Max Campbell, Communication, M.S.

Max Campbell

Meet Max Campbell. Max is a second-year grad student pursuing a master’s in communication at Oregon State. Max was drawn to Oregon State for the location, but more specifically to the city of Corvallis. “Not only does it have a wonderful small-town vibe, but you are also so close to the coast and hiking/camping spots it’s amazing.” 

When Max started his undergrad, he wanted to pursue political science but landed on communication. “I quickly realized I was more interested in the mix of philosophical, cultural, and communicative political questions that no political science class really addressed for me.” Since then, Max has greatly enjoyed learning about the subfield of rhetoric in communication. “It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I took my first rhetoric class, then I knew that the answer was communication, specifically rhetoric. I became invested in the questions, theories, propositions, debates of rhetorical theory – often to the detriment of my friends.”

Branching out beyond rhetoric, Max has shown particular interest in media studies, along with critical cultural studies. One such research has brought him into the realm of social media and analyzing the social media platform BeReal. Within these studies, Max has discovered that the most difficult aspect has been in the approach to the research. “The beauty (and horror) of communication humanities research, is that there is no empirical data to justify your claim, you must determine a method of analysis, critical approach, perspective to analyze an object and form a convincing argument.”.

Outside of grad school, Max has several hobbies: “playing the electric bass, hiking, going on beach trips (favorite beach Cannon Beach), going to the mountains (anywhere near Cascade Locks), kayaking (in the summer)”. He also stresses the importance of maintaining a solid work/life balance when in grad school. “It’s grad school. It is a lot of work… Personally, I set aside Sundays to do absolutely no schoolwork and just take the day to relax. Of course, I tend to break this rule all the time, so I need to be better at that – but I would seriously recommend a day or half-day break from school. It is a lot sometimes.”