What’s Grad School Like?

Graduate courses are significantly more rigorous than undergraduate courses; and the Department of Communication Studies takes seriously its mission to train graduate students in humanistic and social scientific approaches to the discipline. The payoff is that our graduates are prepared to enter doctoral programs and to become excellent instructors.

If you are considering graduate studies, you may be interested to see samples of our course syllabi, hear from our current and former graduate students, and see our anticipated schedule of future graduate courses.

Syllabi From Recent Graduate Classes in Communication Studies

COMM-541: Rhetorical Theory & Criticism I: Dr. Christopher Duerringer (Fall ’24)

COMM-541: Rhetorical Theory & Criticism I: Dr. Kevin Johnson (Fall ’23)

COMM-546: Communication Theory & Research I: Dr. Manny Pulido (Fall ’23)

COMM-590: The Rhetoric of Horror: Dr. Christopher Duerringer (Fall ’23)

COMM-590: Persuasion: Dr. Sunyoung Park (Fall ’24)

COMM-630: Intercultural Communication: Dr. Jessica Abrams (Spring ’23)

COMM-635: Seminar in Communication Criticism: Dr. Stephanie Hartzell (Spring ’24)

COMM-640: Rhetorical Theory & Criticism II: Dr. Christopher Duerringer (Spring ’22)

COMM-646: Communication Theory & Research II: Dr. Jessica Russell (Spring ’24)

Current and Former Graduate Students’ Experiences

Sierra Abram–1st year MA program student & debate GA

Brandon McDonald–2nd year MA program student & GCA president

Alvin Primack–MA program alum and doctoral student at University of Pittsburgh

Anthony Cuomo–MA program alum and lecturer at CSULB