East Tennessee State University

Department of Communication

Magazine Story
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Stephen Carpenter, Ad/PR Student
November 6, 2013 ETSU Department of Communication
423-202-1218
carpenters@goldmail.etsu.edu

Storytelling and the Department of Communication: A Perfect Fit

East Tennessee State University is known for many things, including the Quillen College of Medicine, its
success in basketball and its beautiful location. But one of the most unique things ETSU has to offer is a
master’s degree program in storytelling — the only one of its kind in the United States.

Now, the storytelling program is making the move from the College of Education to the Department of
Communication. It’s a fitting home for a discipline whose focus is carrying on the tradition of narrative
through spoken word.

Dr. Joseph Sobol, assistant professor and coordinator of the storytelling program since 2000, said that
the move has been a long time coming.

Dr. Sobol began working with Pat Cronin to coordinate a move that would line up the program closer
to the Division of Theater and Dance around seven years ago. The process was a long and slow one, but
last year, the move to the Department of Communication began.

The move came at an opportune time as well. “With the College of Education reading program having
to line up more with “No Child Left Behind” and the “Race to the Top,” we really didn’t fit in well with
the direction they were going,” Dr. Sobol said.

The first step in the move was the establishment of the new storytelling minor. The new
undergraduate minor program, which began in the 2013–2014 academic year, is the first area of the
storytelling program to be coordinated within the Department of Communication.

Dr. Sobol said the master’s program should be moving to the department in the fall semester of 2014,
which was even faster than he had anticipated.
The storytelling program began in the late 1980s under original director Dr. Flora Joy. The program was
held mostly in the summer, and many prominent storytellers have taught in the program due to its
close ties with Jonesborough’s National Storytelling Festival.

In 2000, Dr. Sobol took over the storytelling program following the retirement of Dr. Joy and began
looking for ways to expand beyond the summer program. The undergraduate minor and the move to
the new department are two more steps in that expansion.

The program attracts people from many different backgrounds, and many of the program’s students
come from vastly different backgrounds ranging from anthropology to children’s ministry.
Dr. Sobol points out that storytelling links all disciplines at the university. “Narrative structure is
important,” he said. “It’s one of the ways people think, really.”

This one-of-a-kind program will be a perfect addition to the Department of Communication, since
storytelling is at the heart of communication.

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