In the Department of Communication Studies, undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty work side-by-side to conduct breakthrough research and creative production that advances humanity’s understanding of ourselves and the complex, ever-changing world in which we live. You’ll be studying at the top-tier, AAU-accredit public research university alongside professors who are at the forefront of their discipline.
The department specializes in three areas that all collaborate to gain understanding and explain how different modes and media of communication shape people’s everyday lives.
Areas of Specialization
Interpersonal Communication & Relationships
How the communicative practices of relating in everyday life create, keep, and change who we are as individuals and the quality of our lives as social beings.
Media History & Culture
Critical and historical approaches to understanding modern media as technological, institutional, and cultural forces.
Rhetoric, Culture, Engagement
Rhetoric as world-making by fostering erratic intersections between materiality, culture, and power in an ever-changing world.
Research Participant Program
Participate in research studies within the Department of Communication Studies.
News and accomplishments
CLAS faculty member E Cram wins 2023 Rhetoric Society of America Book Award
Communication Studies Professor receives award from National Communication Association
Research and creative production in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
As part of a top-tier, AAU-accredited public research university, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences holds scholarly, scientific, and artistic discovery at the heart of our mission.
Throughout our departments and programs, our professors are at the forefront of their disciplines. They bring their world-class research and artistry into their classrooms, studios, and labs, giving students the unparalleled opportunity to learn right from the source of the latest innovations in knowledge and practice.
Graduate students and many undergraduates work side-by-side with faculty members, conducting breakthrough research and creative production that advances humanity’s understanding of ourselves and the complex, ever-changing world in which we live.
The creation of knowledge and understanding is an exhilarating and never-ending mission—and is at the core of every University of Iowa liberal arts and sciences education.