Research
The Department of Communication engages in research at the cutting edge of communication and related disciplines, conducting studies in many areas.
We encourage undergraduates and graduate students to explore faculty research areas and contact individual faculty members if interested in getting involved with research.

Culture & identity
Examine a culture’s language, symbols, meanings, activities and practices in everyday life from a variety of perspectives: global, national, community, group and individual.
Groups, organizations & networks
Study ways that communication processes and systems influence social structures and behaviors in a variety of settings.
Media studies
Study the practices, industries, meanings, mental processing and influences of media.
Policy & public engagement
Examine the communication challenge of designing and implementing policy, and the study of communication policy itself.
Science, health, risk & environment
Gain new theoretical insights and more robust communication practice across the areas of science, health, risk and environmental sustainability.
Social inequality
Examine how communication research, theory, practice, engagement and design explain and address social, economic, health and political disparities and outcomes that affect people, communities and society.
Technology & social media
Study the design, usage and implications of a range of communication technologies and examine how these technologies shape and are shaped by communication processes, social relationships, individual and collective behavior, online communities, and society.
Outreach
The Department of Communication's outreach mission is to share knowledge and practices to help individuals, groups, organizations, and communities understand communication, communicate, and make use of information to effect positive social change.
Outreach is at the core of our activities
Most faculty members are involved with outreach in a variety of ways: through formal programs; by evaluating and improving outreach systems and programming; and by engaging with the media, the public and policymakers.
Applied research to improve outreach
Our applied research aims to solve real-world communication problems in the fields of health, agriculture, environment, risk and other areas of science. Working with at-risk youth, the elderly, scientists, policymakers, farmers, cancer patients, journalists and the public, we focus on specific issues to improve scientific and technological communication.
Training for Cornell, the community, state and world
We share our expertise with communities locally and globally in matters of media literacy, public speaking and debate, food security, recycling, and environmental risk. We are bringing our research to the streets via a mobile lab to ensure greater access to participants.
Outreach
Mobile Lab
Sahara Byrne and Jeff Niederdeppe’s mobile research lab is custom-designed, ADA accessible and outfitted with five research stations. The research team, including Senior Research Associate Amelia Greiner Safi, spent the past few years conducting NIH-funded eye-tracking experiments with youth and adult smokers examining the effect of cigarette packaging graphic warning labels. The mobile lab enables access to study participants who may be difficult to reach due to distance from a research institution or lack of local space to conduct a study. The mobile lab's manager is Lecturer Norman Porticella.

Are you a communication alumnus?
We want to connect! Please take a few minutes to complete our alumni survey to help us learn how to best engage with you.
Contact Us
450 Mann Library Building
phone: (607) 255-2601
email: communication [at] cornell.edu
We are located on the 4th floor of Mann Library, accessible only by the stairs/elevators within the library, which are just past the circulation desk.
Department Hours:
Monday - Thursday, 8am to 4:30pm
Friday, 8am to 3:30pm