Communication, BA
UP’s Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Communication offers a liberal arts approach to understanding communication as a central constitutive feature – as rich and intriguing building material – of human society. This degree guides students' understandings and applied learnings about how interpersonal, organizational, cultural, and mediated communications operate to shape people's personal, group, and societal attitudes, values, beliefs, identities, and actions.
While building several core communication understandings, each student and their advisor also shape their specific upper-division coursework to suit each student's particular learning goals. UP COM students commonly shape Communication B.A. coursework to develop their expertise and knowledge of inter/cultural, environmental, relational, organizational, and/or mediated communication (including journalism), among many diverse and distinct possibilities.
UP’s Communication BA well-prepares students for a wide range of professional work and for graduate study in communication and related fields, such as law, counseling, public policy and many other avocations. A host of community-based academic internships also enrich COM students’ explorations of the professional opportunities open to them.
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MEET THE FACULTY: Dr. Azeb Madebo
Bachelor of Arts in Communication: Curriculum Overview
Three primary Areas of Study:
(a) Organizational and Relational Communication
(b) Culture and Communication
(c) Environmental Communication
University Core: 40 credit hours
CAS Core: 24-33 credit hours
Major Requirements – 45 credit hours
1. Required courses - 15 credit hours
COM 101 Introduction to Communication and MediaCOM 107 Public Speaking for Change
COM 225 Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others
COM 233 Organizing Across Contexts
COM 265 Media Literacy and Culture
2. Research Methods Courses – 6 credit hours
Select two courses from the following:
COM 300 Quantitative Research MethodsCOM 320 Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
COM 330 Qualitative Research Methods
COM 392 Special Topics: Methods
3. Upper-division COM courses – 21 credit hours (sstudents select SEVEN 3-credit upper-division CST courses in consultation with their academic advisors. At least 3 of these must be 400-level.)
Areas of Study and sample courses include:
Organizational and Relational Communication
COM 332 Transforming Group and Team CommunicationCOM 333 The Future of Work
COM 425 Radical Relationships: Love, Care, Grief
COM 432 Embodiments of Place: Ecology, Trauma, and Belonging
COM 433 Critical Perspectives on Work, Labor, and Organizing
COM 434 Researching Organizational Life: Identity, Culture, Voice
Culture and Communication
COM 391: Media and Identity: Race, Nation, and EthnicityCOM 411 Communicating Across Barriers
COM 417 Intercultural Conflict Transformation
COM 431 Intercultural Communication and Identity
COM 435 Visual Culture
COM 440 Media Criticism
Environmental Communication
COM 370 Environmental Organizing and AdvocacyCOM 402 Resist! Activist Communication for Social & Environmental Justice
COM 405 Evolution, Ecology, and Culture in East Africa
COM 432 Embodiments of Place: Ecology, Trauma, and Belonging
COM 470 Plants, Nonhuman Animals, Food Systems, and Climate Communication
4. Senior Project – 3 credit hours
To be completed senior year:
COM 475 Senior Capstone
