Not just a rhetorical question

June 6, 2007 12:16 PM

Where do I find a ranking of graduate programs in communications arts and sciences in the United States?

I am looking at the possibility of doing a graduate degree in communication focusing on rhetoric, but not necessarily so. Regardless, I have found list of graduate programs but I can't find a current ranking of good and bad programs.

posted by parmanparman to education (5 answers total)

NCA (National Communication Association) Rankings of Doctoral Program Reputations
posted by k8t at 12:32 PM on June 6, 2007

And just FYI, generally if communication is spelled plurally (communications) it is from a humanistic/qualitative perspective and if it is not pluralized it is from a social scientific/quantitative perspective.
posted by k8t at 12:33 PM on June 6, 2007

And here's a link to a report on the current state of Comm education around the world. I did the US portion and it has sections on each of different types of Comm focuses with the top scholars and schools.

To save you time, here's rhetoric:
1. University of Georgia, Department of Speech Communication
2. University of Texas – Austin, Communication Studies Department
3. Pennsylvania State University, Department of Communication, Arts and Sciences

And this part was cut out of the report:

University of Georgia, Department of Speech Communication
Concentration areas political rhetoric/public address; social movement and change; rhetoric of science; feminism
Degree programs BA, MA, PHD
Number of communication faculty 16
Number of communication graduate students 34
Number of communication undergraduate majors 400
Academic positioning within the university
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Top three scholars (academic status, productivity, reputation) and short bios of those scholars
Celeste Condit, Professor. Her research interests include the use of rhetorical analysis to explore the role of public interests: address in processes of social change and stability, with particular focus on issues of human reproduction, especially with regard to the impact of genetic technologies.

Kevin Michael DeLuca, associate professor. He is the author of numerous essays on visual rhetoric, critical theory, environmental activism, and the virtues of violence. His research and teaching concentrations include rhetorical theory and criticism, media theory and criticism, environmental discourse, visual studies, and critical cultural studies.

John Murphy is an Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator of Speech Communication. His research interests focus on contemporary American public address, the rhetorical presidency, and rhetorical criticism and theory. His work examines the ways in which enduring political languages take form in particular public debates and influence policy decisions.

University of Texas, Austin, Communication Studies Department
Concentration areas Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Communication; Rhetoric and Language
Degree programs BA, MA, PHD
Number of communication faculty 18
Number of communication graduate students 110
Number of communication undergraduate majors 700
Academic positioning within the university Own college
Top three scholars (academic status, productivity, reputation) and short bios of those scholars

Rod Hart, Professor, Allen B. Shivers Centennial Chair in Communication. His area of special interest is politics and the mass media.

Barry Brummett, professor, chair. His research interests turned early to the theories of Kenneth Burke and to epistemology and rhetoric. In those studies, he laid the foundation for a research program that investigates the functions and manifestations of new rhetoric. One later line of research took him into the study of apocalyptic rhetoric. His most recent, ongoing interests are in the rhetoric of popular culture. He has developed a general theoretical basis for understanding that rhetoric and has investigated the rhetoric of symbolic forms most recently.

Dana Cloud, associate professor. She teaches in the areas of social movements, gender and communication, rhetorical criticism, public sphere theory, Marxist theory, and feminist theory. Her research interests lie in the areas of rhetoric and social movements, critique of representations of race and gender in the mass media, and the defense of historical materialist theory and method in communication studies

Pennsylvania State University, Department of Comm Arts and Sciences
Concentration areas Health communication; Intercultural-international communication; Interpersonal-small group communication; Political communication; Rhetorical communication
Degree programs BA, MA, PHD
Number of communication faculty 16
Number of communication graduate students 40
Number of communication undergraduate majors 200
Academic positioning within the university College of Liberal Arts
Top three scholars (academic status, productivity, reputation) and short bios of those scholars
Thomas Benson, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Rhetoric. A rhetorical critic and theorist interested in rhetorical criticism as social and cultural criticism. His current research interests include rhetorical criticism of film and political discourse.

J. Michael Hogan, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences. He is interested in the character and quality of public deliberation. His specific research interests include political campaigns and social movements, foreign policy debates, presidential rhetoric, and public opinion and polling.

Stephen H. Browne, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences. He specializes in the areas of rhetorical criticism, history of oratory and public argument, and nineteenth-century rhetorics of reform. He teaches courses in the interpretation of rhetorical texts, and rhetoric of campaigns and revolutions, and rhetorical theory.
posted by k8t at 12:45 PM on June 6, 2007

k8t: And just FYI, generally if communication is spelled plurally (communications) it is from a humanistic/qualitative perspective and if it is not pluralized it is from a social scientific/quantitative perspective.

Really? I've never heard this before. My undergrad and MA are from a department of media communications, which was more professionally oriented, and if anything more social science than humanities (and is now in a School of Communications). Every other department I've been in since has been communication, no-s, whether humanities or social science, or more commonly, both. Actually, I think the more import terminology distinction is that more and more departments (especially those that have rhetoric programs) are Communication Studies, with some Speech/Speech Communication holdouts.

The NCA study is a starting place, but it's important to remember that it's a reputational study--it tells you what people within the discipline generally think about the most prominent departments. Of course, from a job-seeking perspective, that can be quite important, particularly if you will be looking for a position in another R1.

Also, FYI, as a recent Texas graduate I can tell you that Rod Hart recently become Dean of the College of Communication, and so even though he is still a member of the faculty in the Communication Studies department, he's not doing much teaching, and I don't think he's taking on new students.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 1:50 PM on June 6, 2007

Us quantoids get really nervous about communicationS. UT Austin is more qualitative friendly than we at UCSB are.

Rod Hart is the "big draw" I suppose - and how I got those names was from a survey of other professionals in reputations. A lot of those "big draw" people are too busy to take on new students, eh?
posted by k8t at 9:27 PM on June 6, 2007