The Department of Communication is the academic center for the study of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The mission of the Department of Communication is to pursue research, teaching, and outreach rooted in an understanding of communication as the primary process through which persons, societies, and cultures are formed and changed.

We research communication processes at global, national, institutional, group, and interpersonal levels. We promote a consciously critical disposition in communication research. We aim to address matters of pressing social and cultural concern through the lens of communication as a process essential to our survival as a species and a polity.

We offer a distinctive set of research areas, embracing interdisciplinarity and scholarly approaches spanning the social sciences and humanities. Our areas of focus include digital technology studies; film studies; media and cultural production; media effects; policy and the political economy of global communication; rhetoric and performance studies; and social interaction and culture. From these research traditions, there are several cross-cutting themes and urgent social issues we directly address in our work, including identities and social group formations, communication flows and networks, democracy and discourse, and media power and social justice.

Our scholarly activity spans written, creative, and outreach modes, taking a number of forms including performances, public speech, documentary and media making, and the writing of essays, articles, chapters, and books. We believe that knowledge matters outside as well as inside of the academy, and we actively pursue ways of engaging our work with the concerns, priorities, and actions of communities, advocacy organizations, policy making bodies, and the general public. Widely known for our profile in public and community engagement and for our commitment to teaching and learning and student support, we are a place where theory meets practice and ideas shape action.

Our Values

Diversity, criticality, and social justice: In our research and creative activity, teaching, and outreach, as well as in the day-to-day practices and processes in the department, we have a commitment to addressing issues of (in)equality and (in)justice and working toward inclusion and equity, from the micro- (e.g., through social interaction or in the conceptions, attitudes, or behavior of individuals) to the macro-level (in structures and systems) of issues, topics, and concerns. There is a long department tradition of criticality in our practice, identifying systems of oppression and interrogating issues of power.

Community engagement and praxis: We use multiple communicative modes and means (including those that are creative and expressive in addition to those that are textual) to intertwine theory and practice to take action in the world. From public speaking as an

Students pursuing a PhD in Communication devise their own concentrations. The PhD program is designed to familiarize the student with a particular body of knowledge and a variety of approaches to inquiry shaped by a general understanding of communication. The program prepares graduates for careers in teaching and research with special concentrations possible in business, government, media industries, and community organizations.

For additional information on the Department, its activities, research, and resources, go to:

http://www.umass.edu/communication/

Location

The Amherst campus is part of one of the most exciting educational cooperatives in the country, Five Colleges, Inc., which includes the university, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College. The intellectual, cultural, and entertainment opportunities in the Pioneer Valley are rich and diverse.

Communication is one of eight departments in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Other departments include Anthropology, Economics, Journalism, Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning, Political Science, Resource Economics, and Sociology. The college also includes the School of Public Policy (SPP) and programs such as Labor Studies, Legal Studies, and Social Thought & Political Economy (STPEC). Students may also complete certificate programs in areas such as Film Studies; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies; Native American Studies; Feminist Studies; Ethnographic Research; and Data Analytics and Computational Social Science. In addition to taking courses within our college, a number of our graduate students also find useful cognate courses in a variety of other departments, such as Public Health, Education, History, Philosophy, English, and Comparative Literature.

Departmental offices are located on the third floor of the Integrative Learning Center (ILC). In addition, the ILC houses the department’s video production facilities, viewing centers, and editing suites.

Resources

Graduate students are offered a variety of opportunities for training and experience in research. In addition to pursuing independent research, there are some opportunities to work with faculty on their research through research assistantships funded by grants, through coursework, or through more informal collaborations. In terms of technology, students have high-speed access to all internet services and the latest operating systems in the department’s graduate student computer lab. Students also have comprehensive computer access in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and the Lederle Graduate Research Center.

Claudio Moreira: Chair and Professor. Ph.D., University of Illinois. The intersection of race, gender, and class; performance auto-ethnography; transformative action and performative space.

Author or co-author of Betweener Autoethnographies: A Path towards Social Justice (2018, Routledge) and Betweener Talk: An Indigenous Dialogue on Postcolonial Class, Praxis, and Justice (2009, Left Coast Press); “Resisting (Resistance) Stories: A Tri-Autoethnographic Exploration of Father Narratives across Shades of Difference,” “Missing Bodies: Troubling the Colonial Landscape of American Academia,” “Made for Sex”; “Life in So Many Acts”; “The Tales of Conde, Zezao, Master Claudio, and Claudio.”

Current research topics: Performance studies; social justice; sport and advertising

 

 

Kevin T. Anderson: Senior Lecturer. Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst. Film studies and anthropology; social aesthetics; phenomenology of technology and the body.

Research traverses the fields of film studies and anthropology, particularly along the lines of the social aesthetics and phenomenology of technology and the body. Author of “Tickling and Teasing the Real: Mocking Reality TV in the Film Series 7”; “Joris Ivens’ 400 Million”; “Finding the Essential: A Phenomenological Look at Hal Hartley’s No Such Thing.” Director of film Awakening the Internal Sound: The Music and Mission of Rabindra Goswami (2020), which has played in multiple international film festivals and won the prize for Best Documentary Short at the 2021 Beyond Earth Film Festival. Also director of Layers of Pompeii (2019).

 

 

Seyram Avle: Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Michigan. Global media, digital technology culture in the global south, tech entrepreneurship, labor and production

Author or co-author of: “Tinkering with Governance: Technopolitics and the Economization of Citizenship”; “How Methods Make Designers”; “Designing Here and There: Tech Entrepreneurs, Global Markets, and Reflexivity”; “Articulating and Enacting Development: Skilled Returnees in Ghana’s ICT Industry”; “Situating Ghana’s New Media Industry: Liberalization and Transnational Entrepreneurship”; “Radio Locked on @citi973: FM Radio Audiences on Twitter”; “Global Flows, Media and Developing Democracies”; Whose Freedom, Whose Information?: Discourses on Freedom of Information policies.”

 

 

Soo Young Bae: Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Michigan. New communication technology and social media; political communication, credibility; persuasion, social influence, big data.

Author or co-author of “The Medium and the Backlash: The Disparagement of the #MeToo Movement in Online Public Discourse in South Korea,” “Social media prosumption and online political participation: An examination of online communication processes,” “The social mediation of political rumors: Examining the dynamics in social media and belief in political rumors,” “A Trigger or Muffler? -Examining the Dynamics of Crosscutting Exposure and Political Expression in Outline Social Media”; “Who Will Cross the Border? - The Transition of Political Discussion into the Newly Emerged Venues”; “Mobile Communication and Public Affairs Engagement in Korea: An Examination of Non-Linear Relationships between Mobile Phone Use and Engagement across Age Groups.”

 

 

Benjamin Bailey: Professor. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles. Social interaction; culture and language; discourse analysis; communication of ethnic/racial identities; inter- ethnic/intercultural communication.

