Communication Studies, BA

The Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies offers you critical and historical perspectives on media and communication, and practical, hands-on training in the use of media technologies and communication strategies.

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Overview

Communication Studies focuses on improving your writing, speaking, and interpersonal skills—skills most sought by employers—as well as self-knowledge, or intrapersonal communication. You will have a good understanding of who you are and what you want to do post-graduation.

Courses focus on:

Media criticism: Who produces media, what messages are they sending, and how should we interpret them
Media professions: Journalism, public relations and advertising, video production, and radio programming and production
Media practices: Social media, writing for journalism and public relations, website design, video production, radio broadcasting, and audio production and podcasting

Consistent with our liberal arts foundation, a range of core and elective courses are offered to assure that you are broadly and deeply educated, including Freedom of Speech, Sports Communication, Learning to Look: Art and Media, Film: History and Criticism, and The Voice of Nature.

Program Details

Live What You Learn
- Contribute to the student-run, award-winning college newspaper and website, The NewEnglander. Students practice and hone design, editing, photo, public relations, social media, and writing skills. The newspaper is in digital format and has special print editions. The website is continually updated with articles shared via social media. Students can specialize as writers, photographers, and social media managers. The NewEnglander is a member of The Granite State News Collaborative which shares news content and provides students networking opportunities. As a member of The New Hampshire Press Association, students are granted access to workshops and journalism competitions.
- Earn credit and practice a variety of on-air and behind-the-scenes audio production and broadcasting skills at WNEC-FM, the College’s radio station. WNEC is run by students with internships and supported by faculty, staff, and passionate WNEC alumni. Students create studio-based shows and may broadcast remote events, including play-by-play announcing for NEC sports. WNEC broadcasters serve as DJs for campus events and bring music acts to campus. WNEC podcasts are distributed over the air and on major streaming platforms including Spotify, Google, and Amazon.
- All students majoring in Communication Studies get internships in their area of interest, often in nearby Concord or Manchester, in coordination with our Career and Life Planning office.
- If you are interested in public relations and advertising, project opportunities include promotional work for campus organizations, like NEC Athletics, as well as gathering spaces like the campus pub. Students also promote events and do public relations work for their own (hypothetical or real) small business or nonprofit. Many get internships for a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
Career Opportunities
- Media production
- Public relations
- Advertising
- Nonprofit advocacy
- Journalism—newspaper, magazine, television
- Radio production, on-air talent
- Social media
- Management
- Marketing
- Sales

Student-Run Newspaper Joins Two Journalism Organizations in New Hampshire

The NewEnglander, the student-run newspaper at New England College (NEC), recently joined two New Hampshire journalism organizations that provide opportunities for student-journalists to live what they learn: the New Hampshire Press Association and The Granite State News Collaborative.

As an associate member of the New Hampshire Press Association, The NewEnglander’s student-journalists can attend workshops with professional journalists and submit their work for awards consideration. The newspaper’s membership in the Granite State News Collaborative, a news-sharing organization, allows The NewEnglander to run stories published by The Concord Monitor, The Keene Sentinel, and The Eagle Times while those publications run stories produced by The NewEnglander, giving student-journalists the opportunity to be published statewide.

Read the Press Release

Recognition and Rankings

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in the state, as acknowledged by Intelligent.com, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Leading College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in NH, as acknowledged by EduRank, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as one of the best colleges in New Hampshire, as acknowledged by Academic Influence, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

Faculty

Andrew Morgan

Professor of Creative Writing
Office: Spaulding 301, Henniker Campus
Phone: 603.428.2349
Email amorgan@nec.edu

Awards
NEC Kilgore Faculty of the Year, 2019

Educational Background
MFA in Poetry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
BA in English/Writing, Plymouth State College

