With two doctorates in communication and art history, Scott Gratson, director of the Communication Studies Program at Klein College of Media and Communication, has deep-seated and varied academic interests. This is further evidenced by his decision to enhance his education through the University of Oxford’s Certificate in Higher Education Programme. Accepted in February and starting in September, he will be studying history with subsidiary focus areas in both archeology and architecture.

Gratson has always had a personal relationship with Britain and its history, as his family is connected to the area and he has visited several times. After taking trips to Oxford for academic purposes and using its facilities to supplement his art history dissertation, he became thoroughly enchanted with the university, the oldest higher education institution in the English-speaking world. He believes his connection to Oxford was solidified with his participation in a panel about representations of death in media, in which two panelists from Oxford discussed the historical background of a British tomb that was also a piece he examined in his art history dissertation. 

“Their background was in history,” he says. “And I realized that I could study the art of Britain from now until doomsday and I’m never going to be able to pick up the full, historical venue unless I basically increase my knowledge of history within Britain itself.”

Gratson’s decision to apply to the summer program was a result of his realization that Oxford would fill these historical knowledge gaps. Deborah Cai, senior associate dean and Klein professor; and Ashley West, Tyler School of Art professor and Gratson’s art history dissertation chair; were happy to serve as his references for the application because, as Cai stated in her reference letter, he “seems to take every opportunity to excite his students and colleagues by his teaching and his own learning.” West could not agree more.

“I thought that [Gratson] would be very well-suited to Oxford's program, with his wide-reaching scholarship in the fields of art history and other humanistic disciplines, rhetoric, media and communication, psychology and critical theory; his zeal for learning and his general intellectual curiosity; his leadership in and outside the classroom, and his ability to help create a comfortable and supportive learning environment for any community of which he is a part,” says West.

Gratson completed the program’s in-depth application and powered through the requisite interview, noting that the roughly 30-minute session was the most rigorous examination of his work he has ever experienced. So he was amazed that he was accepted into the program a little over 24 hours after his interview, as his initial impression was that the decision would take closer to four weeks to be announced. Gratson hopes to study at the campus for at least two summers and to take in-person coursework, though the online program lasts up to four years. The coursework is expected to take at least ten hours a week but he is not fazed by the prospect of managing all of his commitments.

“It’s kind of like what I say when I talk about directing comm[unication studies]: when you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work, you don’t really care how much time it takes,” he says.

The support of his colleagues and his students invigorates him as he counts down the time until he is considered an “Oxonian,” the official name of an individual who studies or has studied at Oxford.

“I do believe that the more that I learn as a student, the better teacher I become because I can connect more of the dots and to see a much bigger picture. And I want to share that with my students,” he says.

But this acceptance means more to him than just a prospective intellectual challenge. As the first member of his family to attend college, he celebrates his notable academic achievements by keeping a record of them through his academic robe he earned for his communication doctorate ceremony. On the brim of the tam that accompanies the robe, he has listed the mottos of the four higher education institutions he has attended. And although it is ironic that Gratson, who is non-religious, will soon be including Oxford’s motto of Dominus Illuminatio Mea (“The Lord is my light”), he is proud that the esteemed university will round off this tradition — and his formal education.