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Department of Communications

Faculty

Briana Martino, Associate Professor and Chair
Dannie Annecston, Assistant Professor of Practice
Julia Barber, Assistant Teaching Professor
Kat Lombard-Cook, Assistant Professor
Erica Moura, Associate Professor of Practice
Bob White, Professor
Judith Aronson, Professor Emeritus
Ellen Grabiner, Professor Emeritus

Overview

The Department of Communications offers major concentrations in:

  • Design
  • Integrated Media
  • Journalism

Joint majors in:

  • Public Relations and Marketing Communications (with Business)
  • Web Design and Development (with Computer Science)

Minors in:

  • Cinema and Media Studies
  • Design
  • Integrated Media
  • Journalism
  • Photography
  • Public Relations and Marketing Communications (with Business)
  • Social Media
  • Web Design and Development (with Computer Science)

And, online adult learner Complete Degree program in:

  • General Studies

The Communications major focuses on communication skills, making meaning, and professional engagement. We do so within and across multiple contexts, cultures, channels, and media. These areas bind together courses distributed across the areas of Design, Journalism and Integrated Media as well as the core and technology courses required of all of our majors. Whatever you choose to study in Communications, you will learn to meaningfully create content and critically approach the meanings you encounter in the world.

Student Learning Outcomes

Communication Skills

  • Written: Graduates write clear, coherent, and audience-appropriate texts.
  • Visual: Graduates employ appropriate techniques and technologies to create visual media that conveys complex ideas and messages.
  • Spoken: Graduates use speech to articulate ideas and engage audiences, and are able to adapt to various speaking contexts.
  • Multimodal: Graduates integrate written, visual, and spoken communication to create multimedia content that enhances message clarity, impact, and reach.

Making Meaning

  • Critical Inquiry: Graduates draw on critical thinking and critical making skills to analyze and evaluate media representation and messaging.
  • Intersectional Framework: Graduates use intersectional frameworks attentive to cultural and historical contexts to interpret and create media in ways that foster inclusivity and cultural literacy.
  • Audience: Graduates identify, understand, and effectively communicate across diverse target audiences, adapting strategies to engage and resonate with specific groups.

Professional Engagement

  • Responsibility: Graduates will learn, apply, and critically evaluate best practices within their respective professions using the appropriate ethical codes and/or legal considerations.

  • Strategy: Graduates will apply communication strategies across various professional contexts with an emphasis on application, evaluation, iteration, and reflection.

  • Adaptation: Graduates will demonstrate currency with evolving technologies and industry trends, adapting their communication skills and strategies accordingly.

Departmental Recognition

Outstanding students may be named to Lambda Pi Eta (LPH), the National Communications Association’s honor society. Students are inducted into LPH each May. Communications also confers several departmental awards each year including:

  • Department Faculty Award: In memory of Professor Gerald Nadel, this award is presented to the graduating senior who has demonstrated the highest academic achievement and scholarship, an outstanding contribution to and participation in the department, and the greatest professional promise in the field of communications.
  • The Jenks Prize: In memory of Lecturer in Writing, Homer Jenks, this prize is presented to the graduating senior who demonstrates excellence in writing for the communications media (includes all forms of writing: from news, features and opinions through criticism and script-writing to advertising, public relations and special-events writing).
  • Mariana Evans Creel Award in Journalism: Presented to the outstanding graduating student in journalism, as selected by the faculty, based upon strong clips and an active involvement in journalism through internships and/or the student newspaper.
  • Public Relations and Marketing Communications Award: Presented to the outstanding graduating student in public relations and marketing communications, as selected by the faculty, based on performance and contribution at Simmons and their professional potential.
  • Design Award: Presented to the outstanding graduating student, as selected by the faculty, who has demonstrated consistent excellence in their design work, based on student projects and/or portfolio pieces, and an active involvement in design practice through independent learning.
  • Media Arts Award: Presented to the outstanding graduating senior, as selected by the faculty, who has best made motion pictures or multi-media her medium of artistic and personal expression.
  • Visual Communications Award: Presented to a senior who has demonstrated excellence in combining communication media for both the page and the screen.
  • Madfis Award: In the memory of Gosian Madfis, Class of 1940, this prize goes to the junior in Communications who has achieved academic excellence and a high level of creativity in communications. As with the Departmental Faculty Award, the decision will take into account the student’s contribution to and participation in the department, as well as college-wide activities such as student newspaper and other communications-related activities.