Program Overview
COMD’s Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Design trains students to produce, interpret, and critically engage with the communication media shaping our world. The program integrates hands-on production — video, photography, sound design, and digital media — with rigorous coursework in cultural theory, media ethics, and communication studies. Graduates are not simply skilled practitioners; they are reflective professionals who understand why media works the way it does, and what it means when it does not. The result is a graduate who can make with precision and think with depth.
Curriculum Overview
The BA curriculum is structured around progressive integration: foundational principles in the first two years build into specialized knowledge and independent practice by graduation. Throughout all four years, students follow two parallel seminar sequences — one tracing the history, aesthetics, and critical theory of the moving image; the other exploring the broader social, technological, and cultural dimensions of media. These seminar tracks run alongside intensive studio and production courses, ensuring that critical thinking and creative practice develop together rather than in isolation. In the final year, students complete a Capstone Project of their choosing: either a substantial research paper or a significant media production accompanied by a written critical statement. Interdepartmental coursework — including Creative Writing through the English Department — enriches the curriculum throughout.
Areas of Focus
COMD’s elective courses are organized into four thematic areas. Students are free to combine courses across areas, building a profile that reflects their interests and ambitions. The four areas also map directly onto the department’s career pathways — see the Careers page for outcomes linked to each.
1. Moving Image & Documentary Production
Narrative filmmaking, documentary production, cinematography, editing, and video storytelling. Students work with industry-standard production and post-production infrastructure, and their work is regularly shown at the PASO Film Festival and international venues.
Facilities / PASO Film Festival
2. Sound Design & Immersive Audio
Spatial audio, sound design for picture, and immersive mixing for film, games, and extended reality. COMD operates one of the few Dolby Atmos-certified academic facilities in the region, giving students hands-on experience in an environment that matches professional industry standards.
Dolby Atmos Suite
3. Visual Communication & Media Design
Graphic design, motion graphics, interactive media, UX/UI design, web design, and animation. This area covers the design half of Communication and Design — training students for roles where visual systems carry meaning at scale.
Studio / COMD EYE
4. Media Studies, Digital Archaeologies & Critical Practice
Media theory, digital preservation, cultural studies, political communication, and media archaeology. COMD maintains one of a small number of dedicated Media Archaeology Labs globally, and this area connects students directly to that research infrastructure and to the department’s active research clusters.
Media Archaeology Lab / Research
Minor Program
The Department of Communication and Design is a response to the growing need of our increasingly globalized and networked world in which mass communications and visual technologies of various kinds play a fundamental role. By providing a wide range of courses in media studies, theories and practice, the Department aims to educate media professionals with a special emphasis on visual communication and visual technologies — specifically in the fields of advertising, journalism, visual design, video and TV production, and new media.
The Minor Program in Communication and Design aims to introduce the dynamics of media theory and practice to Bilkent students from different backgrounds. As a complement to their major area of study, the minor gives students a deep insight into the fields of communication, media, and design — and prepares them for careers that require an understanding of the impact of communication in our day.
Students enrolled in any Bilkent faculty are eligible to apply, provided that they fulfill the application criteria set by the university.
The minor consists of six courses in total — three mandatory and three electives. The mandatory courses are:
COMD 203 Introduction to Communication Studies I
COMD 204 Introduction to Communication Studies II
COMD 321 Analysis of Moving Image
Additionally, according to their fields of interest, students choose three 300- or 400-level Communication and Design courses from the department’s elective offerings.
Prerequisite Courses: None
Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the BA program are able to:
- Articulate and critically apply major theoretical frameworks in media and communication studies.
- Analyze complex media phenomena across platforms and historical periods.
- Demonstrate nuanced understanding of the social, cultural, political, and ethical dimensions of media.
- Conduct independent, rigorous, and ethically grounded research.
- Communicate complex ideas and research findings effectively in both written and oral forms.
- Engage critically with contemporary debates in communication, media ethics, and political communication.
- Produce professional-quality media work across moving image, audio, and design.
