Field Research Opportunities

As it is located in the state capital and within easy driving distance of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, the University of Texas at Austin offers ample opportunities to do "on-site" research. Students in organizational communication have taken special advantage of these opportunities. Austin has numerous high-tech companies and insurance firms. Dallas has some of the nation's largest financial centers and retail outlets. San Antonio is home to several major manufacturers. In addition, there are 540 trade and professional associations in the state, with the majority of them headquartered in Austin.

Graduate students in Communication Studies have conducted studies at Lockheed, IBM, Motorola, 3M, Tokyo Electron America, Inc., and many other organizations. Their focus is on such topics as communication and leadership, patterns of socialization, managerial styles, interviewing behavior, etc. In addition, our students have participated in a number of major data collection projects for the State Supreme Court, the Comptroller of Public Accounts, the State Department of Health, the Governor's Science and Technology Council, Texas Department of Transportation, and the Juvenile Justice Education Project. Using surveys, interviewing techniques, and participant-observation methods, departmental graduate students have made the greater Austin community their working laboratory, thereby adding a real-life component to their studies of human interaction.

The University of Texas at Austin offers a unique opportunity to work with the IC2 Institute, an organization of scholars seeking ways for The University to contribute to society through the enterprise system. Students within the College of Communication may work with visiting scholars, or obtain internships for research. The Austin Technology Incubator, a business partnership between local industry, government, and the IC2 Institute, offers students the opportunity to research observe, and consult with technology start-ups. In the past three years, ATI has provided internships to graduate students interested in organizational communication, corporate communications, public relations, and marketing. The ATI and the other IC2 Institute technology commercialization centers have been learning laboratories for hundreds of Texas students and entrepreneurs, as well as research laboratories for faculty to understand and enhance the process of technology commercialization.

Contact Larry Browning, Graduate Advisor & Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, for more information.