Author of Language, Race, and Negotiation of Identity: A Study of Dominican Americans and a number of publications on language and social identity, intercultural communication, and multilingualism. Current research focuses on communicative practices and identities across both individual developmental time and historically changing communities.

 

 

Burcu Baykurt: Assistant Professor. Ph.D., Columbia University. Technology studies; culture and communication; media infrastructures; political communication; critical data studies; ethnography, historical and comparative methods.

Author or co-author of: "Soft Power Internationalism, 1990-2015: Critical-Historical Approaches;" “Circulating Liberalism: The Global Internet and the Rise of Soft Power Internationalism, 1990-2015;” “Illiberal Media and Popular Constitution-Making in Turkey;” "How Does a Culture of Health Change? Lessons from the War on Cigarettes;" "David Versus Goliath: Digital Resources for Expanded Reporting—and Censoring;" and "Redefining Citizenship and Civic Engagement: Political Values Embodied in FixMyStreet.com."

 

 

Allison Butler: Senior Lecturer. Ph.D., New York University. Media Literacy; Teacher Education in Media Literacy; Community Service Learning

Author of Key Scholarship in Media Literacy: David Buckingham (2022, Brill Sense) and Educating Media Literacy: The Need for Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education (2019, Brill Sense). Author or co-author of “Inspiration and motivation: The similarities and differences between critical and acritical media literacy,” “Building Media Literacy in Higher Education: Department Approaches, Undergraduate Certificate, and Engaged Scholarship,” and “Teacher Education: The Next Needed Step in Critical Media Literacy Education.”

Mari Castañeda: Professor. Ph.D., University of California, San Diego. Political economy of communication; Spanish-language and Latina/o media and cultural production; communication policy and the property creation of new digital technologies; community service learning and engaged scholarship.

Co-editor of the following books: Civic Engagement in Diverse Latinx Communities: Learning from Social Justice Partnerships in Action (2018, Peter Lang Publishers), Mothers in Academia (2013, Columbia University Press) and Soap Operas and Telenovelas in the Digital Age: Global Industries and New Audiences (2011, Peter Lang Publishers). Author of the following publications: “The Complicated Transition to Broadcast Digital Television in the United States” Television and New Media; Latinidad, Cultural Policy, and Spanish-language Media in the U.S.A., Techno/futuros: Critical Interventions in Latina/o Studies; “Remapping Spanish-language Media in the U.S.”; “Transformative Learning through Community Engagement.”

 

 

Briankle G. Chang: Professor. Ph.D., University of Illinois. Cultural studies; media criticism; philosophy of communication.

Author of “Eclipse of Being: Heidegger and Derrida”; “Mass, Media, Mass Mediation: Jean Baudrillard’s Implosive Critique of Modern Mass Mediated Society”; Deconstructing Communication: Subject, Representation, and Economies of Exchange; “Copies, Reproducibility, and Aesthetic Adequacy”; “Representing Representation: the Visual Semiotics of Las Meninas”; “Notes on Linguistic Principle and Iconic Communication”; “Empty Intention.”

Current research focuses on symbolic economies and postcolonial discourse.

 

 

Anne T. Ciecko: Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh. International and intercultural cinema; gender studies; cultural studies and critical theory; film/arts/culture criticism, public programming, and community service/praxis.

Selected published work includes Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame; “Digital Territories and States of Independence: Jordan’s Film Scenes”; “Into the Sc(re)enery: Bollywood Locations and Docu-diaspora”; “Ways to Sink the Titanic: Contemporary Box-Office Successes in the Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea”; “Muscle, Market Value, Telegenesis, Cyberpresence: The New Asian Movie Star in the Global Economy of Masculine Images”; “Superhit Hunk Heroes for Sale: Globalization and Bollywood’s Gender Politics”; “Representing the Spaces of Diaspora in Contemporary British Films by Women”; “Sex, God, Television, Realism, and the British Woman Filmmakers”; “Transnational Action: John Woo, Hong Kong, Hollywood”; interviews with Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan, Indonesian filmmakers Riri Riza and Rudy Soedjarwo, and the director and producer of Yemen’s first feature film; coverage of international film festivals.

Director, UMass Amherst Graduate Certificate Program in Film Studies. Catalog description and requirements are available online at https://www.umass.edu/film/film-graduate-program.

Current and ongoing research interests include globalization and national cinemas (emerging and resurging local and transnational film cultures); international film festivals; nonwestern cinema and popular genres (especially Asian, Arab, and African cinema); international transmedia stardom/celebrity and gender politics; diasporic representational strategies; transcultural film, video, and multimedia installations by women.

 

 

Leda Cooks: Professor. Ph.D., Ohio University. Food studies; performance studies; critical intercultural communication; whiteness studies; feminist, postcolonial, and critical communication theory; critical pedagogy; conflict/mediation; community engaged learning and research.

Author or co-author of studies of the discourse and performance of food, identity, culture, and social justice: e.g. “Constructing Habitus in Matters of Food Taste and Waste”; “You Are What You (Don’t) Eat: The Performance of Food, Identity and Resistance”; studies of whiteness in media, intergroup, and classroom contexts: e.g. “On the Cover of the Rolling Stone: Toward a Monstrous Pedagogy of Whiteness”; “Pedagogy of Communication and the (Critical) Communication of Pedagogy”; “Revisiting the Borderlands of Intercultural Communication”; “The (In)Visible Whiteness of Being: Creating and Positioning the Self in Sojourn”; and studies of community based teaching: e.g., “Toward a Social Approach to Learning in Community Service Learning”; “Communicating Advocacy: A Media Literacy and Violence Prevention Project in Sixth Grade Classrooms”; “Feminist Pedagogies and Reflections on Resistance.” Co-editor of Dis/Placing Race: Whiteness, Pedagogy and Performance. Co-editor of special issues of Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, and Text and Performance Quarterly.

Current research focuses on the discourse and performance of food and identity; collective memory, social justice and community; the intersections of community service learning and critical pedagogy; intergroup dialogue, democracy, and whiteness.

 

 

Gonen Dori-Hacohen: Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Haifa. Discourse analysis; broadcast talk; language of political participation; everyday interaction, financial discourse.

Author or co-author of “Our neighbors who sit Among Us and Next to Us": Interactions with the "Other" on Israeli Political Radio Phone-in Programs,” “Criticism, consensus, and fandom: Demonstrated practices from a sports Facebook fan page,” “Yiddish across borders: Interviews in the Yiddish ultra-Orthodox Jewish audio mass medium,” “On-line commenting on opinion editorials: A cross-cultural examination of face work in the Washington Post (USA) and NRG(Israel),” “Spontaneous or Controlled: Overall Structural Organization of Political Phone- ins in Two Countries and their Relations to Societal Norms”; “‘Rush, I Love You’: Interactional Fandom on American Political Talk-Radio”; “The Cultural Meanings of Israeli Tokbek (Talk-Back Online Commenting) and their Relevance to the Online Democratic Public Sphere”; “‘Booyah Jim’: The Construction of Hegemonic Masculinity in CNBC ‘Mad Money’ Phone-in Interactions.”

