The aim of the graduate program in Rhetorical Studies is to prepare students to conduct scholarly inquiry into rhetorical processes as they infuse popular, public, and political life. Students are invited to explore a variety of modes (oral, written, visual, and mass-mediated) as well as a variety of intellectual traditions. The program has particular strengths in 20th and 21st century rhetorical theory, criticism, and public address, including but not limited to feminist, post-colonial, and Marxist criticisms, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, and rhetorics of war and science. Maryam Ahmadi, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rhetorical theory and history, critical studies of colonialism and empire, global rhetorics, and social movement studies. Barbara A. Biesecker, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh. Modern and contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, cultural studies, visual studies, feminist studies Kelly Happe, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh. Rhetoric of science, women's studies, rhetorical theory and criticism Roger Stahl, Ph.D., Penn State University. Rhetorical theory, critical and post-structural theory, war and media Belinda Stillion Southard, Ph.D., University of Maryland. Rhetorical criticism, public address, gender studies, nationalism, and citizenship Bjørn Stillion Southard, Ph.D., University of Maryland. Early U.S. Public Address, particularly discourses concerning race and law
