Faculty Overview

What We Do

Communication and Culture is dedicated to developing innovative interdisciplinary programs that cover many subjects and themes (law, gender, national identity, technology, etc.)

Students who want the kind of knowledge needed to excel in the twenty-first century should look to the Faculty of Communication and Culture.

Our programs have a common vision in that they are concerned with understanding how their subjects are shaped by culture and reproduced through the practices of communication.

All programs focus on giving students both the specific skills and knowledge and the flexibility that they will need to adapt to a complex and rapidly changing world. In particular, they focus on a broad critical understanding of relationships between people, sources of knowledge and cultures.

Interdisciplinary Study

Program-specific courses are integrated into a matrix of courses designed to give all students in Communication and Culture a solid mix of skills and knowledge:

Heritage Courses (GNST 300 and GNST 500) which introduce students to a wide range of ideas from diverse areas of thought
World Areas (2 full-course equivalents) from one of the following areas: Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, or Native North America) which familiarize students with the history, culture, language and artistic accomplishments of a tradition different from that of Western civilization
Breadth Requirement (one full-course equivalent from each of the following faculties: Humanities, Science, Social Sciences and Fine Arts) which exposes students to differing academic cultures and reduces the likelihood of their taking the assumptions and methodologies of any one discipline for granted

How We Compare

Very few of the programs offered by Communication and Culture are available at other Alberta institutions, and not many are available west of Ontario.

Some (such as Communications Studies) can be found in various forms at colleges and technical institutions. While these institutions have provide specialized training that is second to none, they cannot provide the broad and flexible integration of knowledge that is only available in a university setting.

No other institution in Alberta, and few in North America, has a faculty specifically dedicated to interdisciplinary studies.