Doctoral Program

The Department of Communication Disorders in the College of Health and Human Services offers the Ph.D. degree with a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology. The doctoral program in Communication Disorders is designed to develop the scientific and cognitive skills needed to identify and independently study important questions concerning human communication. In pursuit of these goals, students engage actively in research and teaching. The doctoral program emphasizes a student-centered approach to doctoral education. Students participate in research throughout their program and are closely supervised in their research and teaching experiences. The curriculum is individually designed to meet students’ educational needs and professional goals.

   The program is designed to develop basic and analytical knowledge in:

           (a) the sciences of normal speech and language

           (b) disorders of speech and language

           (c) related disciplines providing insight into human communication

    as well as to develop:

           (d) research and technical skills in instrumentation and research methodologies

           (e) dissemination of information via oral and written means

Combined M.S.-Ph.D. Program

In addition to the typical doctoral program, the Department of Communication Disorders has a combined M.S.-Ph.D. program. This program is tailor-made to the student and does not compromise the requirements for either the master’s or the doctoral degree. The student may elect to obtain a non-clinical master’s degree with this program, and the master’s portion of this program is with thesis.

• • The typical interval to complete both the master’s and doctoral programs is five years, and it is funded for 5 years if the student continues to qualify.  If the student desires to become clinically certified during this program, the duration of the program may be longer.
  • The first year of studies is similar to the other master’s students’ courses.
  • In the fall semester of the second year of the master’s program, the student is assigned a masters/doctoral TDP committee and begins to participate in doctoral courses and activities as well as continue with the master’s programming.
  • This program is advantageous to the bachelor’s degree student aspiring to the doctoral degree.

Areas of study

The Department of Communication Disorders at BGSU offers doctoral programs that are customized based on the interests of the student and the expertise of the faculty.  Please consult individual faculty pages and contact the graduate coordinator with any doctoral program inquiries.

Current Doctoral Students

• Stephanie Hughes
  • Stuttering, psychosocial aspects of stuttering and other communication disorders
  • Advisor: Rod Gabel, Ph.D.
• Farzan Irani
  • Clinical, psychological, and neurological aspects of stuttering
  • Advisor: Rod Gabel, Ph.D.
• Ramya Konnai
  • Aero-acoustics of normal and pathological voices
  • Advisor: Ron Scherer, Ph.D.
• Scott Palasik
  • Neurology, psychology, and social-emotional aspects of stuttering.
  • Advisor: Rod Gabel, Ph.D.
• Biji Alice Phillip
  • Language disorders, Autistic spectrum disorders, conversational repair strategies
  • Advisor: Lynne Hewitt, Ph.D.
• Emily Rusnak
  • Infant, toddler, and preschool language development and disorders
  • Advisor: Tim Brackenbury, Ph.D.
• Eric Swartz
  • Stuttering, stuttering treatment, acceptance of stuttering
  • Advisor: Rod Gabel, Ph.D.
• Haidee Lynn C. Tan
  • Voice disorders, medical speech pathology, singing science
  • Advisor: Ron Scherer, Ph.D.

Recent Doctoral Program Graduates

• Derek Daniels (2007)
  • Dissertation: Recounting the school experiences of adults who stutter: A qualitative analysis.
  • Advisor: Rod Gabel, Ph.D.
• Vijayachandra A. Ramachandra (2007)
  • Dissertation: The relationship between phonological working memory, phonological sensitivity, and incidental word learning.
  • Advisor: Lynne Hewitt, Ph.D.
• Ali S. Abu-Al-Makarem (2005)
  • Dissertation: The acoustics of fricative consonants in Gulf Spoken Arabic
  • Advisor: Don Cooper, Ph.D.
• Christine Gooding (2005)
  • Dissertation: Lexical ambiguity resolution in children: Frequency and context effects.
  • Advisor: Larry Small, Ph.D.
• Meena Argawal (2004)
  • Dissertation: The false vocal folds and their effect on translaryngeal airflow resistance
  • Advisor: Ron Scherer, Ph.D.
• Paul Evitts (2004)
  • Dissertation: Reaction time of normal listeners to laryngeal, alaryngeal, and synthetic speech
  • Advisor: Jeff Searl, Ph.D.
• Nandhakumar Radhakrishnan (2004)
  • Dissertation: Voice production during taan gestures in Indian classical singing
  • Advisor: Ron Scherer, Ph.D.