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Department of Communication Members Attend the National Communication Association Convention

Department members presented papers, participated in panels, chaired events, spread the word about our program, and more.

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Department holds COMM First Look Fair

Students get a "first look" at COMM Department groups and initiatives

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Dr. Ganga Dhanesh Delivers Keynote Address

Dr. Ganga Dhanesh delivers keynote address at the 24th annual congress of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association.

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Communication & Media Career & Internship Fair

Don't miss this exciting opportunity to connect with employers in your career fields of interest.

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Communication for the Public Good

The Department of Communication is committed to producing innovative and influential scholarship, service to the discipline and community, and leadership in the discipline and profession of communication. The Department of Communication’s mission is to provide quality undergraduate and graduate student education that prepares B.A., M.A., M.P.S., and Ph.D. students to successfully enter their chosen careers in communication and related fields through our educational leadership in communication research, theory, and practice. The Department achieves this mission through the pursuit of Communication for the public good.

Explore Communication at UMD

Undergraduate Students

Interested in our undergraduate program?

The Department of Communication at the University of Maryland offers a B.A. in communication, a rhetoric minor and an oral communication program. Communication is a Top Ten major at the University of Maryland and has been for ten years.


Graduate Students

Graduate Students


Faculty and Staff Information

Faculty and Staff Information

Search our directory to learn about our faculty and staff, or access resources relevant to faculty and staff.


Hillary Clinton's Career in Speeches

The Promises and Perils of Women's Rhetorical Adaptivity

Communication

Author/Lead: Shawn J. Parry-Giles
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): David S. Kaufer (Mellon Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University), Xizhen Cia (Assistant Professor, Williams College)
Dates:
Book cover

"In examining Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric, the authors find a full-bodied politician, not the caricature so often offered up by the media. Using highly novel analytical procedures, the authors point up Clinton’s complexity and dynamism and juxtapose them with the very real prejudices women still face in U.S. politics. This book will rankle the reader. And it should."
Roderick P. Hart, author of American Eloquence: Language and Leadership in the Twentieth Century

Women candidates are under more pressure to communicate competence and likability than men. When women balance these rhetorical pressures, charges of inauthenticity creep in, suggesting the structural and strategic anti-woman backlash at play in presidential politics. Hillary Clinton demonstrated considerable ability to adapt her rhetoric across roles, contexts, genres, and audiences. Comparisons between Clinton’s campaign speeches and those of her presidential opponents (Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump) show that her rhetorical range exceeded theirs. Comparisons with Democratic women candidates of 2020 suggest they too exhibited a rhetorical range and faced a backlash similar to Clinton. Hillary Clinton’s Career in Speeches combines statistical text-mining methods with close reading to analyze the rhetorical highs and lows of one of the most successful political women in U.S. history. Drawing on Clinton’s oratory across governing and campaigning, the authors debunk the stereotype that she was a wooden and insufferably wonkish speaker. They marshal evidence for the argument that the sexist tactics in American politics function to turn women’s rhetorical strengths into political liabilities. 

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Understanding transnational decontextualization-recontextualization through Shingeki no Kyojin: The perils and possibilities surrounding Japanese manga and anime

We examine how the transnational process of decontextualization-recontextualization can shift the messages of popular culture texts as situated in differing collective memories.

Communication

Author/Lead: Fielding Montgomery, Meg Itoh
Dates:

Japanese anime has continued to gain recognition as one of the strongest cultural influences in a globalized world. We examine how the transnational process of decontextualization-recontextualization can shift the messages of popular culture texts as situated in differing collective memories. To highlight this process, we analyze Shingeki no Kyojin (known to English-speaking audiences as Attack on Titan). Shingeki no Kyojin provides insightful grounds for analysis given its tremendous popularity in both Japan and beyond, its message of resistance against U.S. militarism, and its recontextualized uptake by the American alt-right, even including an Arizona congressman. Our analysis reveals the importance of understanding popular culture alongside context and the impact of decontextualized-recontextualized transformations of meaning on transnational processes of collective memory discourse.

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‘Our pain prioritized for once’: Survivor-centred Black podcasts reckoning with Surviving R. Kelly

Calls to cancel singer R. Kelly have been around for decades, but they intensified with the twin debuts of the #MeToo and #MuteRKelly movements in 2017.

Communication

Author/Lead: Briana Barner
Dates:

The Surviving R. Kelly documentary, which premiered in 2019, chronicled the decades of abuse at the hands of Kelly, with appearances from survivors, their supporters and those closest to Kelly. Although what was presented in Surviving R. Kelly is not necessarily new information, the cultural shift that stemmed from #MuteRKelly and #MeToo helped to catapult the experiences of the primarily Black women and girls into mainstream media and ultimately led to Kelly being convicted of the crimes. Days after the documentary initially premiered in 2019, several Black podcasts reviewed the series – Tea with Queen and J, The Clubhouse with Mouse Jones and Marsha’s Plate. This article will provide a textual analysis of these episodes, as the episodes present a reflection on Black media, community and accountability. This article will explore how podcasts grappled with Black media’s complicity in the tangled web of abuse, while also providing survivor-centred content. Why are podcasts important spaces to grapple with difficult conversations among Black communities? What can podcast episodes show us about survivor-centred content and accountability?

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