Currently I study civic participation in Israeli radio phone-ins, American Political Radio Talk, and other arenas of public participation, such as online comments. I will be happy to compare these arenas to similar arenas in other countries. Further information can be found at https://umass.academia.edu/GonenDoriHacohen.

 

 

Ayanna Dozier: Assistant Professor. Ph.D., McGill University. Experimental film; performance; analog media production; Black feminist media studies.

Ayanna Dozier is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker-artist and writer working with performance, experimental film, installation, printmaking, and analog photography. Her research in film navigates the history of distribution, archaeology, and radical work of Black feminist experimental filmmakers. While her current research and artwork is dedicated to examining how transactional intimacy (like sex work) redistributes care from the private sector into the public, social politics of relations. She teaches courses related to analog and video art production, aesthetics, and sexuality—paying close attention to how race and gender intersect within these fields. Her film work is in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Museum of African American Museum of History and Culture. She is the author of Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (2020) and is currently working on a manuscript on how Black feminist experimental media makers use of film’s form and aesthetics to tackle the taboo.

 

 

Martha Fuentes-Bautista: Senior Lecturer. Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin. Telecommunication and community media policy; technology and inequality; immigration and new media technologies; global communications and institutions; communication policy in the Americas; social movements and new media technologies.

Author or co-author of “Bridging the Broadband Gap or Recreating Digital Inequalities? The Social Shaping of Public Wi-fi in Austin,” “Reconfiguring Public Internet Access in Austin, TX: Wi- Fi’s Promise and Broadcast Divides;” “NGOs and Government: The Social Shaping of Internet from Below”; “Still Divided: Ethnicity, Generation, Cultural Capital and New Technologies”; “Universal Service in Times of Reform: Affordability and Accessibility of Telecommunication Services in Latin America.”

Current research focuses on the social and policy implications of information and communication technologies with a particular interest in how ICT may exacerbate or alleviate social inequalities. Building on case studies in Latin America and the U.S., her research projects explore the institutional context of ICT adoption and use in inner city and rural communities, and the role of local governments, non-profits, and social movements in promoting and managing community computing solutions for these populations.

 

 

Stephen Olbrys Gencarella: Associate Professor. Ph.D., Indiana University. Rhetoric; performance studies; folklore.

Author or co-author of Readings on Rhetoric and Performance; “"The Thin Blue Line in a Thick Blue State: A Critical Folklore Study,” “"Thunder without Rain: Fascist Masculinity in AMC's The Walking Dead,” “Purifying Rhetoric: Empedocles and the Myth of Rhetorical Theory”; “The Myth of Rhetoric: Korax and the Art of Pollution”; “Critique, Folk Criticism, and the Art of Critical Folklore Studies”; “Gramsci, Good Sense, and Critical Folklore Studies”; “Touring History: Guidebooks and the Commodification of the Salem Witch Trials”; “Dissoi Logoi, Civic Friendship, and the Politics of Education.”

Current research concerns three issues: (1) The promotion of a critical folklore studies as an activist scholarship to examine and redress social injustice, with particular attention to the constitutive nature of expressive culture; (2) The investigation and contemporary appropriation of myths of rhetoric in classical antiquity, to include voices and concepts often excluded from the canonical texts of the rhetorical tradition; (3) The relationship between rhetorical studies and social theory, especially to criticize persistent discourses of fascism and violence, and to advocate democratic modes of living with others.

 

 

Seth Goldman: Associate Professor. Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania. Effects of mass media and political communication on stereotyping and prejudice, especially with regard to public opinion about race and sexual orientation.

Author or co-author of “Effects of the 2008 Obama Presidential Campaign on White Racial Prejudice”; ““How White is the Global Elite? An Analysis of Race, Gender and Network Structure,” ““Debating How to Measure Media Exposure in Surveys,” ““Past Place, Present Prejudice: The Impact of Adolescent Racial Context on White Racial Attitudes,” ““When Can Exemplars Shape White Racial Attitudes? Evidence from the 2012 U.S. Presidential Campaign,” “Televised Exposure to Politics: New Measures for a Fragmented Media Environment”; “All Virtue is Relative: A Response to Prior?”; “The Friendly Media Phenomenon: A Cross-National Analysis Cross-Cutting Exposure”; “From Gay Bashing to Gay Baiting: Public Opinion and News Media Frames for Gay Marriage”; The Obama Effect: How the 2008 Campaign Changed White Racial Attitudes.

 

 

Roopali Mukherjee: Professor. Ph.D., The Ohio State University. British cultural studies, critical race theory, critical race feminisms, racial capitalism, African Americans/Blackness in US public culture, brand cultures, Foucault studies, qualitative research methods.

Author: The Blacking Factory: The Brand in Racial Capitalism (University of Minnesota Press, in press) and The Racial Order of Things: Cultural Imaginaries of the Post-Soul Era (University of Minnesota Press, 2006). Co-editor: Racism Postrace (Duke University Press, 2019) and Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times (NYU Press, 2012).

 

 

Jonathan Corpus Ong: Professor. Ph.D., University of Cambridge. Global media, disasters, development, and humanitarian communication; ethnography of social media; creative and digital labor; mediated protest, witnessing and solidarities; ethics of communication.

Author of The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in Class-Divided Philippines (2015, Anthem Press) and co-editor of Taking the Square: Mediated Dissent and Occupations of Public Space (2016, Rowman & Littlefield). Author or co-author of “Queer Cosmopolitanism in the Disaster Zone”; “Local Aid Workers as ‘Entrepreneurial Survivors’”; “Finding a Voice through Humanitarian Technologies?”; “‘Witnessing’ or 'Mediating’ Distant Suffering?”; “Where Is the Cosmopolitan?”; “Watching the Nation, Singing the Nation.” Co- editor of Taking the Square: Mediated Dissent and Occupations of Public Space. Co-editor-in-chief of Television & New Media.

My current research projects include: 1) digital labor in the global South, focusing on diverse kinds of online freelance work in the Philippines and the emergence of new social hierarchies. I currently lead the research strand on online political trolls and the production of disinformation in Duterte’s Philippines through ethnographic work with avatar operators and Facebook group moderators and 2) entertainment media and convivial culture following rupture, drawing from case studies on the European refugee crisis and post-Katrina New Orleans.

 

 

Kimberlee Pérez: Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director. Ph.D., Arizona State University. Performance studies; queer of color theory and women of color feminism; critical cultural, intercultural, transnational and postcolonial communication studies, Latin@ studies.

Author or co-author of Answer the Call: Virtual Migration in Indian Call Centers; “You Can Get Anything You Want”; “Here and Not Yet Here: A Dialogue at the Intersection of Queer, Trans, and Culture”; “My Monster and My Muse: Rewriting the Colonial Hangover”; “Blasphemies and Queer Potentiality: Performance and/as Relation.” Co-editor of Queer Praxis: Questions for LGBTQ Worldmaking.

