What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm

Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State

Home
United States
University Park, PA
Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State

Directions Website Contact the university

Information and networking for the students, alumni, faculty and staff of The Department of Communication Arts and Sciences: http://cas.la.psu.edu

10/23/2026

Today, the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences celebrates the career and personhood of Dr. Rosa Eberly. Dr. Eberly began her faculty career at Penn State in August 2002. She earned her BA in English-Writing Option in 1984 (Penn State), her MA in English Language and Literature in 1987 (University of Chicago), and her Ph.D. (Penn State, in English with minor in Speech Communication) in 1994. Her contributions to Penn State and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are well known among her friends, colleagues, and former students. A “free-range rhetorician” spanning the disciplines of Communication and English, Eberly is a scholar of the history of rhetoric, publics theory, civic deliberation, public memory, and sound. She is the author of Towers of Rhetoric: Memory and Reinvention; Citizen Critics: Literary Public Spheres; Elements of Reasoning with Edward P.J. Corbett; and The Sage Handbook of Rhetorical Studies, edited with Andrea Lunsford and Kirt Wilson. Most recently, she curated the archive of Harry Shearer’s Le Show for the Library of Congress American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Dr. Eberly is widely regarded as an intellectual force within the discipline and a force for good among students, faculty, and friends.

At today’s CAS colloquium, former students and colleagues Kristen Hoerl, Craig Rood, Haley Schneider, Michael Socolow, Dave Tell, and Rachel Smith will discuss Dr. Eberly’s impact on the broad field of rhetoric and their own lives. Dr. Eberly will retire from Penn State at the end of this calendar year.

10/20/2026

Distinguished Professor Denise Solomon was quoted in a New York Times article published on Friday, October 16. The article, titled “3 Tools to Keep Your Anger in Check,” is by Elizabeth Passarella. As the title suggests, the article focuses on how communication can escalate as anger increases in an interpersonal interaction. Dr. Solomon, along with several other researchers, discusses techniques for entering a conversation to reduce the likelihood that anger will overwhelm the interaction, as well as tactics for de-escalating rising frustration during the interaction. Congratulations to Dr. Solomon on this contribution to an important topic of public and interpersonal concern.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/well/anger-temper-tools.html?unlocked_article_code=1.J1E.IVfw.BG53tMIhv5SW&smid=url-share

10/19/2026

Celebrating academic freedom! CAS Professor Bradford Vivian has been named as a 2026-28 Fellow to the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF), part of the American Association for University Professors (AAUP). "Academic freedom," the AAUP explains, "is the indispensable requisite for unfettered teaching and research in institutions of higher education."

Vivian joins the second-ever cohort of notable scholarly figures recognized as CDAF Fellows for "preserving and expanding conditions that make it possible to work, teach, learn, create, and share knowledge in ways that promote the common good." His activities as a Fellow over the next two years will include efforts to empirically demonstrate the alarming scale of current attacks on academic freedom and to promote effective dialogue about the broad value of modern university systems to healthy democracy.

For more information about CDAF Fellows and the work of the AAUP--and reasons why academic freedom is worth celebrating--visit: https://www.aaup.org/about/programs/protecting-academic-freedom/center-defense-academic-freedom/fellows

10/16/2026

Congratulations to Natalie Bennie! On October 8, rhetoric graduate student and doctoral candidate Natalie Bennie successfully defended her dissertation. Advised by Brad Vivian, the dissertation is titled “Wild Memories: Environmental Agency and Public Memory in the American South. In addition to Brad, Natalie’s committee members are Katya Haskins, Kobi Kabalek, and Kirt Wilson. Best wishes to Natalie in all her future endeavors and congratulations all around.

10/15/2026

On October 12, CAS doctoral student Shewit Mikael successfully defended her dissertation prospectus. Shewit’s dissertation, “Rhetorical Voice in Voices of Eritreans,” investigates mediation’s relationship to voice through Radio Erena’s program Voices of Eritreans, asking how Eritreans use mediated voice to negotiate their relationships to one another across diasporic distance.

While distance and dispersal are major constraints to the Eritrean diaspora, authoritarianism exacerbates these facets by restricting information and communication through which Eritreans forced to leave their country remain connected to those at home. For Eritreans within the country, information is highly policed, and internet access is limited. In a context where independent media has been eliminated inside Eritrea and where migration has dispersed Eritreans across countries and continents, Shewit argues that the radio made it possible for experiences that might otherwise remain isolated to be heard publicly. Through Voices of Eritreans, Eritreans could speak about life inside the country, the circumstances of their departure, and their experience of migration. Radio Erena thus created a space where Eritreans could hear voices and perspectives otherwise difficult to access and, across the distances that separated them, could hear from one another.

Shewit, who is also completing a doctoral minor in African Studies, is advised by Dr. Lisa Flores, with Dr. Michele Kennerly, Dr. Rosa Eberly, and Dr. Maha Marouan (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; African American Studies and African Studies) serving as members of the committee.

09/29/2026

The CAS Department congratulates undergraduate student Carolyn Newmanon on authoring a paper selected for presentation at the Pennsylvania Communication Association annual conference. Her project, "Expanding social support research: Community, culture, and curiosity,” identifies the following approaches to better understand and express social support: Valuing interactions within a community/weak-tie relationships, valuing interpersonal curiosity as a medium of engaging with weak ties, and incorporating cross-cultural study, which informs community interaction, in order to learn from the varying perspectives in this world. Carolyn is currently writing an honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Andy High. We are proud of Carolyn for representing our department so well at the conference.

09/18/2026

Celebrations! Yinan D**g successfully defended her thesis entitled “Maternal guilt or inspiration: Investigating maternal self-discrepancy during the transition to parenthood and the role of partner confirmation” today. Yinan’s committee included Dr. Denise Solomon, Dr. Weimiao Zhou, and Dr. Rachel Smith (chair). Congratulations, Yinan!

08/18/2026

The Department of Communication Arts and Sciences is celebrating its graduating seniors this week! The undergraduate program wishes to recognize the following students for their academic success and many contributions to our learning community: Mariya Petrosky, Hari Thumati, Nayeli Torres, Shengxi Wu, and Gretchen De Krellis.

Congratulations to these CAS students on their college graduation! We are grateful for everything they have contributed, inside and outside of the classroom, to our undergraduate program and wish them much success in their future endeavors. Best wishes for a bright future ahead.

08/17/2026

The Communication Arts and Sciences Department is proud to announce that two of our former PhD students were ‘hooded’ at a graduation ceremony on Saturday, August 15. Dr. Nhung Vu was hooded by her advisor, Dr. Andy High. Dr. Michael Delayo was hooded by his co-advisors, Dr. Michele Kennerly and Dr. Debra Hawhee. (Image taken by Dr. Hawhee, who isn’t pictured.) Congratulations, Nhung Vu and Michael Delayo. Well done, advisors!

07/16/2026

Athena Lee successfully defended her M.A. thesis on June 10! The thesis was titled “A Rhetorical Analysis of Religious and Environmental Communication in the Laudato Si, Associate Professor Joshua Barnett served as Athena’s advisor, while Associate Professor Pamela VanHaitsma and Liberal Arts Professor Jeremy Engel rounded out her committee. Athena will continue in the CAS program this fall as a Ph.D. student.

Address

234 Sparks Bldg
University Park, PA
16802

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Website

http://cas.la.psu.edu/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.