Program, Faculty, & Campus Overview
The PhD Program in Rhetoric and Writing at Virginia Tech integrates the scholarship and teaching of our Rhetoric, Composition Studies, and Professional Writing faculty through a common focus on language in thinking, knowing, negotiating, decision making, and acting. We seek students interested in examining rhetoric and writing in public, academic, and corporate settings.
Mission
The aim of the PhD in Rhetoric and Writing at Virginia Tech is to educate scholars and practitioners of Rhetoric, Composition Studies, and Professional Writing who will serve the public interest by cultivating, generating, and contributing to the knowledge that constitutes these disciplines with rigor and creativity.
Faculty
Kelly Belanger — literacy studies, social movement rhetoric, rhetorics
of sportswomen, grantwriting, composition pedagogy
Eva Brumberger — visual communication, international communication,
pedagogy
Sheila Carter-Tod — composition pedagogy and practice, student voice
and identity in writing, rhetorical strategies for racial identity and racial
identity development
Jim Collier— meta-inquiry: analysis of the nature and conduct of academic
and intellectual inquiry; rhetoric of science, social epistemology, digital
rhetoric
Clare Dannenberg — language variation studies, American English dialects,
issues of negotiation of language identity with respect to place, ethnicity,
and gender
Jim Dubinsky — professional writing pedagogy, history of professional
communication, rhetoric and the military, rhetorical theory, civic engagement
in higher education (community/university partnerships)
Carlos Evia — workplace communication, interface design, technical documentation,
international and multicultural audiences
Shelli Fowler — critical pedagogy, African American literature and
theory, race and the rhetoric of resistance
Diana George — composition and cultural studies, composition pedagogy,
studies in rhetoric and writing, theories of visual representation, public
writing
Bernice Hausman — cultural studies of medicine and medical rhetoric, feminist
theory, critical theory, theories of the body
Paul Heilker — rhetorical theory, composition pedagogy, the essay, style,
rhetoric and autism
Kelly Pender — history and theory of rhetoric and composition, theories
of rhetorical invention and interpretation, cultural studies and critical theory
Katrina Powell — constructs and representations of identity, genre theory,
literacy studies, contemporary rhetorical theory, feminist autobiography
David Radcliffe — genre theory, digital texts, literary history, canon
formation, concepts of tradition, vernacular literature and self-educated poets
Carolyn Rude — the influences of discourse on decision making and policy,
genre, strategies of environmental advocacy, editing
Virginia Tech and Blacksburg
Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg (population 40,000) in the heart of the scenic New River Valley, just minutes from the Jefferson National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Numerous bikeways and a public bus system allow for easy commuting to campus.