The public relations program in Maryland's Department of Communication has been identified as part of the "PR Ivy League" by PR Week magazine and has been ranked one of the premier graduate programs in the country. Graduate students receive exceptional scholarly training, unique and rigorous coursework, and relevant experience as teaching and research assistants. Faculty and graduate students specialize in areas of health campaigns, risk communication, gender and diversity in public relations, the study of publics, public relations management, and global public relations.
International and national reputation of faculty and their research. James and Larissa Grunig (Professors Emeriti) are co-authors of the Excellence in Public Relations omnibus study funded by the International Association of Business Communicators and founders of the Journal of Public Relations Research. Larissa Grunig and Elizabeth Toth's Women in Public Relations: How Gender Influences Practice is the first comprehensive analysis of the feminization of the public relations field. Faculty have been awarded scholarly honors and grants, and have published in the top scholarly journals in communication, including Journal of Communication, Communication Yearbook, Journal of International and Intercultural Studies, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Linda Aldoory has received grants from the FDA to study women and risk and works with the CDC on teen health prevention and national security campaigns. This year Elizabeth Toth won the 2008 Diversity Champion Award given by the Public Relations Society of America. Toth edited Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management: Challenges for the Next Generation and co-edited Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations. She co-authored Public Relations: The Profession and the Practice.
Unique course curriculum. Graduate students take a minimum of four courses that are specifically focused on public relations theory and problems, and have the opportunity to take special seminars in public relations issues. Courses on public relations management, global public relations, public relations publics, and public relations paradigms offer unique perspectives for the study of public relations. Seminar topics include gender and diversity, risk communication, international public relations, ethics and philosophy of public relations, and government public relations. Our full range of offerings in public relations is among the richest of any graduate program in the United States.
A global network of professional contacts. Our faculty members have lectured at major universities throughout the world, and our graduates teach and practice public relations in many countries. For example, we have doctoral graduates teaching at Massey University (New Zealand), Honk Kong Baptist University, Soongsil University (Korea), and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Korea). Among the places that our faculty members have lectured at are Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, Germany, Mexico, Canada, and South Africa.
Success of our graduate students. During their time at Maryland, public relations graduate students have numerous opportunities to teach, submit conference papers, publish research, and meet world leaders in public relations. Public relations graduate students at Maryland typically pursue academic and research careers, and due to their rigorous and successful scholarly training, have secured the jobs they desire: professors at Research I Universities, researchers in government agencies, or teachers at the college of their choice. Complementing the international experience of our faculty, our graduate students come not only from the U.S., but also from countries throughout the world, including China, Croatia, Korea, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, and Taiwan.
Current Research Projects in Public Relations |
Linda Aldoory is currently analyzing the sociopolitical and cultural factors that impact the medical/health industry, the media, and women’s everyday lives, in order to develop theory that would help explain the ability of health campaigns to improve women’s health decision making. |
| Sahar Khamis is currently analyzing the social and cultural factors that impact Egyptian rural women's meaning making experiences in relation to televised public awareness campaigns dealing with literacy, health awareness, and family planning. Using a qualitative, ethnographic research methodology, she explores the role of television in these women's changing lives, in general, and how televised messages may influence the complex processes of identity construction and meaning making, in particular. |
Elizabeth Toth is currently conducting research on gender and diversity issues in the public relations profession, specifically focusing efforts on education reform and on professionalism. |
