Research Areas
Our graduate program has three core areas of specialization: (1) Communication and Cognition, (2) Political Communication, and (3) Computational Communication. These research areas dovetail conceptually in important ways. Collectively, we investigate communicative processes at many levels of analysis. The study of low-level processing of multimodal information is important not only in ordinary social interaction, but also in understanding how people interface with digital media and computers. Many important aspects of digital media and political communication also involve high-level analysis of big data patterns. Our faculty have expertise in these overlapping scholarly domains. Below are brief descriptions of the areas, and the faculty members who can act as primary advisors for graduate students. Note that only faculty members listed here can act as a primary advisor
Communication and Cognition centers on the cognitive and perceptual processes involved in dyadic and small group interpersonal communication.
- Greg Bryant
- Rick Dale
- Tao Gao
- Martie Haselton
- Kerri Johnson
- Elisa Kreiss
- Steve Stroessner
- Anne Warlaumont
Political Communication is concerned with the processes and effects of institutional, political, and mass media communications and institutions, their historical development and their legal, regulatory, policy and economic aspects. Students and faculty working in this area meet regularly as the Communication and Politics Group.
- Tim Groeling
- Homa Hosseinmardi
- Jungseock Joo
- Georgia Kernell
- Stuart Soroka
Computational Communication involves the study of communication mediated by computer technology in both mass and interpersonal contexts.
- Rick Dale
- Tao Gao
- Homa Hosseinmardi
- Jungseock Joo
- Elisa Kreiss
- PJ Lamberson
- Anne Warlaumont