Current research focuses on intimacy and belonging; audience; queer relationality; identity and intersectionality politics and how they are communicated; personal narrative; solo performance.

 

 

Lynn Phillips: Senior Lecturer. Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania. Subjective and social implications of media images of hypermasculinity and the hypersexualization of young girls; the commercialization of children’s culture; health and environmental impacts of media-driven consumerism.

Author of Flirting with Danger: Young Women’s Reflections on Sexuality and Violence; “Everyday Courage and the ‘How’ of Our Work”; “Speak for Yourself: What Girls Say About What Girls Need.”

 

 

Erica Scharrer: Professor. Ph.D., Syracuse University. Media content, opinions of media, media effects, and media literacy, especially those pertaining to gender and violence.

Co-author of Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: The Power of Numbers for Social Justice (2021, Sage Publications) and Television: What’s on, Who’s Watching, and What it Means; The Psychology of Media and Politics; Media and the American Child (1999, Academic Press). Author or co-author of numerous articles on such topics as depictions of masculinity (e.g., “Working Hard or Hardly Working?: Gender and Performance of Chores in Television Commercials”), perceptions of media influence (e.g., “First-Person Shooters and Third- Person Effects: Early Adolescents’ Perceptions of Video Game Influence”), media representations of gender and violence (e.g., “Virtual Violence: Gender and Aggression in Video Game Advertisements”), and the effectiveness of media literacy curricula (e.g., “Sixth Graders Take on Television: Media Literacy and Critical Attitudes about Television Violence”). Editor of Media Effects/Media Psychology.

 

 

Shawn Shimpach: Associate Professor. Ph.D., New York University. Cinema studies; television studies; media and cultural studies; cultural history of entertainment; significance of popular culture.

Editor of The Routledge Companion to Global Television (2020). Author of Television in Transition: The Life and Afterlife of the Narrative Action Hero (2010, Wiley-Blackwell), “’Only in This Way is Social Progress Possible': Early Cinema, Gender, and the Social Survey Movement." “"Mad Men is History,” “The Immortal Cosmopolitan: The International Co-production and Global Circulation of Highlander: The Series”; “Working Watching: The Creative and Cultural Labor of the Media Audience”; “Representing the Public of the Cinema’s Public Sphere.”

Current research focuses on social and institutional constructions of Hollywood’s audience, and the textual and institutional negotiation of geopolitical economic transformations in popular culture, and television in transition.

 

 

Alena L. Vasilyeva: Associate Professor. Ph.D., Rutgers University. Argumentation; practical use of language in conflict management and problem solving decision making collaboration; non- verbal communication; communication design; social interaction in different settings (institutional talk mundane conversations) and at different levels (interpersonal communication, group interaction, social networks); social identity.

Author of “The facilitator's communicative actions to construct meetings in a semi-informal educational context,” “Strategic maneuvering in dispute mediation,” “Language ideology and identity construction in public educational meetings,” “Argumentation in the Context of Mediation Activity”; “Topics as Indication of Being On- Task/Off-Task”; “The Treatment of Fallacies in Argumentative Situations During Mediation Sessions.”

 

 

Emily West: Professor and Graduate Program Director. Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania. Promotion, Technology, and Culture; Audiences, Users, and Consumers; and Media and Nationalism

Author of Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly (MIT Press, 2022), co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture (Routledge, 2013), author or co-author of “Review Pollution: Pedagogy for a Post-Truth Society,” “Amazon: Surveillance as a Service,” “). “Activism, Advertising, and Far-Right Media: The ¬Case of Sleeping Giants,” and “Invitation to Witness: The Role of Subjects in Documentary Representations of the End of Life.”

The Ph.D. degree requires successfully completed coursework, comprehensive exams, a dissertation prospectus, and a dissertation. The coursework requirements vary based on the year of matriculation into the program. We begin here with the requirements for PhD students starting the program in 2024. All students who began before this year must consult the subsequent set of requirements.

 

 

PhD Requirements for Students Matriculating in 2024 or Later

 

Coursework Requirements for Students Entering the Program with a Completed Master’s Degree in Communication

 

• The PhD Requires a minimum of 37 credits of coursework, plus 12 dissertation credits
• At least 24 of these credits must be in Communication
• At least 1 Survey course (a choice of Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies)
• At least 6 credits of coursework from outside the Department of Communication

 

 

Coursework Requirements for Students Entering the Program with a Completed Master’s Degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences Other than Communication:

 

• The PhD Requires a minimum of 37 credits of coursework, plus 12 dissertation credits
• At least 27 of these credits must be in Communication
• At least 2 Survey courses (a choice of Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies)
• At least 3 credits of coursework from outside the Department of Communication

 

 

Coursework Requirements for Students Entering the Program with a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree in an Unrelated Field Outside the Humanities and Social Sciences:

 

• The PhD Requires a minimum of 46 credits of coursework, plus 12 dissertation credits
• At least 27 of these credits must be in Communication
• At least 2 Survey courses (a choice of Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies)
• At least 3 credits of coursework from outside the Department of Communication

Coursework Requirements that Apply to All PhD Students in the Department of Communication:

 

• Take Comm 611 Introduction to Theories of Communication (3 cr.), Comm 620 Qualitative Research Methods in Communication (3 cr.), Comm 621 Quantitative Research Methods in Communication (3 cr.), and Comm 801 and 802 Graduate Proseminar (1 cr.)
• Take 1 Communication class beyond the core classes (3 cr.) that represents Breadth in your academic training, as determined by your Plan of Study committee
• Take 3 classes (9 cr.) in Tools/Knowledge Production Courses that are relevant to your program of study, as determined by your plan-of-study committee. These can be methods courses or courses where you undertake original research under the supervision of the instructor. Courses in this category can be taken outside the department. No more than 1 course (3 cr.) in this category can be an independent study.
• Take 3 classes (9 cr.) in Theory/Subfield Courses that are relevant to your program of study, as determined by your plan-of-study committee. At least one course in this category must be a departmental survey course (Comm 613, 614, 615, or 616). You can take courses from outside the department to satisfy this requirement. No more than 1 course (3 cr.) in this category can be an independent study.
• A maximum of 6 credits of independent study or directed research will count towards degree requirements.
• Students may take no more than 6 credits of 500-level classes towards degree requirements.

 

For all PhD students, the following are the degree requirements beyond coursework:

 

• Successfullly complete and defend the comprehensive exams
• Write, and successfully defend a dissertation prospectus
• Write, successfully defend, and file a dissertation

 

 

 

PhD Requirements for Students Matriculating Before 2024

 

The PhD requires a minimum of 66 credits of coursework beyond the Bachelor’s degree. Many students complete credits in excess of this minimum. Computation of the required 66 credits begins with the completion of the Bachelor’s degree (not the M.A.) and is exclusive of dissertation credits. No more than 6 credits of 500-level courses, and no more than 6 Ph.D. tutorial or independent study credits, may be counted toward the degree. Courses taken at other institutions (e.g., during an M.A. program) will be credited toward the minimum requirements of the Ph.D. on a course-by-course basis at the discretion of the GPD and the student's Guidance Committee (up to 30 credits)

 

Ph.D. students will follow one of the following three sets of requirements, based on their M.A. or equivalent preparation.

