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From Our Chair
Welcome to the Department of Communication Studies at Vanderbilt University! Our longstanding department is home to faculty who are widely regarded as some of the most forward-thinking scholars in the discipline, with research emphases in areas as diverse as gender and sexuality, health and medicine, critical legal studies, international financialization, celebrity studies, populist movements, and sports cultures. Members of the faculty have collectively won dozens of awards for their books, journal articles, distinguished scholarship, engaged teaching, and dedication to the university.
Our students are trained in the humanistic study of communication, with a focus on both performance-based skills, as well as courses that emphasize critical thinking and analysis. For the former, we offer courses such as Public Speaking, Persuasion, Argumentation & Debate, and Business Communication. For the latter, we offer courses such as Social Media & Everyday Life; Law, Media, & Society; Communication & Consciousness, Media and Visual Culture; and Communication Media Studio. Our majors have used these skills as a catalyst into careers in law, business, politics, broadcasting, entertainment management, consulting, education, advertising, social media coordination, sales, and marketing. Read more about how our alumni have used their communication studies degrees to carve out successful career pathways.
The department is also home to Vanderbilt’s award-winning debate team, which has recently traveled to Alaska, Finland, France, Seattle, Spain, and Washington D.C.
Students majoring and minoring in communication studies can also pursue Immersion opportunities through the department. These projects may be conducted in association with the debate team or individual faculty.
If you have any questions about the department or our work, feel free to drop us an email.
Jeff Bennett
Chair, Department of Communication Studies
Professor of Communication Studies
Why Communication Studies?
Communication studies helps students develop important transferable skills, such as public speaking, critical thinking, and research expertise, that will serve them in any future endeavor. From learning about argumentation, to public discourse, to media criticism, to rhetoric and persuasion, graduates are prepared to succeed in a wide range of careers.
Our students gain the following marketable proficiencies:
Communicating Effectively
Courses in public speaking, business communication, and persuasion emphasize skills such as audience analysis and content creation to help students excel in their public, personal, and professional lives.
Managing Difference
Courses in argumentation, advocacy, and debate focus on civil discourse practices such as dialogue and active listening to assist students in navigating disagreements that arise in everyday life.
Enriching Critical Thinking
Courses in rhetorical and media criticism promote independent thinking skills that stress the analysis of evidence, textual interpretation, and reasoned judgment to enhance problem solving abilities, foster confidence, and refine individual creativity.
Cultural Literacy
Courses that engage the intersection of media and public advocacy stimulate self-awareness about attitudes, beliefs, and values to cultivate identification and collaboration with others, produce a more inclusive society, and scrutinize messaging across diverse situations and platforms.
Fostering Research
Advanced courses in communication studies focusing on social media, the environment, art, medicine, or the legal system [among others] centralize student research endeavors that spotlight inventiveness, writing proficiency, and investigative excellence to support uniquely immersive projects.
Contact Us
Building Address
2201 West End Ave, Nashville, TN 37240
Calhoun Hall Suite 300
Mailing Address
PMB 7804, 2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-7804
Phone: (615) 322-2307
Email: cmst@vanderbilt.edu