Saint Martin’s University

Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies

Ready to turn your passion for digital media, journalism, and film into a career in which you can impact the world and make a difference in your communities? Communication studies may be the best major for you.

Why Saint Martin's University?

Communication studies at Saint Martin's is an interdisciplinary program that uses critical and cultural studies to understand the central role of communication in society, with a focus on social justice. Shaped by the Benedictine values of stewardship, community, and listening, the program utilizes accessible media technologies to encourage creativity and build a solid foundation for a wide array of professional endeavors.

• Proximity to to Washington state capital allows for access to quality internship opportunities with government agencies, nonprofits, arts organizations, and businesses.
• Shaped by the Benedictine values of stewardship, community, and listening with the ear of the heart, the program utilizes accessible media technologies such as cloud computing, mobile devices, social media, citizen journalism, and digital media production to encourage creativity.
• While designed to provide a well-rounded understanding of the field of communication, students can choose to pursue a production-focused or more theoretically oriented course of study.

Minor Program Options

Gender and Identity Studies

The gender and identity studies minor is interdisciplinary and widely covers work from a variety of academic disciplines. Elective coursework is offered in the departments of communication studies, criminal justice, English, history, political science, psychology, social justice, social work, and sociology. To emphasize the significance of an interdisciplinary understanding of gender and identity, students are required to take elective courses in at least two academic departments outside of gender and identity studies.

Global Studies

The global studies program is designed for students who are interested in studying international problems from an interdisciplinary perspective. The program emphasizes the study of political science, foreign language, history, and related fields to provide students with an understanding of contemporary issues.

Legal Studies

The Legal Studies Program is an interdisciplinary field of study composed of law courses from the departments of criminal justice, political science, history, and sociology, and the schools of business, education, and engineering.

Native Voices

The Native voices minor explores local and global Indigenous perspectives, with the goal of studying media and creating stories with a multidisciplinary lens and a focus on social justice.

Social Justice

The Social Justice Program at Saint Martin’s University explores the complex nature of social justice and alternative venues that foster justice.

Pursue a Native Voices Concentration

Native voices is a 16-credit concentration within the communication studies major. It explores local and global Indigenous perspectives, with the goal of studying media and creating stories with a multidisciplinary lens and a focus on social justice.

Students achieving a Native voices concentration will:

• Use critical, decolonial, and post-colonial theory to examine existing knowledge, values, and assumptions about the Indigenous experience
• Obtain a diverse knowledge of human experience that centers on Indigenous perspectives, narratives, and voices
• Unpack identities, intersectionality, privilege, and power
• Develop the knowledge and skills to understand, integrate, and utilize knowledge across disciplines to critique and challenge dominant colonial narratives in media
• Cultivate a voice to create new narratives and representations of the Indigenous experience

What Can I Do With This Concentration?

The Native voices concentration prepares students for careers in a wide range of fields, from public relations and advertising to media arts production to work in the public sector and more. Graduates are also prepared to continue their studies in graduate school, specializing in the humanities, social sciences, public relations, digital media, or filmmaking.