Department History

Department History  |  Department Names  |  Department Chairs  |  Tenure/Tenure-Track Faculty

History of the Department of Communication

The study of communication at College Park is as old as the institution itself. The first students in the Maryland Agricultural College faced requirements in rhetoric, elocution, and declamation throughout the course of their degree. By 1901 a Department of Public Speaking was in place and, for nearly four decades, the department emphasized public speaking and public address in its course offerings. Beginning in the late 1930s, however, courses were added in other subjects related to spoken discourse. For example, new courses were announced in radio speaking for 1938, in speech pathology for 1939, and in drama for 1941. By 1946 coursework had developed to the point that the department could offer its B.A. degree in four areas of concentration: public speaking, drama, radio, and speech sciences.

The identification of these areas quickly gave rise to academic and administrative specialization within the department. One effect of this specialization was the formation of departmental divisions. The department maintained four such divisions until 1972, when the division of Speech and Hearing Sciences left the department for autonomous status in what is now the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. From that time until 1989 three divisions - Speech Communication, Radio-Television-Film, and Theater - existed; in 1989 each division became a separate department in the College of Arts and Humanities and in the Spring of 1998, the department was renamed the Department of Communication.

Communication maintains the disciplinary interests, goals, and subject matters that have animated speech instruction at Maryland from its beginnings. The department sustains a long-standing commitment to research and teaching in the history, processes, and effects of communication through speech and its extensions. Within the department, students may do graduate work in communication in programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

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Names of the Department of Communication

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Chairs of the Department of Communication

Charles Richardson Fall 1901 - Spring 1940	Raymond Ehrensberger Fall 1940 - Spring 1953
Warren Strausbaugh Fall 1953 - Spring 1970	Thomas J. Aylward Fall 1970 - Spring 1973 Fall 1975 - Spring 1983
Irving Linkow (Acting) Fall 1973 - Spring 1975	Patti P. Gillespie Fall 1983 - Spring 1989
Andrew D. Wolvin Spring 1980 & Spring 1987 (Acting Chair)  Fall 1989 - Spring 1994	James F. Klumpp (Acting) Fall 1994 - Spring 1995
Martha M. Watson (Acting) Spring 1995 - Summer 1997	Edward L. Fink Fall 1997 - Spring 2007
Elizabeth L. Toth Fall 2007-Fall 2015	Shawn J. Parry-Giles Spring 2016 - present

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Tenure/Tenure-Track Faculty Members— Department of Communication, 1998-present

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