Are you interested in Fitchburg State's Applied Communication program? As part of the GCE blog's "Our Faculty" series, we introduce Dr. Charles Sides, Professor and Internship Program Director.
How did your career path get you to Fitchburg State?
I studied rhetoric and technical communication in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts, where I obtained my Ph.D. in 1981. From there, I taught at Clarkson University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University. While at MIT, our family moved to Westminster. After 10 years of commuting 100 miles round trip to Cambridge and Boston, the opportunity to accept a position at Fitchburg State University occurred, and I took it.
What subjects do you enjoy teaching and studying the most?
First Amendment freedoms, rhetoric, American literature
How do you engage your graduate students?
I like to pose perplexing questions that do not have a right or wrong answer; these compel students to examine their long-held beliefs and consider other approaches to solving every day communication problems.
Describe your teaching philosophy
I try to combine as many learning styles (as defined by Gardiner) as possible in my courses. Since the most common are visual, auditory, and participatory, I tend to use combinations of lecture, visual cues in display technologies such as PowerPoint, and workshops, case studies, and other activities that require participation.
Why would you encourage students to consider the Applied Communication degree at Fitchburg State?
As opposed to other, and much more expensive programs in the general area, the Fitchburg State Applied Communications program is taught by senior faculty with national and even international reputations for their scholarship. Professors publish articles and books, speak at regional and national conventions, edit international journals and book series. This is extraordinarily rare at a small state university.
What is the relevance of the Applied Communication degree in the contemporary world?
The title of the program says it all. This is a program that focuses on the application of communication theory in real environments. That is a contemporary world that we all live in. It includes the study of communication-related topics from rhetoric and persuasion (as would be used in Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations), Freedom of Expression issues (both within and without corporate environments), Gendered Communication, International Communication, Social Media, Big Data, and related communication issues that affect everyday life. The program is taught by full-time Communication Media faculty, each of whom is nationally or internationally known for their research and expertise in these areas.
