Our Approach to Learning

Our department consists of nationally known scholars, outstanding students, and executive faculty drawn from top communication firms.

Our founding corporate partnerships with MARC USA (an advertising and integrated marketing communication agency) and Ketchum Public Relations strengthen our ongoing emphasis on communication research and development.

We conduct research and development in:

  • Advertising
  • Corporate Communication
  • Integrated Marketing Communication
  • Intercultural Communication
  • Persuasion in the Marketplace
  • Public Relations

We are committed to engaging creative communication research and development in applied communication.

The Ethical Difference

We believe that it is essential to develop the skills, the knowledge, and the conscience of the next generation of communication leaders, who will shape the world that they inherit.

Our educational environment invites innovation, diversity, resilience, and moral values in a changing world.

We consider questions of communication ethics across the curriculum, not just in a capstone course for our students.

For our faculty, staff, and students, the engagement of communication ethics is what Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Bellah et al. call "habits of the heart."

Walking the Humanities into the Marketplace

As part of the Duquesne community, we offer the finest contemporary professional education, distinguished by a solid foundation in Catholic values, the humanities, and practical application.

We educate communication engineers, not communication technicians, providing students with the knowledge, skills, and expertise to solve practical problems in all areas of communication.

Our graduates understand the importance of theory informed practice and action. They "walk" ideas into the marketplace and effect positive change.

Undergraduate Program Tracks

Communication Studies charges students with the responsibility to design a unique plan of study with undergraduate directors. This major optimizes specific marketplace participation in the area of communication.

 Explore Communication Studies
Corporate Communication addresses organizational communication strategies that prepare students for ethical decision-making and leadership in for-profit and non-profit contexts. Graduates are prepared to work in management, corporate communication contexts, nonprofit development and communication, human resource development, public affairs, community relations, and entrepreneurial contexts. Explore Corporate Communication
IMC unites advertising and public relations with the breadth of the marketing communication field for ethical strategic communication in a changing world. The IMC major prepares graduates for service in advertising and public relations agencies, integrated marketing communication agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and public institutions.

 Explore IMC
Rhetoric combines ethical concern for contemporary issues with artful public persuasion. It reflects our department's strong philosophical and humanities focus. Argumentation and persuasion are skills fundamental to this major and are informed by rhetorical theory and philosophy of communication. As a Rhetoric major, you will analyze the practice of these theories in areas such as religion, free speech, organizational communication, and popular culture.

 Explore Rhetoric

Graduate Program Tracks

The Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies offers graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) intentionally situated within a series of what Martin Buber referred to as a unity of contraries. We embrace the productive tensions between theory and practice; preparation for teaching and for the marketplace; recruitment of traditional and non-traditional students; excellence in teaching and scholarship; professional expectations and an invitational intellectual community.

As a student in our graduate program, you will experience the integration of a humanities education with practical application and a commitment to communication in the marketplace. Consistent with the mission of Duquesne University, we will invite you into a conversation that will expand your horizons through the unity of liberal arts and professional education, moral issues and secular excellence.

Master's Programs:
  • M.A. in Communication
  • M.A. in Corporate Communication
  • M.A. in Rhetoric & Philosophy of Communication

Master's Dual Degree:
  • M.A. in Corporate Communication & MBA

Doctoral Programs:
  • Ph.D. in Rhetoric

Explore Graduate

Meet Our Faculty

Dr. Garnet Butchart

Dr. Garnet Butchart

Associate Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Sarah DeIuliis

Dr. Sarah DeIuliis

Assistant Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Erik Garrett

Dr. Erik Garrett

Associate Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Janie Fritz

Dr. Janie Fritz

Chair & Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Inci Sayrak

Dr. Inci Sayrak

Associate Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Richard Thames

Dr. Richard Thames

Associate Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Dr. Anthony Wachs

Dr. Anthony Wachs

Associate Professor, Communication & Rhetorical Studies

Contact for more info

Communication & Rhetorical Studies Department