News and Announcements

Please take a moment to read about Department Alumni Stephen Littlejohn's life and legacy below, one we are proud to play a small part in. We are keeping the Littlejohn and Foss families in our thoughts during this time.

The Department of Communication is thrilled to announce that Graduate Student Kinny Torre has been awarded the Waterhouse Family Institute grant for his research on how CHamorus are advancing their sovereignty on their island and abroad.

On last Friday's episode of PBS Insight, Department Chair Avery Holton joined the conversation about AI sharing his expertise on what Utahns should be on the lookout for during elections.

Eight students from Professor Craig Wirth's Documentary Class have worked tirelessly to make this new docushort. Watch it today!

The legendary ESPN reporter and Comm Alumni, Holly Rowe will give the 2024 Parry D. Sorensen Distinguished Lecture and host a workshop from 4 to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 19, at the Comm Institute for students interested in learning from her multifaceted career.

PRSSA is hosting their board position info session on April 18th at 6 pm. This is a great opportunity to learn more about what PRSSA is and get involved.

Dr. Logan Rae Gomez will be hosting a colloquium talk on April 18th from 3:30-5 pm in the Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute titled: Performing Her Name: Counterstorytelling Possibilities of the Future–Now.

The Communication Department is excited to announce four new courses offered in the Fall 2024 semester. Read on for course descriptions!

Join us at Weber State University this Saturday at 11:30 am for guest speakers, networking, and more!

The six students who competed at the tournament appeared in nine elimination rounds, winning two events, and placing 3rd overall.

Kim Kaphingst, Professor and Associate Chair of the Communication Department, received the Distinguished Research Award due to the impact and significance of her research and scholarly work in the health communication field.

Jacob Nelson, an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Utah published an article about the growing disconnect between how journalists see themselves and how people see journalists, read it here.

Dr. Kent Ono, Distinguished Professor, was awarded this recognition at the 109th annual National Communication Association Conference in National Harbor, MD last November.

Jacob Nelson, an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Utah who studies the relationship between journalism and the public, agrees that contentious times—including election years—draw people to the profession.

Dr. Leandra. H. Hernández, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, was selected as one of the twelve American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education 2024 Faculty Fellows.

The University of Utah is excited to announce the launch of a new Master of Communication program at its U Asia Campus in Incheon, South Korea. Applications are now open for the professional program, and the first cohort of students is scheduled to begin studying at the extended campus in fall 2024.

Debating is one of the oldest traditions at the University of Utah, older even than football, dating back to the 1860s. For decades, the university’s John R. Park Debate Society has nurtured generations of young debaters as they squared off in contests of rhetorical skill and verbal jousting. Now the society is providing a forensics venue for Salt Lake City’s massive refugee community as a way to support some of Utah’s most vulnerable populations and help them integrate into a new country.

The University of Utah’s College of Humanities and the Department of Communication are partnering with the award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative to give students hands-on, community-engaged journalism experience working with professional media organizations across northern Utah. The groundbreaking collaborative includes a dozen local news organizations as well as science and education institutions. Founded in 2022, the GSLC has helped local news organizations to undertake more solutions-focused journalism about the crisis at the Great Salt Lake and then elevate that work to all Utahns via shared multi-platform publication.

Dr. Robin E. Jensen has been recognized with the 2023 Golden Anniversary Monograph Award for the article, “Re-envisioning Fertility Science: From J. Marion Sims’s Invasive Gynecology to Sophia Kleegman’s 'Conservative Surgery' Hermeneutic,” published in Quarterly Journal of Speech in 2022. The Golden Anniversary Monograph Award is presented by the National Communication Association to the most outstanding scholarly monograph published during the previous calendar year.

Leandra Hernandez, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, was awarded the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender Feminist Teacher-Mentor Award and the Anita Taylor Award for Outstanding Published Article or Book Chapter.