, social, cultural, and technological developments, the Communication Arts Department has retained its preeminent position in the study and teaching of communication. A recent survey of universities across the globe, the 2014 QS World University Rankings, named the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the number one ranked university for the study of communication and media studies. (http://www.topuniversities.com/node/9195/ranking-details/university-subject-rankings/2014/communication-and-media-studies)

Benefiting from the tremendous resources and opportunities in the Department and the University, Communication Arts graduates have experienced phenomenal success in the academic job market. In a 2013 self-study conducted as part of a larger program review, the Department reported a placement rate of PhDs at nearly 100 percent. Responding to varying student career objectives, these placements range from prominent research-intensive universities to well-regarded liberal arts colleges.

The graduate programs offered by the Department of Communication Arts reflect its uniquely comprehensive approach to the study of communication in virtually all aspects of human experience. These programs engage vital dimensions of human interaction from a variety of disciplinary and epistemological perspectives across a range of distinct communication modes and topics. Graduate study in the Department is organized into four areas: Communication Science; Film; Media and Cultural Studies; and Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture. Prospective graduate students identify a primary area of concentration when applying to the Department and, once enrolled, focus their studies and scholarship on this primary area.

Degree requirements follow a baseline established by the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and augmented by the Department. Discussion of the general parameters of graduate study at UW-Madison can be found in the Graduate Guide, which is available online at https://guide.wisc.edu/. This document of record addresses these requirements and also details departmental degree requirements. Individual programs of study proceed along a consistent timeline and structure of coursework-exams-thesis/dissertation, but specific requirements and options vary across the four areas of graduate study in the Department. Students should consult the departmental and area-specific requirements when planning an individual program of study as well as discuss these requirements and other aspects of graduate education with their advisors. The four areas share a commitment to rigorous instruction and scholarship that emphasize intellectual engagement and connections across theory, analysis, and practice.