Rhetoric and Culture

The rhetoric and culture area offers a distinctive program that integrates contemporary rhetorical approaches with cultural studies and the interpretive turn in social science. Area members are linked by a common interest in historical and historically inflected studies of rhetoric and its media, including discourses, technologies and bodies.

Rhetoric and culture are studied in the context of popular, public and intellectual cultures, via historical, ethnographic, textual and critical methods and frameworks of analysis. The program, thus, combines traditional rhetorical education with a contemporary focus, offering diverse methodological training to produce cutting-edge critical work and innovative theory development.

Distinctive Area Features

Emphases in rhetoric and culture, space and place, rhetoric of inquiry and ethnographic approaches to rhetorical studies
Combines traditional rhetorical education with a contemporary focus and offers diverse methodological training to produce cutting-edge critical work and innovative theory development
Collaboration with faculty in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and participation in the interdisciplinary Rhetoric Workshop, to develop a distinctive multidisciplinary perspective
Active student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America
Monthly research lunches exploring ongoing projects conducted by faculty and by graduate students

Regularly Offered Rhetoric and Culture Courses

For a detailed list of courses with descriptions, see the University Catalog.

COMM 5300 Seminar: Rhetoric—3 credit hours
COMM 5310 Contemporary Rhetorical Criticism—3
COMM 5320 Readings in Rhetoric—3
COMM 6310 Rhetorical Criticism—3
COMM 6320 Rhetorical Theory—3
COMM 6330 Rhetoric of Inquiry—3
COMM 6340 Rhetoric and Civic Community—3
COMM 6360 Social and Cultural Theory—3

Recent Rhetoric and Culture Area Graduates

Chris Ingraham, assistant professor, North Carolina State University (PhD’15)
Diane Keeling, assistant professor, University of San Diego (PhD’11)
Amanda LeBlanc, PhD Student, University of South Florida (MA’14)
Jennifer Malkowski, assistant professor, California State University, Chico (PhD’14)
Joshua Morrison, adjunct faculty, Ivy Tech Community College (MA’14)
Susana Martínez Guillem, assistant professor, University of New Mexico (PhD’12)
Megan Morrissey, assistant professor, University of North Texas (PhD’13)
Allison Rowland, assistant professor, St. Lawrence University (PhD’14)
Christy-Dale L. Sims, lecturer, University of Denver (PhD’13)