Research, Mentorship, Community

The School of Communication Studies focuses on the core academics of the field: interpersonal communication and organizational communication. Our faculty’s fundamental expertise in these areas allows doctoral students to tailor their academic journeys to focus on these two main reasons why people evolved the ability to communicate, relate, and organize with each other.

Our goal is to produce graduates of the program who are prepared to work at a research-intensive institutions.

PhD admission information and requirements

Major Courses

Communication Studies Minor

My time in the School of Communication Studies has not just been an education but a life-changing experience. While attending UT, I have had the opportunity to be involved in stimulating and meaningful research and teach exciting and inspiring groups of students. Perhaps most importantly, the connections I have formed with both faculty and classmates have become relationships that will last long after graduation. The Volunteer Spirit is alive and well in the School of Communication Studies and I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given here.

Tori Bertram

Doctoral student with a concentration in Communication Studies

Courses

Doctoral students are required to take a set of core, concentration, and cognate courses to complete CCI’s interdisciplinary doctoral degree. Core courses are taught by faculty from across the college. These courses are designed to help doctoral students understand the common threads across disciplinary areas in communication and information that are found in literature, theories, and methods to integrate knowledge and skill set.

Concentration courses are taught by faculty in each of the 4 schools. Most students define their concentration in terms of one of the disciplinary areas within the college based upon their research focus in advertising, communication studies, information sciences, journalism and media, or public relations.

Cognate courses are most often a set of courses from a discipline outside the college. Frequent cognate areas include marketing, sociology, political science, psychology, education, etc., and some students define their cognates in a more interdisciplinary way, taking courses from across the university in broad areas.

Doctoral students focus on a disciplinary area of study, meaning that the concentration and cognate courses vary for each student, depending upon the doctoral student’s research focus. Below is an example of courses a doctoral student would typically take in their first year.

Fall Semester:

CCI 605 Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Communication and Information (3)
CCI 620 Professional Development Seminar (1)
CCI 631 Quantitative Com & Info Research Methods I (3)
Graduate Level Statistics Course (CCI 611 or advanced statistics course) or course in Concentration Area (3)

Spring Semester

CCI 635 Qualitative Com & Info Research Methods I (3)
CCI 620 Professional Development Seminar (1)
Concentration Area (CCI Level) (3) or Cognate area
Theory Course in Concentration area (3)

Theory Courses

Students choose one from the following theory courses in their concentration area:

ADVT 680 Mass Communication Theory (cross-listed with JREM 680 and PBRL 680)
CMST 680 Communication Studies Theory
INSC 680 Information Science Theory
JREM 680 Mass Communication Theory (cross-listed with ADVT 680, PBRL 680)
PBRL 680 Mass Communication Theory (cross-listed with ADVT 680, JREM 680)

Research at Communication Studies

As part of a Research 1 institution, our faculty is constantly engaged in innovative and cutting-edge research. Students working with faculty will work either in the fundamental areas of interpersonal communication or organizational communication. Check out our faculty showcase to explore recent research produced by our faculty.