Communication and Rhetorical Studies (CRS) is the oldest communication department on campus, dating to its founding in 1910.  In fact, the discipline that comprises CRS is foundational to Syracuse University itself, as Rhetoric and Elocution were two of the eight original courses in the curriculum when the university’s first 41 students began their classes in 1871. CRS has thrived for a century, training generations of students to use their minds and voices to stake claims in diverse professional and personal domains as citizens, creatives, advocates, activists, visionaries.

The CRS curriculum derives from 2000-year-old principles of success and continues to innovate on their applications: successful communicators possess sophisticated theoretical knowledge of how communication works; historical knowledge of how communication has worked and not worked in specific times and specific places and specific cultures; and critical aptitude and awareness that enable one to assess situations, audiences, and oneself. With these capacities in place, the invaluable skills our students also acquire, practice, and refine-speaking, writing, critical thinking, argumentation, deliberation, dialogue, meditation-become available for enactment in the world. Our program is diverse in community and flexible in design, allowing students to meet and work with different people and explore many opportunities across campus and beyond. To select a second major or a minor; to take advantage of our multiple study abroad centers in Madrid, London, Florence, Strasbourg, and Hong Kong; to enjoy rigorous and exciting learning opportunities in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, as well as impressive and influential internships throughout the U.S. For further information, contact the Office of Academic and Career Advising, 200 Crouse College, 315-443-2517 or Syracuse Abroad, 106 Walnut Place, 315-443-3471 (suabroad.syr.edu).

In recent years, the CRS legacy, research, and pedagogy has constituted the department as a destination for a critical mass of ambitious, accomplished, and award-winning faculty, for aspiring graduate students wishing to study at the nationally-leading MA program in the discipline, and for 450 undergraduate majors who will succeed in venturing into many employment opportunities, including media, entertainment, law, public relations, politics, event planning, and education.

Programs

Majors

• Communication and Rhetorical Studies, BS  

Minors

• Communication and Rhetorical Studies Minor  
• Visual Culture Minor