 

Group 1 Requirements are for students who earned an M.A. in Communication at another university.

 

Group 2 Requirements are for students who earned an M.A. in a field other than Communication.

 

Group 3 Requirements are for exceptional students with a B.A. in Communication who have academic experience and/or additional training in the field.

 

All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified.

 

Group 1 Requirements

(Ph.D. students with an M.A. in Communication from another college or university)

A.         Departmental Core Courses (13 credits)

1.         Comm 611: Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Human Communication (3 credits)

2.         Comm 620: Qualitative Methods (3 credits)

3.         Comm 621: Quantitative Methods (3 credits)

4.         Comm 801 and 802: Proseminar: Graduate Introduction to Communication (1 credit)

5.         One course (3 credits) from the following: Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies

 

[Note on core courses: Students with prior preparation in the content areas covered in the core courses may seek a waiver from the Course Instructor, but this will not reduce the overall number of credits required.]

 

B.         Research Tool (6 credits)

Two courses designated as “tool courses” beyond Comm 620 and 621 are required. Tool courses facilitate the student's dissertation research, and are typically courses which demonstrate both how to collect data or materials, and then procedures for analyzing those data or materials. It will be up to the student’s Plan of Study Committee to specify particular competencies as tools. For example, students doing quantitative research will probably need advanced work in statistics; students doing historical, critical or interpretive scholarship will probably need additional courses in qualitative, and/or other methods of research. Some students may need competency in a foreign language.

 

C.         Additional Course Requirements/Guidelines:

1.         May transfer up to 30 graduate credits from another college or university.

2.         A minimum of 6 UMass Amherst graduate course credits earned outside of the Department is required.

3.         12 department course credits at the 700-800 level, exclusive of independent study credits are required.

4.         A maximum of 6 hours of independent study credit or tutorial credit (counted toward 66) is allowed.

5.         30 hours of Communication credits (24 of which must be exclusive of independent study) are required.

 

Group 2 Requirements

(Ph.D. students with an M.A. in a field other than Communication)

A.         Departmental Core Courses (16 credits)

1.         Comm 611: Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Human Communication (3 credits)

2.         Comm 620: Qualitative Methods (3 credits)

3.         Comm 621: Quantitative Methods (3 credits)

4.         Comm 801 and 802: Proseminar: Graduate Introduction to Communication (1 credit)

5.         Two courses (6 credits) from the following: Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies

 

B.         Research Tool (6 credits)

Two courses designated as “tool courses” beyond Comm 620 and 621 are required. Tool courses facilitate the student’s dissertation research, and are typically courses which demonstrate both how to collect data or materials, and then procedures for analyzing those data or materials. It will be up to the student’s Plan of Study Committee to specify particular competencies as tools. For example, students doing quantitative research will probably need advanced work in statistics; students doing historical, critical, or interpretive scholarship will probably need additional courses in qualitative and/or other methods of research. Some students may need competency in a foreign language.

 

 

C.         Additional Course Requirements/Guidelines:

1.         May transfer up to 30 hours although fewer hours are recommended.

2.         A minimum of 3 UMass Amherst graduate course credits taken outside the Department.

3.         12 department course credits at the 700-800 level, exclusive of independent study, are required.

4.         A maximum of 6 hours independent study credit tutorial credit (counted toward 66) is allowed.

5.         33 hours of Communication credits (27 of which must be exclusive of independent study) are required.

 

 

Group 3 Requirements

(Ph.D. students with a B.A. in Communication)

A.         Departmental Core Courses (16 credits)

1.         Comm 611: Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Human Communication (3 credits)

2.         Comm 620: Qualitative Methods (3 credits)

3.         Comm 621: Quantitative Methods (3 credits)

4.         Comm 801 and 802: Proseminar: Graduate Introduction to Communication (1 credit)

5.         Two courses (6 credits) from the following: Comm 613 Theories of Social Interaction, Comm 614 Media Theories, Comm 615 Survey in Performance Studies, and Comm 616 Introduction to Film Studies

 

B.         Research Tool (9 credits)

Three courses designated as “tool courses” beyond Comm 620 and 621 are required. Tool courses facilitate the student’s dissertation research, and are typically courses which demonstrate both how to collect data or materials, and then procedures for analyzing those data or materials. It will be up to the student’s Plan of Study Committee to specify particular competencies as tools. For example, students doing quantitative   research will probably need advanced work in statistics; students doing historical, critical, or interpretive scholarship will probably need additional courses in qualitative and/or other methods of research. Some students may need competency in a foreign language.

 

C.         Additional Course Requirements/Guidelines:

1.         May transfer up to 21 hours of credit through some combination of graduate coursework, publications or additional academic training beyond the B.A. degree (as determined by GPD, Admissions, and Plan of Study Committees).

2.         A maximum of 6 UMass Amherst graduate course credits taken outside the Department.

3.         15 department course credits at the 700-800 level, exclusive of independent study, are required.

4.         A maximum of 6 hours independent study credit or tutorial credit (counted toward 66) is advised, although credits may be added per Guidance committee determination.

 

For all PhD students, the following are the degree requirements beyond coursework:

 

• Successfullly complete and defend the comprehensive exams
• Write, successfully defend, and file a dissertation prospectus
• Write, successfully defend, and file a dissertation

PhD Requirements that Apply Regardless of the Matriculation Year

 

Residence Requirements

The equivalent of at least one academic year of full-time graduate work (9 credits per semester) must be spent at the University. The requirement for a year in residence may be satisfied only by the student’s physical presence on campus for two consecutive semesters, either a fall-spring sequence or a spring-fall sequence. During the residency year, the student may not be employed more than half time.

 

Advising

The Graduate Program Director advises all incoming graduate students in their first semester of study. By the middle of the student’s second semester (in consultation with the Graduate Program Director), each student will select an advisor. The student will then consult with the advisor and Graduate Program Director in order to form a Plan of Study Committee. The Plan of Study Committee must include at least three departmental members of the Graduate Faculty, including the advisor. Students then re-constitute their committees at the comprehensive exam and dissertation stages, so these committees can change at these various stages, and must change at the dissertation stage when an outside member is required.

 

Forms and Paperwork

Most milestones or transitional points require paperwork. Pay close attention to email, consult the department website, and communicate with the Graduate Program administrator to find out what forms are required at each degree stage.

