Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies
Kathleen F. McConnell is currently an Associate Professor of Rhetorical Studies in the Department of Communication Studies San José State University.
She teaches communication theory, rhetorical criticism, writing, and gender studies, and is the course coordinator for COMM 100W: Writing for Influence and COMM 41: Critical Decision Making. Her courses, all of which build skills in writing and argumentation, are a good match for students interested in public policy work, social advocacy, cultural criticism, and education.
Her scholarship explores the relationship between universities and invention. Joining others who have conceptualized higher education as a rhetorical practice, she extends an analogy between the rhetorical situation and the university to show how educational institutions prompt us to think in terms of situations and help us to practice situated invention. Arguing by analogy, she critiques the reform efforts underway that threaten to consolidate resources at fewer institutions and erase differences between schools. Those efforts promise to dull the situational properties of universities and will deepen educational inequities by reducing the number of students who have the opportunity to navigate the uncertainties and impermanency of situated invention.
She writes about the university and invention in the essay, “Imbalances and Inequities: The Structure of Inquiry and Its Place in Rhetorical Studies,” (Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015), and the essay "In Appreciation of the Kind of Rhetoric We Learn in School," (Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010). Her book in progress, Nothing Beyond Us But Ocean: Invention at the Edges of Higher Education, is an ethnographic study of invention at two regional public universities.
In a second project, she draws on a queer ethics to re-imagine the professional conventions that govern academic life. The project began with the essay “Connective Tissue, Critical Ties: Academic Collaboration as a Form and Ethics of Kinship” (Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 2012), and continues in an essay-in-progress about the ethics of academic publishing.
This year she is serving as Chair of the Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group for the Western States Communication Association 2016 Convention.
Ph.D., Rhetoric and Public Culture, Indiana University (2008)
M.A., Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University (2003)
B.A., The Evergreen State College (1997)
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She teaches communication theory, rhetorical criticism, writing, and gender studies, and is the course coordinator for COMM 100W: Writing for Influence and COMM 41: Critical Decision Making. Her courses, all of which build skills in writing and argumentation, are a good match for students interested in public policy work, social advocacy, cultural criticism, and education.
Her scholarship explores the relationship between universities and invention. Joining others who have conceptualized higher education as a rhetorical practice, she extends an analogy between the rhetorical situation and the university to show how educational institutions prompt us to think in terms of situations and help us to practice situated invention. Arguing by analogy, she critiques the reform efforts underway that threaten to consolidate resources at fewer institutions and erase differences between schools. Those efforts promise to dull the situational properties of universities and will deepen educational inequities by reducing the number of students who have the opportunity to navigate the uncertainties and impermanency of situated invention.
She writes about the university and invention in the essay, “Imbalances and Inequities: The Structure of Inquiry and Its Place in Rhetorical Studies,” (Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015), and the essay "In Appreciation of the Kind of Rhetoric We Learn in School," (Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010). Her book in progress, Nothing Beyond Us But Ocean: Invention at the Edges of Higher Education, is an ethnographic study of invention at two regional public universities.
In a second project, she draws on a queer ethics to re-imagine the professional conventions that govern academic life. The project began with the essay “Connective Tissue, Critical Ties: Academic Collaboration as a Form and Ethics of Kinship” (Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 2012), and continues in an essay-in-progress about the ethics of academic publishing.
This year she is serving as Chair of the Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group for the Western States Communication Association 2016 Convention.
Ph.D., Rhetoric and Public Culture, Indiana University (2008)
M.A., Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University (2003)
B.A., The Evergreen State College (1997)
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About Kathleen F. McConnell
Kathleen F. McConnell is currently an Associate Professor of Rhetorical Studies in the Department of Communication Studies San José State University.
She teaches communication theory, rhetorical criticism, writing, and gender studies, and is the course coordinator for COMM 100W: Writing for Influence and COMM 41: Critical Decision Making. Her courses, all of which build skills in writing and argumentation, are a good match for students interested in public policy work, social advocacy, cultural criticism, and education.
Her scholarship explores the relationship between universities and invention. Joining others who have conceptualized higher education as a rhetorical practice, she extends an analogy between the rhetorical situation and the university to show how educational institutions prompt us to think in terms of situations and help us to practice situated invention. Arguing by analogy, she critiques the reform efforts underway that threaten to consolidate resources at fewer institutions and erase differences between schools. Those efforts promise to dull the situational properties of universities and will deepen educational inequities by reducing the number of students who have the opportunity to navigate the uncertainties and impermanency of situated invention.
