Graduate

Overview

For a two-minute introduction to our graduate program, please enjoy the following video:

The USF Department of Communication offers a master’s degree and a doctoral degree to prepare graduate students for careers that require advanced study in communication. The graduate program is structured to enhance marketable research skills, deepen scholarly engagement about existential problems of individuals and society, and improve health, culture, and media literacy in order to educate the public about contexts in which communication is performed, produced, and practiced. Graduate students work alongside renowned faculty as research collaborators and teaching assistants while developing independent, interdisciplinary, and inventive scholarship that can be applied in academic, corporate, or philanthropic organizations.

The cultural richness characterizing the midsize coastal city of Tampa is reflected in our graduate student community. Graduate students from across the world contribute to the intellectual vibrancy of the Department by bringing their unique personal and professional experiences and by adapting multiple approaches from the humanities and social sciences. In seminar-style classrooms, graduate students learn to cultivate new knowledge in inclusive environments supportive of experiential, experimental, and evidence-based forms of inquiry. By engaging a variety of perspectives and developing tailored degree plans and research projects, our graduates become leaders in the field. Graduate students from the program are routinely recognized with top honors and awards from regional, national, and international communication organizations. 

Our graduate program offers four clusters or areas of concentration: Health Communication; Organizational Communication; Interpersonal and Relational Communication; and Media, Culture, and Performance. Each cluster brings together faculty who share diverse metatheoretical and methodological perspectives. Students typically choose a primary and secondary concentration to strengthen their graduate research and teaching and gain experience that increases their employment prospects. By working with faculty whose expertise intersects, students are prepared for a world which increasingly demands communication graduates whose background is intercultural, interdisciplinary, and international. Students also can learn and creatively integrate a wide range of methods including critical, qualitative, quantitative, and computational approaches. Graduate students in each cluster learn how to apply communication theory and research in ways that emphasize community engagement, cultural identity, and social responsibility.

NCA 2023 Graduate School Open House