 

Filing a Plan-of-Study

By the midpoint of the second semester, the student, with their advisor and in consultation with the Plan of Study Committee, will complete a Plan-of-Study indicating the courses they plan to take. The Plan-of-Study will be signed by the student, the Chair of the Guidance Committee, and the Graduate Program Director. After approval by the Graduate Program Director, the Plan-of-Study will be filed with the Graduate Program Administrator.

 

The Plan-of-Study should be reviewed periodically and changed if necessary. Changes in the initial Plan- of-Study are to be approved by the Chair of the Guidance Committee and the Graduate Program Director. The Plan-of-Study will be reviewed by the GPD to ensure completion of all coursework requirements before the comprehensive exams can be scheduled.

 

 

 

Graduate Course Offerings

 

REQUIRED COURSES

 

•          Comm 611: Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Human Communication

•          Comm 620: Research Methods I (Qualitative Methods)

•          Comm 621: Research Methods II (Quantitative Methods)

•          Comm 801 and 802: Proseminar: Graduate Introduction to Communication

 

AREA SURVEYS

 

•          Comm 613: Theories of Social Interaction

• Comm 614: Media Theories

•          Comm 615: Survey of Performance Studies

•          Comm 616: Introduction to Film Theories

 

PERMANENT TITLES

• 540 - Internet Governance & Information Policy
• 627 - Fixing Social Media
• 690E - Ethnography of the Digital
• 705 - Race, Media and Politics
• 712 Political Communication
• 724 Audience Research and Cultural Studies
• 791E - Television Studies: Text, Culture, Industry
• 794B Critical Pedagogy
• 794M - Field Research Methods in Communication
• 795M Performance Ethnography
• 795N -Cultural Studies: Theoretical Foundations

•          796: Independent Study

• 797E - Performing Survival
• 797P Media Archaeology
• 797U - Special Topics- Techno Imaginaries and the Global South

•          Comm 896: Directed Research

•          Comm 899: Ph.D. Dissertation[EW1] 

 

SPECIAL TOPICS

 

In addition to permanent titles, graduate courses are often offered on a Special Topics basis. Topics offered in recent semesters include:

 

• Argument, Conflict, and Mediation
• Citizenships and Belongings
• Communication and the Public Sphere
• Consumer Culture
• Content Analysis
• Food as Communication
• Intercultural Communication
• Media Effects
• Media Historiography
• Media Literacy
• Narrative and Mediated Storytelling
• Political Economy of Communication
• Technology, Ethics, and Media Justice

 

Tutorials

In addition to standard course offerings, tutorials may be offered under one circumstance: if a scheduled course is under-enrolled, the faculty member may decide to offer the course as a tutorial. This is arranged at the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered and allows students to take a graduate course that does not meet minimum enrollment requirements. Tutorials are structured with a regular syllabus including reading and writing requirements, meet at least six times in the course of a semester, and enroll a minimum of two graduate students in Communication. Tutorial credits are counted toward degree requirements, although students may apply no more than two tutorials (three credits each) to their Ph.D. program. Tutorials are numbered at the 700 level and count toward level requirements in the same way as do regular courses. Tutorials are regarded as overloads for faculty members.

 

 

 

Comprehensive Examinations

 

After all coursework in the Plan of Study has been completed, the student takes a Comprehensive Examination under the guidance of the Comprehensive Exam Committee consisting of the student’s advisor and two other members of the Communication faculty. Any outside member must be in addition to three faculty members from the Department. These may or may not be the same three members from the student’s Plan of Study Committee. Students typically constitute this committee in the second half of their second year.

 

Successful completion of the comprehensive exam shows that the student is experienced in secondary research and has the skills to perform original research, can articulate their position in the discipline, and shows skills for teaching in it.

 

The comprehensive exams, or “comps,” consist of six components, only three of which are traditional exams. Students must successfully complete these six components and pass an oral defense before they can progress to their Dissertation Prospectus.

The three comps components that are not traditional exams are:

1)    A[EW2]  research paper in a “ready for journal submission” state.

2)    A reflection paper in which the student provides a statement about the communication discipline and how they position themselves in this field.

3)    A comprehensive syllabus for a 400-level seminar in the student’s area of expertise accompanied by a brief reflection paper.

Students should begin developing these three components during coursework and must have them completed by the time they take their three traditional exams.

The three traditional exams are a combination of closed-book and take-home exams that are completed during a 14-day exam period that is scheduled at least three months before the exam date. The three exams are in theories, methods, and the student’s area of specialty. At least one of these exams must be closed-book (3 hours, or 4 hours for students for whom English is their second language).

 

Guidelines for the Comps Research Paper

For this element of the comprehensive exam, you need to submit a "ready-for-submission" research paper. This paper can be a result of a seminar or prior work, which you, with your comps committee members’ help, continue to work on in order to make it ready for submission to a double-blind refereed journal. This paper should be solo-authored, and be significantly based on work completed while in the UMass Comm PhD Program. If work begun or significantly developed while in our program is published as a paper before the comps exams, it can be used as the publishable paper for these exams.

The article may have the following elements, depending on outlet, and perhaps others as suggested by your comprehensive exam committee:

 

• Title

• Abstract

• Key Words

• Introduction

• Theoretical framework

• Literature review

• Research question/ design/ methodological section

• Analysis or findings

• Conclusions

• References

The paper should be between 8000-10000 words, as this is the current word-number size for many publications in our field. Longer or shorter papers should have clear explanation for their length (unless they follow the journal's specifications). On top of the paper, you'll also need to submit the accompanying materials: 

 

1. Explanation of the reasoning for the specific journal to which the paper will be submitted. This decision can be based on either the field of the publication, relevant literature with which you engage, or other criteria. You may want to aim at a top tier journal in your area as your first choice. Design your paper to abide by the specific journal's demands for publications (length, citation style, requirements etc.) - see "author guide" or similar section in the specific journal.

 

2. A cover letter to the editor that will accompany the article itself. Such letters are important elements of the submission process, and writing the right letter to the right journal editor greatly enhances the chances of publication. The letter should be addressed to the specific editor (if journal has more than one editor) you have in mind for the publication, explaining why your article is best fitted to this journal and why this journal best fits the article. 

 

Criteria for Assessment: Each comprehensive exam committee has the flexibility to communicate their own criteria for assessing the paper. The Graduate Studies committee makes the following suggestions: 

• Originality and significance of the article and its arguments together with its clarity, coherence, and organizational structure. A passing paper should receive "submit without changes” or "minor revision" at the oral defense from all three members. 

• Appropriateness of the article for the selected journal and the reasoning for it, and prestige of the chosen journal 

• Clear argumentation of the letter to the editor and other elements requested 

The paper and its accompanying materials should be handed in to the Graduate Administrator no later than the last scheduled comprehensive exam.

 

Guidelines for the Comps Reflection Paper 

A reflection paper on communication as a field/discipline and the student's place/scholarly interest in relation to the field/discipline. This paper provides a basis for the research statement of the candidate during their job search. Although the field of communication is made up of many diverse areas, we are one professional discipline, and this paper should tell a coherent story of the student's position in this discipline, regardless of subfield and interdisciplinary influences. The paper should be based on student’s coursework, which can include required theory, methods, pro-seminar, and survey courses, among others, and other relevant scholarly or personal experiences.

