Spend Summer With Us!

Join UW COM in Summer 2024 for more than two dozen thought provoking communication courses. This summer the Department of Communication will offer a broad spectrum of courses from world class professors, including introduction to communication, public speaking, rhetoric, interpersonal communication, audio storytelling, and courses at the intersection of technology, history, ethics, law, writing, and … Read More

Mentorship For Black Professionals, Earbuds Not Included

In the past year, Tiana Cole and Brad Blackburn III have spoken with Black civic leaders, broadcasters, business owners, educators, nonprofit directors, and other successful professionals about their careers — including how race has factored into their journeys. Their unfiltered conversations are now streaming on Identity Unboxed, a podcast launched in 2023. Cole (BA, Journalism and … Read More

Where Media And Politics Meet

Where do you seek information about politics and elections? Have your sources changed over time? In this roundtable, three faculty in the UW Department of Communication — Adrienne Russell, Matthew Powers, and Patricia Moy — talk with Perspectives editor Nancy Joseph about the role of media in creating an informed public. Russell and Powers are co-directors of … Read More

UW Communication at NCA

The National Communication Association, one of our discipline’s largest scholarly organizations, will be convening this month in Maryland and UW Communication will be there in force. If you plan to be at NCA this year, be sure to connect with us! UW Communication scholar presentations: Leah Ceccarelli: panelist on “Urgent, Precarious, and Impure: Rhetoric and … Read More

UW Communication student gains valuable experience abroad in ¡SpainWorks! program

The term “study abroad” can sometimes evoke vacation mode, a fun opportunity to earn credits while exploring a different culture. However, for rising senior Skylar Strotz (Communication, Sociology) it also meant completing a challenging yet rewarding communications internship, all in a foreign language. Strotz is among the first students selected for UW’s new ¡SpainWorks! internship … Read More

Scheidel lecturer Dr. Dawna Ballard on how effective organizations communicate slow to go fast

This spring, the Department of Communication welcomed organizational communication scholar Dr. Dawna I. Ballard of the University of Texas, Austin, who delivered the Department’s annual Scheidel Lecture. A departmental tradition for 25 years, the Scheidel Lecture invites scholars conducting cutting edge communication research to share their work with the broader UW Communication community. In her … Read More

Kirsten Foot’s Team Produced a Toolkit for Journalism on Human Trafficking

Dr. Kirsten Foot, the Dart Endowed Professor of Trauma, Journalism, and Communication, has released an open-access Toolkit for Hope-Based and Solutions-Oriented Journalism on Human Trafficking. Dr. Foot co-produced the Toolkit with Deborah Pembrook, Sharan Dhanoa, and Dr. Nicole Dahmen, with contributions from Department members Meg Spratt and Tommy Ferguson, as well as journalists, human trafficking … Read More

UW Communication Alum Receives $1 Million National Science Foundation Award

Alexa Bednarz (UW Communication, 2012) spent seven years working in Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation before founding her own social enterprise, Eco-Shelter Inc. Eco-Shelter is increasing access to affordable and sustainable building materials for low-income consumers in emerging markets. Their pilot product, the Eco-Roof Panel, is made from resin-coated bamboo mats … Read More

Note from the Chair

“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”  — Laura Ingalls Wilder Dear Friends, I hope you’re enjoying some old-fashioned fresh air and sunshine this spring. I don’t need to tell you that it has been a difficult couple of years, and that many of our shared challenges have yet to … Read More

Introducing Megan Buxton

We are happy to introduce our new Outreach and Alumni Relations Manager, Megan Buxton! Megan received her Bachelors of Arts in Communication from Boise State University and completed her Masters in Education at Texas State University. She has worked in Alumni Relations and/or Annual Giving at nonprofits and institutions including Texas State University, Southwestern University, … Read More