Academics

Department of Communication to Host Ph.D. Info Session

The department of communication at UMass Amherst invites interested Ph.D. applicants to a virtual visit and meet-and-greet with faculty and current graduate students on Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 11:30 a.m.

The one-hour Zoom session aims to introduce you to faculty and their current research projects, connect you with graduate students and answer questions that can help demystify the application process.

For 49 years, the department of communication has produced innovative, influential and interdisciplinary scholarship about communication and its centrality to social, cultural and political processes. The department’s diverse areas of focus include digital technology studies, film and media studies, media and cultural production, media effects, rhetoric and performance studies, social interaction and culture, and the political economy of communication. From across these areas, our faculty and Ph.D. student community share a commitment to address issues of social inequality and work toward equity and social justice through our empirical research, multimodal scholarship, community outreach and teaching and mentoring.

Ph.D. students admitted to our program receive five years of funding. They are welcomed to the department’s vibrant research culture and the hospitable environment of the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley, including UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and Hampshire College. They benefit from diverse resources, including the option to pursue certificate programs in film studies, feminist studies, ethnographic research, data analytics and computational social science, and Caribbean, Latin American, and Latino studies. Recent Ph.D. grads have taken tenure-track job posts at Emerson College, the University of Colorado, the University of Houston, Vanderbilt University and Simon Fraser University.

For other inquiries, contact Ph.D. program admissions chair Jonathan Corpus Ong at jcong@umass.edu.