Bio
Andrew Morgan is a professor, writer, editor, and volunteer whose recent work can be found in magazines such as Conduit, Stride, Fairy Tale Review, Pleiades, Divine Magnet, Post Road, and New World Writing. He is the recipient of a Slovenian Writer’s Association Fellowship, which sponsored a month-long writing residency in the country’s capital city of Ljubljana and currently teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate Creative Writing programs at NEC. His first book, Month of Big Hands, was published by Natural History Press in 2013.
Bryan Partridge
Professor, Writing
Phone: 603.428.2388
Email: bpartridge@nec.edu

Educational Background
PhD in Humanities from Union Institute and University
MA in Creative Writing, Dartmouth College
BA, The College of Wooster

Research Interests
- Nature writing
- Travel writing
- School climate
- Choice theory
Bio
Bryan Partridge came to NEC in 2004 as the first professional mentor in NEC’s Mentoring program. After three years of developing the program, Bryan transitioned to an assistant professor in the Writing Department. Bryan has been a professor for 17 years and spent three academic years revamping and overseeing the Composition Program. He has also led students on Study Away trips to places like Cuba, India, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras.

His professional career outside of academia includes doing extensive education consulting for the Center for School Climate and Learning—helping educators develop and implement data-driven action plans to improve school climate, prevent bullying and school violence, reduce dropouts, and re-engage disengaged learners. Bryan’s literary passions are travel and nature writing, but he also loves to write fiction and creative nonfiction.

Outside of professional interests, he travels widely, spends weeks on New England’s lakes and hiking trails, writes, gardens, and enjoys living with his wife, Kt, and his family in Etna, New Hampshire.
James Johnson
Visiting Assistant Professor of First-Year Writing
Office: CEI 210B, Henniker Campus
Phone: 603.428.2232
Email: jljohnson@nec.edu

Achievements
Dissertation Sympathy for the Devil: Thawing the Ego and Fostering Empathy through a Theory of Lacanian Reader-response, nominated for 2018 Marvin B. Sussman Award

Educational Background
PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, Union Institute & University
MA in English Literature, Rutgers University
BA in English Literature, Temple University

Research Interests 
- Literature and empathy
- Literature and linguistics
- Comparative literature
- Modern literature
- Psychoanalytic and Lacanian Literary Criticism
Bio
Better known to family, friends, and students as JJ, James came to New England College after moving from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he taught at the University of the Sciences of Philadelphia. Having attended NEC for a short while, he fell in love with Henniker years ago and always planned to return.

JJ teaches in NEC’s first-year writing program where he’s passionate about cultivating students’ writing, researching, and critical-thinking skills. His teaching philosophy focuses on individualized attention and meeting writing students where they are in order to help them embrace their unique literary voice. While at NEC, he has taught various literature courses, worked in academic support as a tutor, and been involved in initiatives such as the first-year learning-living community, which through a focus on experiential learning, aimed to bridge the gap between academic concepts in the classroom and their pragmatic significance outside classroom walls.

His 2018 dissertation uses a psychoanalytic lens in order to explore the connection between the literary aesthetic and empathy and how empathic identification for traditionally marginalized groups can mitigate societal ills. He has even developed a course at NEC around his doctoral research in which students read, research, discuss, and write about the critical role empathy plays in a civic environment based upon democratic values.

Although not particularly good at any single one of them, JJ plays a dozen or so instruments. He lives in Henniker with his partner, Melody, and their nine-pound shih tzu, Olive, who never leaves his side.
Mark Rowland

Associate Professor/Distance Services and Instruction Librarian
Phone: 603.428.2352
Email: mrowland@nec.edu

Educational Background
MLIS, McGill University
BA in English, Penn State University

Degree Requirements

Requirements

(49 Credits)

All courses in the Communication Studies major must earn a minimum grade of C-.

A minimum of 20 elective credits with the CO designation.

Note:

Students wishing to incorporate relevant courses from other departments into their major should use the substitution waiver form.

Liberal Arts & Sciences Core Curriculum, Bachelor's Degree

Electives

Select additional electives to reach 120 credits for a Bachelor's degree.