Intended to provide a “century's end” overview of where the entire field of communication is heading, the speeches reprinted here were given at the 1996 national convention of the Speech Communication Association. Some of the most prominent researchers active in the discipline were asked to review the state of the art in their area of specialization, to limn new areas promising for study, and to help chart the course for the further study into the next century. Commissioned by Judith S. Trent, president of the National Communication Association, the speeches reprinted here include valuable and insightful overviews from such diverse areas as interpersonal communication studies, to examinations of the volatile realms of politics and organizations, to discussions of emerging issues like gender, health, and education, to descriptions of the contributions provided by critical lenses like social theory and cultural studies. All provide a broad look at where the field is, where it has emerged from, and, most importantly, where it is going.

A joint venture of the National Communication Association and Allyn & Bacon, this volume will serve both as a text for graduate and undergraduate students taking courses like Communication Theory, Communication Education, and Introduction to Communication Studies and as a valuable resource for scholars and teachers in the field. While Allyn & Bacon will make this volume broadly available to its customers and to interested members of the profession free of charge, the text will also be available for course adoption at a reasonable price. Proceeds from sales of the text for class adoption will be placed in a special fund, administered by the National Communication Association, and used to sponsor professional activities for graduate students at future annual national conventions.