APPLIED RESEARCH PROGRAMS:

The Human Communication program sponsors the following applied research opportunities:

The Oral History and Community Memory Institute and Archive sponsors project-based courses and research in community oral history and public history. It also sponsors the New Media Technology in the Humanities Pedagogy workshops which train faculty to use new media resources, enhancing interactive, constructive learning in humanities and arts classrooms.

The Creative Writing and Social Action Program sponsors courses, workshops, publication projects, e-zines, and Service Learning collaborations.

The Journalism and Media Studies Program emphasizes both traditional "skills" instruction- journalistic writing, editing, and production- plus ethics, social responsibility, and critical analysis of the mass media's social impact. Our applied program supports the production of the Otter Realm (the university newspaper), and sponsors an elementary school-based media literacy project.

In the future, the Institute for Human Communication will develop additional applied research programs in Practical Professional Ethics, California Regional Studies, and Literary and Cultural Studies.