Rhetoric in Coursework

The vast majority of my coursework throughout my communication PhD program has focused on the area of rhetoric. Through these classes, I have learned how to integrate rhetorical theories and methods to analyze artifacts, write and deliver speeches, and evaluate arguments.

COM 500/501 Core Theory and Methods

Though these two general classes are oriented toward teaching new communication PhD students about the broad perspectives offered throughout the communication discipline, much of my work in these two classes focused on developing my understanding of rhetorical theories and methods. In COM 500, I developed a final project about what a critical approach toward the rhetoric of science might look like. In this project, I argued that rhetoricians in general, and rhetoricians of science in particular, ought to consider not just artifacts of analysis but how those artifacts are situated within cultural contexts. Rhetoricians have long considered the situations in which oral and written artifacts arise, and in this project I argued that this approach should be more thoroughly considered by rhetoricians of science as we seek to explain how science operates rhetorically in and beyond the public sphere.

COM 515 Rhetorical Criticism

In this methods-centered course with Dr. Christine Harold, I learned various approaches to the analysis of rhetorical artifacts. The centuries-long study of rhetoric spans disciplines, and in this class I began to learn what an integrative approach to rhetoric might look like. This class offered me the opportunity to begin to juxtapose traditional rhetorical scholarship on argumentation and textual analysis with literature on networked information and online communication communities. My final project in this course analyzed the rhetorics that arose in a Facebook group that discussed vaccination, and I ultimately argued that anti-vaccination advocates might be able to teach rhetoricians something about how to engage in meaningful online discourse.

COM 590 Readings in Classical Rhetoric

In this independent study led by Dr. Matt McGarrity, I began to contextualize my understandings of rhetoric with its ancient roots. Beginning with texts from Plato and Isocrates, we traced the history of rhetoric from its roots in sophistry and political instruction to its development into an art, a techne, as described by the likes of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian. Not only did this course afford me an opportunity to engage with the ancient texts that form the foundations of the rhetorical discipline, it allowed me to see how my work, in both writing and teaching, expands upon these foundations to contribute to a contemporary conception of rhetorical study.

ENGL 556 Cultural Studies

Because this cultural studies course was offered through the English department, I was able to learn an approach to rhetoric that differed slightly from the communications-based approach I had learned up to this point. Rhetoricians originating from English departments tend to approach rhetoric as a method for analysis of texts – methods of criticism – as opposed to methods for the development and teaching of the art of speaking. Though these approaches are by no means entirely distinct, taking this course which solely focused on criticism was a way of expanding my knowledge of how to approach texts critically. In this class, I developed my understanding of theories of cultural criticism and applied them to several textual artifacts throughout the course including documentary films, memes, and popular press writings.