UMaine’s Department of Communication & Journalism has an exciting and rapidly developing graduate program and we would love to hear from you about your graduate plans to see if we might be a good fit for each other. Maine currently has 11 graduate faculty, including tenure, tenure-track, or cooperating members. We have 24 graduate students, including 18 funded students, 16 on teaching assistantships. We have 6 PhDs (our doctoral program is 4 years old) and are on pace to have a 50/50 split of funded masters and doctoral students in two years, if not next year. Our first doctoral graduate began her tenure-track appointment at UNC-Wilmington this Fall. Our Masters students are regularly admitted to the top doctoral programs around the country or begin careers in the private and public sectors. We strive to create a balanced program where MAs and PhDs all are given the attention they deserve. We also are part of an exciting interdisciplinary initiative on sustainability funded by NSF (see below).
We offer a masters with tracks in Communication and Mass Communication that has an excellent completion rate. Our MAs have been very successful at landing in nationally recognized doctoral programs or in finding post-graduate employment.
We offer a doctorate with an interdisciplinary concentration. PhDs combine a substantial program of Communication or Mass Communication courses with a concentration in fields such as Disability Studies, English, History, Psychology, or Women’s Studies. We are in the process of establishing concentrations in Sustainability Science and other fields. Doctoral students can design concentrations as well.
Speaking of sustainability, in 2009, the University of Maine was awarded a $20M EPSCoR grant to found the Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI). Bringing together over 15 different disciplines, SSI is designed to produce research in partnership with community stakeholders with the overarching of creating sustainable socio-ecological and economic systems. Professor Laura Lindenfeld, one of our graduate faculty and a member of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, is directing the Knowledge to Action research team on the grant. Communication & Journalism currently has several PhD and Masters students connected with the SSI.
If you are thinking finishing your bachelors and considering graduate school or if you are putting together materials for doctoral programs, please contact me to find more about our program. I happy to chat any time.
If you are going to NCA this year, Maine will have a booth at the Grad Open House, #18, on Sunday from 1-4 in the HIlton Grand Ballroom. Please come by to talk.
See http://cmj.umaine.edu/graduate-program/ for more details.
Sincerely,
Nathan Stormer, Graduate Coordinator
Mark and Marcia Bailey Distinguished Professor of Speech & Theatre
nathan@maine.edu, 207-581-1938 (email contact preferred)
