The Department of Communication Studies is proud to congratulate Anthony Gargiulo, Taylor Vanderveen, Sophia Flemming, and Mik Davis-Bryant for being recipients of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant (OTA) Award. This award honor teaching assistants who demonstrate superior instructional skills and a strong commitment to student learning in the classroom or laboratory. The 2026 recipients will be celebrated at the annual Spring GradTeach…

Four graduate students from the program presented original research at the 2026 Georgia Communication Association (GCA) Conference, held February 26–28 at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Their work spanned topics including digital media, gender rhetoric, film, and classical history, showcasing the breadth and depth of student scholarship. Hampton Stall, a first-year PhD student, presented his paper “Nostalgia and World of Warcraft: A…

Please help us congratulate Dr. Kristi Schaller on becoming Principal Lecturer Emerita! Dr. Schaller joined our department in 2005 and has since played an important role in supporting our students and strengthening our community through her teaching and service. We are grateful for her many contributions and wish her all the best as she begins this new chapter. Congratulations, Dr. Schaller!

The Department of Communication Studies is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Michael F. Adams, University of Georgia president emeritus. A specialist in political communication, Dr. Adams was an affiliated faculty member in the department and previously taught some courses within the department.  We would like to express our sincerest condolences to his entire family.

Allegro Wang, a Ph.D. candidate, is up for the Top Student Paper in the NCA American Studies Division. The paper, "Time-Space Compression as Trope: Drone Surveillance on the US-Mexico Border" is about how Project Maven, a system being designed by Palantir to integrate drones with AI capabilities, is legitimized within a broader cultural narrative of a migration "crisis." Spatially, these tropes are used to narrow the audiences attention to the…

We are very proud of all our undergraduate and graduate students receiving degrees this spring and summer! Below are their names - thanks to all who allowed us to post their names here. The undergraduates are listed first, and graduate students below.  Despite a difficult and chaotic semester, you all rose to the occasion, and we couldn't be more excited to call you UGA Comm graduates! Go Dawgs!   UNDERGRADUATES Matthew Ahn…

Dr. Panetta has posted a letter thanking you, the students, and you, the members of the department, for sailing through what became an incredibly trying semester. Thank you, Dawgs! 

Congratulations to the UGA Debate Union for being ranked number one nationally in all three national debate organizations! Following their most recent tournament at the University of Kentucky the team overtook Harvard, Wake Forest, Emory, Michigan, Northwestern, and hundreds of other institutions. Six debaters won individual awards. They’re well on their way to winning that national championship!   Good luck and Go Dawgs!   For more…

The Department of Communication Studies held its annual commencement exercises on Thursday, May 3, 2018 in the University of Georgia Chapel. The event featured two addresses, one from graduating senior Jonas Taylor and a second from program alum Hannah Kay Herdlinger. A member of Lambda Pi Eta and a graduate of UGA’s entrepreneurship program, Taylor encouraged his classmates to see their graduation day as a beginning to lives of service in…

UGA Communication Studies major Kendall Burton was featured in the May 7 issue of ESPN The Magazine. Titled “The Toughest Out” and written by senior ESPN staff writer Wayne Drehs, the story tells of Kendall’s rise to UGA softball fame, a rise all the more remarkable because of the odds Kendall first had to overcome. Born with a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate, Kendall has undergone 23 surgeries, suffered a stroke, and…