We transitioned from an academic program to a formal department in 1982, the first Communication department in the University of California system, and began admitting PhD students in 1985. Today we have an impressively diverse community of 750 undergraduate majors, a talented graduate cohort of approximately 50 doctoral students, and 24 ladder-rank and affiliated faculty trained in communication and media studies, sociology,  education, political science, anthropology, history, linguistics, media/film production, cultural studies, disability studies, science and technology studies, information studies, human-computer interaction, feminist theory, and critical legal and policy studies.  Home to two recipients of the MacArthur Genius Award, the department is recognized, nationally and internationally, for the quality of its educational programs, the innovative, award-winning scholarship of its faculty, and the distinctly critical, interdisciplinary approach we bring to the field.