Communication Studies

On March 30 from 12 to 12:30 p.m. EST, lecturer Dr. Valerie Giroux will lead an online presentation and Q&A session on the importance of communication skills to everything from patient compliance and quality of life to satisfaction and even the potential for malpractice suits. The lunch-and-learn webinar Essential Communication Skills for Healthcare Providers is free and open to all. Dr. Giroux teaches Interpersonal Communication in the online master’s in Communication Studies and has taught Leadership Studies, The Executive Communicator, Nonverbal Communication, and other courses on campus. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership/Administration and her M.A. in Speech [...]

The first televised debate between candidates vying for their party’s nomination for president during the primaries occurred in 1956 between Democratic contenders Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. That first debate was broadcast from the WTVJ studio here in Miami. That year my co-author on Argumentation and Debate: Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making, the late Dr. Austin J. Freeley led a group of professors of speech and debate to form the Committee on Presidential Campaign Debates to call on the candidates for the presidency to meet in debate in the [...]

The University of Miami Debate Team will host The U Debates on the Coral Gables Campus for the Miami-Dade Urban Debate League (UDL), on February 27. Since last year, the UM Debate Team has been working with the National Association of Urban Debate League and the newly formed Miami Dade Urban Debate League to close the achievement gap in local urban schools by giving students the opportunity to compete in academic debate. UM has been integral in launching the Miami league. Since September, UM has hosted five workshops, a practice [...]

The University of Miami Debate Team is working with the newly formed Miami-Dade Urban Debate League to teach the art of debate to students from almost 20 local high schools and middle schools. The National Association of Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) is a national organization that works to close the achievement gap in urban public schools by giving students the opportunity to compete in academic debate. UDL has chapters in 22 cities across the United States. Just last year, Miami was the largest city in the U.S. without a chapter, [...]

University of Miami School of Communication is launching its first online master’s program in January 2016. The UOnline Master of Arts in Communication Studies will be taught by the world-renowned faculty of the School of Communication, in a flexible, online format. Offering a challenging curriculum, the program is geared toward working professionals who want to pursue a career in communication or earn an advanced degree. “In this program students will study conflict resolution, group decision making, relationship management, persuasion, and much more in courses designed for people who understand that [...]

This past weekend, the University of Miami Debate Team competed at the Sunshine State Showdown Fall Debate Scrimmage at the University of Central Florida. Adding another successful performance, the team debated against the four other universities in Florida who compete in intercollegiate policy debate. Courtney Kloepper and Virgil Capote were 4-0 against the University of Florida and captured the title of Championship of the Junior Varsity Division, bringing home a Knight and winning the Junior Varsity State Championship. Capote was fourth individual speaker and Kloepper brought home fifth place. Liam [...]

Last Monday evening at the Shalala Student Center, University of Miami’s Debate Team hosted the team from iDebate Rwanda. The public debate focused on genocide recovery, forgiveness, and justice. Two decades ago, Rwanda was facing one of the most difficult times in its history. In 1994, the genocide against the Tutsis began. Over a span of 100 days, more than one million men, women, and children lost their lives solely due to their Tutsi ethnicity. Twenty years later, Rwanda is rebuilding with an aim to restore peace and accelerate its [...]