You might consider the following as organizing questions: 

• Where did the idea of "communication" come from and how has it changed and/or remained constant over time and space? 

• What is the difference between Communication and Communications and does it matter? 

• How do various subfields with which you are familiar contribute (or not) to each other and what might we learn from these literatures? 

• What is interdisciplinary about the discipline/field and what might a view from "outside" contribute to your subfields? 

Format: 3000-word essay. Material from this paper should be easily transferable to a cover letter for a job, job talk, personal statement, etc. References should include general theorists on the idea of communication as well as those more specific to the student's orientation. Criteria for assessment: Each comprehensive exam committee has the flexibility to communicate their own criteria for assessing the paper. The Graduate Studies committee makes the following suggestions: 

• Student has responded to one or more of the questions above in a comprehensive fashion. 

• Student has reflected on the relationship of their subfield to the overall field/discipline of communication. 

• Student has articulated their place in the field, their research trajectory, and the ways they seek to contribute to the [EW3] field.

 

Guidelines for the Comps Syllabus 

A Syllabus of the student's design, including different elements such as: objectives, skills, assignments, week-to-week readings. This part of the exam reflects on the pro-seminar, student's teaching career, and the courses they took. It is a syllabus for a seminar (upper-level undergraduate) course in the student's area of expertise, where they demonstrate their approach to teaching and conveying the knowledge they feel is important for undergraduate students. The syllabus is also a means for the student (in the examination and on the job market) to communicate teaching philosophies, technologies, innovations, and effective teaching. For these reasons, a one-page pedagogical statement, explaining the rationale for the course topic and design should accompany the syllabus. Students should design a course syllabus for advanced undergraduates in their specialty area. The syllabus should allow the committee and future employers to position them in the field as a potential teacher of courses in, e.g., media and cultural studies, digital media and technology studies, language and interaction studies, etc. The syllabus may be included in their teaching portfolio as part of job applications and may be referred to in interviews regarding teaching. 

 

Guidelines for the three "traditional" comps exams 

Preparation:  At least three months in advance of the examination dates, the comprehensive exams committee and student meet to discuss the examination structure, timeline, and other issues relating to this process. Faculty members serving on the committee work with the student to jointly develop study questions, reading lists, or other means for delimiting examination subject areas. 

Format: At least one of the three exams will be a closed-book, 3-hour exam (four hours for students for whom English is not their first language).  The allocation of the remaining two exams between closed book and take-home exams will be determined by individual committees. All take-home portions of the exam must be completed within 48 hours of the student receiving the question. The three examination questions (all in the student’s subject area) will be distributed as follows: one question in theories, one question in methods, and one question in a specialty area defined by the committee and student. Specialty areas are defined as those areas in which a student wishes to focus her/his scholarship, e.g., ethnography of communication about nature, critical discourse analysis and race, cultural production and sustainability, gaming and media effects, performance ethnography and higher education. Theories and methods are generally comprised of theories and tools broadly as well as those that a student will most rely on for a research career in his/her specialty, e.g., social construction theories, and ethnographic research methods. The two open responses should observe the following guidelines: 

• Maximum of 15 pages, double-spaced.

• There should be a developed, integrated arc or line of argument using, and responding to, literature in the area, rather than just summarizing relevant research.

• The answers should clearly address the question posed and respond in an organized manner (e.g., utilizing subsections with headings). 

 

 

Procedures for Scheduling and Writing

 

At least three months in advance of the examination dates, the student must complete an “Approved Examination Schedule.” This must be signed by the student, the advisor, and the Graduate Program Director and submitted to the Graduate Administrator, who will schedule an examination room. The exam question materials must be submitted over 14 days from the first day of writing, and all materials (research paper, statement of the field, syllabus) must be submitted by the last day of the exam period.

 

Upon submission of the written examinations, all members of the Comprehensive Exam Committee will evaluate all the exam materials. They will provide the student’s advisor their evaluation of the materials, to let them know if the student is ready to defend their comprehensive exam orally. In cases where answers are “Unsatisfactory” the student will have one opportunity for rewriting, within the regular semester following the submission of the written materials. Once the student has satisfactorily completed the written examination, the Comprehensive Exam Committee, chaired by the advisor, will conduct an oral examination, or defense. All written and oral portions of the examination must receive the unanimous approval of the Comprehensive Exam Committee. It is the responsibility of the student’s advisor to report in writing the results of the examination to the Graduate Program Director.

 

 

Defenses

For certain milestones in the program—comprehensive exams, prospectus, and dissertation—successful completion requires an oral defense. A defense must be scheduled formally with the graduate administrator. Dissertation defenses must be scheduled at least 30 days in advance to allow for the defense to be advertised in the Graduate Bulletin for the required time period—a Graduate School rule. Comprehensive exam and prospectus exam defenses are typically private -- just the student and their committee. Dissertation defenses are by definition public (because of the publicity in the Graduate School Bulletin), but students can use their discretion in publicizing the defense within the Department and beyond.

 

Defenses for all milestones are scheduled for two hours. As of this writing, all defenses can take place online via live video, but they can also meet in person. The exact format of the defense is up to the committee chair, however they should include a question and answer period where the committee asks the student questions about their work. And they should include a confidential deliberation when the committee deliberates about the student’s work and performance in the defense in order to decide what the defense outcome will be (Pass, Fail, Request for Revisions) and what feedback to share with the student. After the deliberation the committee reconvenes with the student to share that outcome and feedback.

Dissertation Credits

After completing coursework, and preferably while still in funding, the student enrolls in dissertation credits. Typically, students take 9 credits of dissertation credit each semester during their third or fourth years of funding. The minimum number of dissertation credits required by the Department is 12. Students are not required to be in residence to enroll in dissertation credits, but once out of funding they must pay the associated tuition and fees.

Dissertation Committee

After the comprehensive exams have been completed, the student should form a Dissertation Committee made up of at least three members of the graduate faculty. The faculty members serving on the Dissertation Committee may or may not include those who served on the Comprehensive Exam Committee. At least two members of the Dissertation Committee shall be from the Department of Communication (which includes the advisor). The third member must be from outside the UMass Amherst Department of Communication. This can be a faculty member from another department at UMass, from the Five Colleges, or from another institution (including international institutions). For faculty from other institutions, an application must be made to the UMass Graduate School for a one-time appointment to the Graduate Faculty, which must be signed by the Graduate Program Director. It shall be the responsibility of the Dissertation Committee to approve the dissertation research proposal (or prospectus), to supervise its execution, and to execute its formal evaluation (or oral examination). Once the committee has been formed the student should submit the names to the Graduate Program Director, who recommends the committee for approval to the Dean of the Graduate School.

