Javascript is currently not supported, or is disabled by this browser. Please enable Javascript for full functionality.

Skip to Main Content
University of Pittsburgh    
2019-2020 Graduate & Professional Studies Catalog 
    
 
  Apr 18, 2024
 
2019-2020 Graduate & Professional Studies Catalog [Archived Catalog]

Department of Communication


Return to Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Return to: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

The department offers the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in   Communication.   The curriculum emphasizes critical, cultural, historical, philosophical, and theoretical approaches to studying contexts of power, knowledge, and desire that exert differential impacts on various bodies and groups. Departmental research, teaching, and extracurricular community interventions attend to structures of power informing race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, ability, and other intersecting axes of social difference. Many students and faculty members examine the forms of persuasion, protest, silence, coming-to-voice, testimony, noise, and imagination needed to transform such power structures that produce and reproduce inequality.

Contact Information

Director of Graduate Studies: Dr. Ronald J. Zboray
Main Office: 1433 Cathedral of Learning
412-624-6569
Fax: 412-624-1878
E-mail: zboray@pitt.edu
http://www.comm.pitt.edu/

Additional information concerning the department’s graduate program may be obtained by contacting commgrad@pitt.edu or writing to University of Pittsburgh, Department of Communication, Graduate Admissions, 1433 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

Admissions

Admission is highly selective, and limited to those who can be funded. The program’s focus is on the PhD, and admission for the MA program will be limited to those deemed likely to complete the PhD.. In order to be considered for admission to graduate standing, students must meet the requirements of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and supply (by the first business day of the year) all materials called for in the department’s application guidelines, including a completed application form, copies of all post-secondary educational records, Graduate Record Examination scores sent directly from the Educational Testing Service, at least three letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose, and writing sample. Non-native speakers of English without a degree from an accredited institution of higher education in the U.S. must also have the Educational Testing Service send TOEFL scores as part of the application. Citizens of other nations follow a separate set of guidelines that include TOEFL requirements and certified /notarized translations of transcripts and diplomas for applicants from countries where English is not the official language. Upon admission, candidates will be assigned an advisor who will assist them in planning a course of study.

Financial Assistance

The department makes every effort to sustain funding and full remission of tuition for five years of doctoral study for students entering directly from undergraduate programs, and four years for students entering with an M.A. or equivalent in Communication or cognate field. In addition to teaching assistantships there are also several non-teaching fellowships, including some dedicated to underrepresented groups, available through the University. See the listing of available fellowships for all graduate students at the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences http://www.asgraduate.pitt.edu/financial-support

William Pitt Debating Union

Graduate students interested in public argument and argumentation theory can pursue co-curricular study and teaching of argumentation practices by working with the William Pitt Debating Union (WPDU), one of the nation’s most venerable debating societies.

Faculty

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Faculty  

Programs

    DoctoralMaster’s

    Courses

      Communication: Rhet & Comm

      Return to Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Return to: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences



      Catalog Navigation