Program Overview

Introduction to the Communication Program

The Department of Communication at UC San Diego offers a program of study leading to the doctor of philosophy degree. The graduate program combines modes of analysis from the humanities and social sciences to explore the history, structure, and process of communication.

The Graduate Program

The study of communication at UC San Diego places major emphasis on historical, comparative, and ethnographic approaches to mediated human communication. Study is organized around the following three analytic perspectives:

• Communication as a social force
• Communication and culture
• Communication and human information processing

Communication as a Social Force

This part of the curriculum examines the relation of communication institutions to structures of power in society. It covers topics such as:

• Communication and political systems: state, law, regulation, social movements, and political parties, democracy
• Communication and economic systems: markets, ownership, access; "demographics" and class/gender/racial and national stratification
• The production of content within media industries

Faculty research includes:

• The study of news as public information and political ideology
• Intellectual property and the flow of culture between global North and South
• The relationships among law, communication technologies, ownership, democracy, and the public sphere
• Comparative analysis of media systems
• Communication, globalization, and economic development

Communication and Culture

This part of the curriculum examines the cultural artifacts and discourses through which we experience our everyday lives, including:

• Popular music, films, and television shows
• Advertisements
• Museum displays
• Landscape and urban design
• Health and identity documentation systems

Faculty research includes:

• Collective memory and the struggles over the meaning of the past
• The cultural politics of reproduction and kinship networks
• Political violence as performance
• Disability and culture in historical and contemporary perspective

Communication and The Person

This part of the curriculum examines the ways in which our experience as human beings is created by the communicative practices of the societies in which we live and the cultural practices of our families and communities. It draws on fields such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and education to examine processes like:

• Learning and cognition
• Language structure and language use
• The construction and negotiation of meaning
• The organization of mental worlds

Faculty research includes:

• The evolution of language and communication in human beings
• The role of new communicative practices in human development
• Human cognition as distributed among people and coordinated in communicative practices
• The development of reading and writing in young children
• The use of technology to study human thought
• Bilingual and bicultural development in a globalized world
• The use of information technology in work and leisure

Communication and Media Practice

Faculty work in video, film, and interactive media production as well as in research scholarship. Graduate students are offered the opportunity to integrate creative practice in media production into their program of study. Some communication faculty production interests include:

• Hybrid documentary and narrative forms
• Alternative representation of gender, race, and ethnicity in film and electronic media
• Distributed and networked media production
• Digital media based on game-like forms
• Development and use of media technology in and for educational contexts
• Global media networks
• Experimental approaches to cinematography and sound design
• Media as a tool for social and political activism

PhD Requirements

To complete the PhD program, students must fulfill the following requirements:

1. 200A-B-C (Introduction to the Theory of Communication as a Social Force, Communication and Culture, and Communication and the Individual)
2. 294, The History of Communication Research
3. At least three methods courses from the 201 methodology sequence
4. Four courses in communication history and theory
5. 280, Advanced Workshop in Communication Media
6. 296, Communication Research as an Interdisciplinary Activity
7. First-Year Exam and Evaluation: At the end of the spring quarter of the student's first year, the student must pass a comprehensive written examination based on course work completed during the first year
8. The Department of Communication does not require demonstration of proficiency in a language other than English for all graduate students
9. Qualifying Examinations: Before the end of the fourth year, the student must take and pass an oral qualifying examination
10. Teaching Requirement: All students are required to participate in the teaching activities of the department in two courses from the Department of Communication curriculum prior to completion of their PhD
11. Dissertation: Acceptance of the dissertation by the university librarian represents the final step in completing all requirements for a PhD

PhD Time Limit Policies

• Students must be advanced to candidacy by the end of four years
• Total university support cannot exceed seven years
• Total registered time at UC San Diego cannot exceed eight years

Interdisciplinary Programs of Study

Science Studies Program

The Department of Communication offers a PhD specialty that emphasizes the role of various communication technologies in science studies. The curriculum in communication is organized into three fields: communication as a social force, communication and culture, and communication and human information processing.

Specialization in Critical Gender Studies

Students in the doctoral program in communication may apply for a specialization in critical gender studies to complement their course work and research in communication. The Critical Gender Studies Program is built on the intellectual foundations of intersectional feminist thought and queer studies.

Specialization in Cognitive Science

The graduate specialization in cognitive science is only available to students currently enrolled in a PhD program at UC San Diego in the following departments: anthropology, communication, computer science and engineering, data science, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and sociology.

Specialization in Computational Social Science

Computational Social Science integrates large-scale data analysis with formal, causal models from social science domains. Students pursuing the specialization will find a clear path to accessing training in computational social science, a formal mechanism for recognizing their efforts, and access to a broad network of relevant scholars.