Dissertation Prospectus

After the comprehensive exams have been completed, and with the guidance of the Dissertation Committee, the student begins writing the dissertation prospectus. The prospectus may vary in length, depending on the methods, topic, and approach to study. The prospectus usually includes research questions, the theoretical framework guiding the inquiry, a comprehensive review of literature of the area being studied, a statement of the significance of the project, a description of the research procedures to be used in the study, a tentative table of contents, a working bibliography, and a tentative schedule for the dissertation work. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Dissertation Committee to arrange an oral defense of the document with other members of the committee and the candidate for the purpose of discussing the research project before approving the Dissertation Prospectus. The Dissertation Committee will have direct charge of all matters pertaining to the Dissertation.

The Dissertation Prospectus signature page is signed by each member of the Dissertation Committee and the Chair to indicate approval of the topic and its plan of execution. The student has the responsibility to see that the signed prospectus is delivered to the Dean of the Graduate School to be placed in the student’s file. Important note: Per Departmental rules, the signed prospectus must be received by the Graduate School at least seven months prior to the final oral examination of the dissertation.

Dissertation and Final Oral Examination

All members of the Dissertation Committee must approve the dissertation as “ready for defense” before the final oral examination is scheduled. This examination shall be scheduled when all of the Dissertation Committee members agree that the dissertation is sufficiently complete to stand defense; passing the defense, and/or recommending the degree are not implied simply by scheduling the examination.

When a date is agreed upon by the candidate and all members of their Dissertation Committee, the Chair of the Dissertation Committee must inform the Graduate School via the Graduate Secretary of the date of the oral examination, the time, the building in which it will take place and the room number (or if it will be held online through synchronous video). The memorandum must reach the Graduate School one month in advance of the oral examination. This final examination will be announced in the online University publication Inside UMass.

This final examination (the traditional “dissertation defense”) should be at least partly oral. It may be completely oral, but written parts are not precluded, at the discretion of the Dissertation Committee. The final defense will pertain primarily, but not necessarily be limited, to the candidate’s dissertation. The examination will be conducted by the candidate’s Dissertation Committee (all members of which must be present, including the “outside” member). Attendance at the final oral examination is open to all members of the candidate’s major department and any member of the Graduate Faculty. To pass, the candidate must receive the unanimous vote of the Dissertation Committee; other faculty members present shall not vote. Two negative votes shall constitute failure of the examination. A single negative vote will result in the degree being held in abeyance pending review and action by the Graduate Studies Committee. The Committee may ask for revisions after the defense and, therefore, pass the student provisionally, pending appropriate corrections.

Following the final oral examination, the Chair of the Dissertation Committee submits a memorandum to the Graduate Program Director indicating the results of the examination. The Graduate Program Director then communicates the results to the Graduate School.

Submitting the Dissertation

The dissertation submission must be prepared according to the specifications in “Guidelines for Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations” which are available online at the Graduate School’s website. Students are required to submit the dissertation electronically. The students should check with the Graduate School for the most current submission guidelines.

Graduate School Requirements

The Department of Communication requires that a grade of B- or better be earned for every course used to fulfill Program Requirements for the Ph.D. degree.  A grade of B or better must be earned in required courses (611, 620, 621 and 801/802), and in introductory survey classes (613, 614, 615, and 616).

The Graduate Faculty evaluates all students each Spring. Students are invited to submit a self- report about their progress and accomplishments to the Graduate Program Director, who forwards it to the advisor. Students’ advisors then submit their evaluation of the student’s progress to the Graduate Program Director. These evaluations are then reviewed by the Graduate Program Director in consultation with the Graduate Faculty at the Spring Graduate Program meeting. Students receive a designation of “In Good Standing,” “Needs Improvement,” or “Show Cause.” A second consecutive evaluation of Needs Improvement constitutes a Show Cause.

In Good Standing

A rating of “In Good Standing” is given to students who demonstrate satisfactory progress toward the completion of their degree. Students in good standing are prioritized in the process of awarding research and travel grants and fellowships in the Department. Being in good standing is typically required for Graduate School grants.

Students who have recently entered the program stay in good standing by completing their classes on time and with satisfactory grades. Once coursework is completed, students must demonstrate timely progress on milestones (comprehensive exams, prospectus, and dissertation) in order to remain in good standing. Guidelines for what constitutes timely progress appear in the Degree Timetable section of this Handbook. The dissertation writing process can vary in length depending on factors related to the type of scholarship being conducted (research method, etc.), as well as on how much time students have to devote to dissertation work. This is taken into account when evaluating student progress in completing the dissertation.

Needs Improvement

A rating of “Needs Improvement” is automatically awarded to a student under any of the following circumstances:

• the student has two or more incomplete courses on their transcript,
• the student’s GPA is below a 3.0 (cumulatively OR in a single semester)
• the student has not in a timely way formed a Plan of Study Committee, or filed a Plan of Study in the second semester.

A “Needs Improvement” will also be awarded if the graduate faculty concludes that the student is not making satisfactory and timely progress through milestones (comprehensive exams, prospectus, and dissertation writing).

Staying In

Both the Graduate School and the Department have rules describing the standards for continued enrollment in degree programs. These rules are summarized here.

Administrative Withdrawal: The Graduate School will automatically withdraw any student who fails to pay University bills.

Withdrawal for Failure to Enroll: A student who fails to enroll will be automatically terminated. To re-enroll, it is necessary to request from the Graduate Program Director authorization for readmission. A student is required to pay a readmission fee plus any required tuition or fees.

Academic Dismissal: Students who do not perform at levels appropriate for graduate work are subject to dismissal by the Graduate School. This may happen in the following ways:

1.  Inadequate Grade Point Average: The Graduate School stipulates that a student who earns less than a 2.7 average (4.0 = A) is subject to academic dismissal. Dismissal is not automatic, allowing the Graduate Program Director discretion in the event of significant mitigating circumstances. An incomplete (INC) grade converts to an incomplete failure (IF) after two semesters, and is averaged into the GPA. In special circumstances (e.g., serious illness) a student can petition the instructor, the advisory committee, and the GPD with a written request for a one-semester extension in which to complete the coursework for a grade. Note: Graduate degrees are not awarded to students with less than a 3.0 overall GPA in courses applied to degree requirements.
    
2.  Failure to Make Satisfactory Progress toward the Degree. This may occur in a range of circumstances, including, for example, if the number of incomplete courses exceeds what is considered to be appropriate, or if the student receives a grade of “Failure” on comprehensive exams, or the thesis or dissertation defense. A failure in any of these degree requirements will mean dismissal from the program.

Finishing

Each semester (and during the summer) the Graduate School distributes a summary page describing procedures and deadlines for students expecting to receive a degree at the end of that term. All students are responsible for checking to see that all appropriate forms are on file.

Example Deadlines for Awarding Degrees:
September degree: August 31, 2023
February degree: January 16, 2024
May degree: April , 2024