Areas of Study

The graduate program in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin is divided into three primary areas of study. Read more about the areas below.

Interpersonal Communication involves the study of both the processes and effects of social interaction, usually in face-to-face situations. Both verbal and nonverbal behaviors are studied in laboratory and naturalistic contexts. Cognitions, emotions, and discourse patterns occurring during conflict, lying, and persuasion are some of the factors commonly studied. Communication in health-related contexts as well as personal and family relationships are two important contexts in which theories are applied.

Interpersonal Faculty

Interpersonal Graduate Coursework

Organizational Communication examines the various ways that communication creates and is created by organizations and organizing. It applies to a wide range of organizational types and examines processes at individual, relational, team, organizational, and interorganizational levels. Technology of various types often plays a key role in those organizing efforts. Course work in organizational communication and technology covers theory and practice and offers both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data analysis, with many students attempting to achieve mastery in mixed methods.

Organizational Communication and Technology Faculty

Graduate Courses

Organizational Communication Theory
Groups, Teams and Communities
Communication Technology in Organizations
Time Matters
Work and Technology  
Grant Writing
Measurement
Hidden Organizations
Network Analysis
Scale Development 

The Rhetoric, Language and Political Communication (RLP) area focuses on how human symbols affect social and political change. Although rhetoric has been a popular area of study since antiquity, the Department focuses on such contemporary matters as political campaigning, culture and communication, social movement rhetoric, ethics and persuasion, the nature of public argument, discourse and knowledge, the formation of language communities, cognitive linguistics, etc. These matters are treated in three distinct sub-areas: (1) Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, focusing on how public discourse is conceived and executed, with special attention to the analysis of persuasive and cultural texts; (2) Political Communication, examination of how political leaders and the mass media change public opinion and fashion legislative policy; and (3) Semiotic Studies offers training in the naturalistic study of human symbol systems and consideration of how linguistic and gestural behaviors affect everyday social interaction.

Rhetoric, Language and Political Communication Studies embraces a variety of research methodologies, including historiography, archival studies, textual criticism, conversation analysis, content analysis, etc. Interdisciplinary opportunities to study Rhetoric and Language also abound at U.T., including work with internationally famous scholars in the Departments of English, Linguistics, Anthropology, etc.

Rhetoric, Language, & Political Communication Faculty

Graduate Courses

Basic Rhetorical Criticism
The Subject
Embodied Interaction
Decolonizing Communication
Computational Methods
Rhetoric and Democratic Theory
Political Polarization
Platforms and Democracy
Expertise
Foundations of Rhetorical Theory
Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
Rhetoric of Film
Pragmatism and the Democratic Experience