Pat J. Gehrke

Assistant Professor
Office: 407 Humanities Office Building
(803) 777-2069
patgehrke@gmail.com

Education

Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 2003.

Specialization Areas

• Contemporary Rhetorical Theory,
• Communication Ethics,
• Rhetoric of Humanism & Anti-Humanism.

Recent Courses

See Course Descriptions for detailed information.

• SPCH 701: Teaching Speech Communication
• SPCH 140: Public Communication
• SPCH 799x: Rhetoric, History, and Power
• SPCH 230: Business and Professional Communication

Current Research Project(s)

My primary focus for the past few years has been a book-length study of the relationships between politics, ethics, and pedagogy in the development of rhetoric in American communication studies from 1900 to 2000. This genealogy maps out how particular models of politics and ethics constructed not only communication pedagogy but also guided disciplinary understandings of methods and research. At the same time, the principles that were most operative in communication studies and many that today are taken as intrinsic to disciplinary history were almost continuously in a state of contestation throughout the twentieth century.

In addition, I am currently working on a pair of essays on the relationship between the works of Michel Foucault and rhetorical theory, an essay of diaologic civility, and a study of the rhetorical strategy of a southern academic organization confronting questions of political advocacy and racism during the 1950s.

Publications

"The Ethical Importance of Being Human: God and Humanism in Levinas's Philosophy."  Philosophy Today (forthcoming in vol. 50 n. 5, 2006).

"Subjected Wills: The Antihumanism of Kubrick's Later Films."  Co-authored with G. L. Ercolini.  Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film, and the Uses of History.  Geoffrey Cocks, James Diedrick, and Glenn Perusek (Eds.).  Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.  101-121.

"Turning Kant Against the Priority of Autonomy:  Communication Ethics and the Duty to Community."  Philosophy and Rhetoric 35 (2002): 1-21.

 "Deviant Subjects in Foucault and A Clockwork Orange: Congruent Critiques of Criminological Constructions of Subjectivity."  Critical Studies in Media Communication 18 (2001): 270-284.  Reprinted in Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film, and the Uses of History.  Geoffrey Cocks, James Diedrick, and Glenn Perusek (Eds.).  Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.  

"Teaching Argumentation Existentially: Argumentation Pedagogy and Theories of Rhetoric as Epistemic."  Argumentation and Advocacy 35 (1998): 76-86.

"Critique Arguments as Policy Analysis: Policy Debate Beyond the Rationalist Perspective."  Contemporary Argumentation and Debate 19 (1998): 18-39.  Reprinted in Perspectives in Controversy: Selected Essays from Contemporary Argumentation & Debate, Kenneth Broda-Bahm (Ed.).  New York:  International Debate Education Association, 2002.

"Evidence in the Global Village: The Promise and Challenge of Computer-Assisted Research in Intercollegiate Debate." Speaker and Gavel 35 (1998): 46-61.

Presentations

"The Impotence of Reason and the Condemnation of Emotion in the History of Rhetoric," (2006 International Society for the Study of Argumentation 6th International Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands.)

"The Promises and Perils of Dialogic Civility."  (2006 National Communication Ethics Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.)

"Communication Ethics in a Non-Moral Sense."  (2006 National Communication Ethics Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.)

"Southern Strategies and Political Problematics in Early 20th Century Speech Studies: SSCA vs. Senator Bilbo."  (2006 Southern States Communication Association Convention in Dallas, TX.)

Roundtable Panelist: "Uncharted Waters; The Long, Crooked Voyage from a Working Class Life to an Academic Career." (2005 National Communication Association Convention in Boston, MA.)

Roundtable Panelist: "The Current Health of the Longitudinal Case Study in Rhetorical Criticism." (2005 National Communication Association Convention in Boston, MA.)

Roundtable Panelist: "The Health of Theory in the Discipline." (2005 National Communication Association Convention in Boston, MA.)