THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

Degree Type: PhD

The Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric, Media, and Publics is replacing the PhD in Communication Studies (Rhetoric and Public Culture). Rhetoric, Media, and Publics is an interschool program between the School of Communication, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Medill School of Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications. It is housed in the Department of Communication Studies and administrated through the School of Communication.

The PhD program in Rhetoric, Media, and Publics is grounded in the humanistic tradition of rhetoric and its focus on the study of politics, philosophy, and the arts. The new program asks the fundamental question of how people influence, reflect, and transform society through mediated practices. Students learn to analyze the production and circulation of meaning in a range of rhetorical and journalistic texts, practices, and institutions through varied modes of qualitative inquiry, and to engage audiences and communities directly in the production of knowledge. The stakes of this inquiry are profoundly social and political as well as formal and aesthetic. The program teaches students to approach public media as sites for political contestation, for the representation and interrogation of ethics and power, and for imagining personhood and collective life.

Please note the program is in a period of transition. The older Communication Studies: Rhetoric and Public Culture PhD program is being replaced by a new PhD program in Rhetoric, Media, and Publics. Though this new program has been approved by Northwestern, Northwestern is currently unable to issue F-1 or J-1 documents for the PhD in Rhetoric, Media, and Publics while the program undergoes review by the federal government. In this interim period, we ask students requiring immigration documents to study in the United States to apply to the current Communication Studies: Rhetoric and Public Culture PhD program, which is able to issue F-1 or J-1 documents. All students not needing an immigration document from Northwestern should complete the application for the Rhetoric, Media, and Publics PhD program. These two groups will be considered together to admit our new Fall 2023 cohort.

Additional resources:

• Department website

The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.

PhD

Total Units Required: 12

1. Students must complete at least 12 courses (and a maximum of 18) in the first 2 years of study. These include 6 required courses: COMM_ST 410-0 Rhetoric: History and Theory; COMM_ST 419-0 The Practice of Public Scholarship; COMM_ST 454-0 Making and Unmaking of Audiences and Publics; COMM_ST 485-0 Media Theory; COMM_ST 489-0 History of Media Technologies; and one of either COMM_ST 416-0 Contemporary Rhetorical Analysis or COMM_ST 418-0 Critical Media Practice. These also include a set of elective courses relevant to the student’s planned research and teaching expertise, which must be approved by the student’s adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies.
2. The PhD Qualifying Exam should be taken at the end of Year 2. Reading lists will be written in consultation with a faculty adviser. The exam consists of 3 take-home written exams to be assessed by three faculty examiners who will constitute the qualifying exam committee.
3. In the Fall quarter of Year 3 students will submit and defend a PhD Prospectus, a document outlining a planned dissertation project to be approved by a faculty examining committee.
4. Years 3, 4, and 5 should be devoted substantially to the writing of the dissertation for defense by the end of Year 5. The completed dissertation must be approved by the faculty dissertation committee.

Northwestern has many resources for research. It is expected that doctoral students will attend program and other university events as part of their studies. These include visiting lectures, workshops, symposia, conferences, reading groups, arts events, summer institutes, and more.