To be competitive in the academic marketplace, graduates of our doctoral program need to have opportunities to teach a variety of undergraduate courses in the field of culture and communication, as well as multiple hands-on research experiences working on projects supervised by our faculty. Therefore, all doctoral students engage in research and teaching assistant positions. These variable research and teaching assignments are made in consultation with the students' faculty advisors, research project Principal Investigators, and program directors who staff undergraduate courses in our department. All assignments are subject to year-end evaluations of student performance and progress toward the dissertation.