She writes about the university and invention in the essay, “Imbalances and Inequities: The Structure of Inquiry and Its Place in Rhetorical Studies,” (Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015), and the essay "In Appreciation of the Kind of Rhetoric We Learn in School," (Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010). Her book in progress, Nothing Beyond Us But Ocean: Invention at the Edges of Higher Education, is an ethnographic study of invention at two regional public universities.
In a second project, she draws on a queer ethics to re-imagine the professional conventions that govern academic life. The project began with the essay “Connective Tissue, Critical Ties: Academic Collaboration as a Form and Ethics of Kinship” (Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 2012), and continues in an essay-in-progress about the ethics of academic publishing.
This year she is serving as Chair of the Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group for the Western States Communication Association 2016 Convention.
Ph.D., Rhetoric and Public Culture, Indiana University (2008)
M.A., Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University (2003)
B.A., The Evergreen State College (1997)
She teaches communication theory, rhetorical criticism, writing, and gender studies, and is the course coordinator for COMM 100W: Writing for Influence and COMM 41: Critical Decision Making. Her courses, all of which build skills in writing and argumentation, are a good match for students interested in public policy work, social advocacy, cultural criticism, and education.
Her scholarship explores the relationship between universities and invention. Joining others who have conceptualized higher education as a rhetorical practice, she extends an analogy between the rhetorical situation and the university to show how educational institutions prompt us to think in terms of situations and help us to practice situated invention. Arguing by analogy, she critiques the reform efforts underway that threaten to consolidate resources at fewer institutions and erase differences between schools. Those efforts promise to dull the situational properties of universities and will deepen educational inequities by reducing the number of students who have the opportunity to navigate the uncertainties and impermanency of situated invention.
She writes about the university and invention in the essay, “Imbalances and Inequities: The Structure of Inquiry and Its Place in Rhetorical Studies,” (Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2015), and the essay "In Appreciation of the Kind of Rhetoric We Learn in School," (Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2010). Her book in progress, Nothing Beyond Us But Ocean: Invention at the Edges of Higher Education, is an ethnographic study of invention at two regional public universities.
In a second project, she draws on a queer ethics to re-imagine the professional conventions that govern academic life. The project began with the essay “Connective Tissue, Critical Ties: Academic Collaboration as a Form and Ethics of Kinship” (Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 2012), and continues in an essay-in-progress about the ethics of academic publishing.
This year she is serving as Chair of the Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group for the Western States Communication Association 2016 Convention.
Ph.D., Rhetoric and Public Culture, Indiana University (2008)
M.A., Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University (2003)
B.A., The Evergreen State College (1997)
| Present | Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, San Jose State University | |
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Disciplines
Grants
| 2015 - 2016 | Curriculum Development related tot he General Education Pathways Initiative |
| SanJose State University | |
| $5,400 | |
| 2013 | College of Social Sciences Research Fellowship |
| San Jose State University | |
| 2011 | California State University Research Fellowship |
| San Jose State University | |
| 2007 | Dissertation Year Research Fellowship |
| College of Arts and Sciences and Robert H. Ferrell Endowed Fellowship, Indiana University |
Professional Service and Affiliations
| 2018 - Present | Representative-at-Large, Legislative Assembly, Western States Communication Association | 2017 - Present | Member, National Communication Association Community College Task Force | 2012 - Present | Member, Western States Communication Association | 2004 - Present | Member, National Communication Association | 2018 | Member, Rhetoric Society of America | 2016 | Editorial Board, Communication Teacher | 2015 - 2016 | Chair, Rhetoric and Public Address Interest Group, Western States Communication Association | 2015 - 2016 | Committee member, WSCA Teaching Award | 2014 | Reviewer, Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture | 2014 | Reviewer, Rhetoric Society Quarterly | 2014 | Reviewer, Western Journal of Communication | 2006 - 2014 | Member, Rhetoric Society of America | 2008 | Editorial Assistant, Quarterly Journal of Speech |
Honors and Awards
- Distinguished Alumni Lecture, Department of English, Indiana University, October 12, 2017
- Virginia La Follette Gunderson Award for paper: “Notions of Freedom, Responsibility, and the Role of Race in High School Protest Rhetoric.” American Studies Program, Indiana University, 2004
Courses
- COMM 41: Critical Decision-Making
- COMM 100W: Writing Workshop
| 2008 | Ph.D., Indiana University Bloomington ‐ Rhetoric and Public Culture, Department of Communication and Culture | |
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| 2003 | M.A., Bowling Green State University | |
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| 1997 | B.A, Evergreen State College | |
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Contact Information
kathleen.mcconnell@sjsu.edu
Email: