Ph.D. Alumni
Our PhDs are teachers and researchers at colleges, universities, and other organizations in the U.S. and internationally.
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2025
Dr. Rebecca Aderoju
Advisor: Dr. Joy V. Goldsmith
Dissertation: "We Live in a Spiritual Country": The Associations Among Health Literacy,
Quality of Life, and Religious Spiritual Personal Beliefs Among the Nigerian Population
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Tell Me a Story About Home: Black Masculinity Through the Lens of Place,
Relationship, and Discourse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Dr. Solomon Cochran
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Holla Back: The African American Rhetorical Tradition of Call and Response
and the Montgomery Riverfront Brawl
Dr. L'Oreal Stephens
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: Facebook Saved My Life: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of COVID-19 Grief
and Mourning Experiences
Dr. Shukura Umi
Advisor: Dr. Joy V. Goldsmith
Dissertation: "You see I am over here throwing up," No. I am Not Doing Good: Exploring
Ways Maternal Mortality is Influenced and Amplified by Racial and Class Status Inequites
Among Women of African Descent
Current Position: Lecturer and Masters of Public Health Online Coordinator:
2024
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson Dissertation: A Historical and Prescriptive Analysis of the Iconic Black Eulogy as Prophetic Rhetoric. Current Position: Lecturer:Dr. Henrietta Giles
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco and Dr. Katherine Hendrix
Dissertation: Restriction and Resistence: The Power Dynamics of Black Freedom in Haywood
County, Tennessee (1940-1965) as examined Through Oral Narratives and Media
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee--Martin
Advisor: Dr. Christina Moss
Dissertation: Rhetoric of Impurities: ExVangelicalism as Excavating and Encountering
Purity
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
2023
Advisor: Dr. Christina Moss
Dissertation: Sacred Topographies: The Rhatorical Construction of Grandfather Mountain
as a Sacred Place
Current Position: Associate Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Joy V. Goldsmith
Dissertation: 鈥淚 think HIV is an STD?鈥�: Adolescent Lived Experiences in Sexual Education,
STD/I Knowledge, and the Roles of Stakeholders in the Urban Mid-South
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Edgar
Dissertation: May Brotherton and the Agency of Women Cutters in the Early Film Industry
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at
Advisor: Dr. Christina Moss and Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Rupturing tradition: Theorizing black Women's place in discipline through
the disruptive rhetoric of sanctuary.
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Lifting as We Climb: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Speeches of Hallie Quinn Brown,
examines Brown鈥檚 speeches and (re)introduces Brown to the study of rhetoric.
Current Position: Master Instructor,
Advisor: Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: But I Couldn鈥檛 Keep It to Myself: James Cone鈥檚 Articulation of Resistive Prophetic
Rhetoric.
Current Position: Division of Humanities Chair at
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Filling the Biblical Gap: Creating Sacred Rhetoric for Blues Women through
Womanist Vernacular Discourse.
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Too Tired to Codeswitch: Analyzing the Prophetic Rhetoric of Critical
Black Language Awareness.
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Dr. Hannah Tabrizi
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Black ghosts, Brown vampires, and queer pigs: Race, gender, sexuality, and rhetorics
of liberatory monstrosity.
Current Position: Assistant teaching professor in the Department of Communication
and Rhetorical Studies
2022
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Radical Rhetoric and the Syrian Revolution: Toward a Telos of Solidarity.
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Joy Goldsmith
Dissertation: An Ethnographic Study of Homelessness in 蜜桃导航 During the COVID-19
Pandemic
Current Position: Intern,
Advisor: Dr. Katherine Hendrix
Dissertation: Under Her Feet鈥�: A Case Study on Motherhood Discourse in an American
Muslim Community.
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Teaching, Sociology Department,
Advisor: Dr. Joy Goldsmith
Dissertation: Adherence and People Living with HIV: A Qualitative Study
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Words from Elsewhere: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century African American
Prophetic Call Narratives
Current Position: Senior Pastor,
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Glitched Rhetorics: Online Deliberation of New Technology.
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
2021
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Edgar
Dissertation: The Construction of Value and Identity in Mobile Games
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: Storytelling Health: A Content Analysis of Narrative Transportation
and Identification Cues in Direct-to-Customer Advertisements
Current Position: Senior Lecturer,
Advisor: Dr. Andre Johnson
Dissertation: The Anatomy of the Commencement Speech: An Examination of Barack Obama's
Rhetoric Delivered at HBCUs
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Contemporary Black/African American Rhetoric
and Media Studies,
Dr. Tyler Stafford
Advisor: Dr. Craig Stewart
Dissertation: Rethinking the Rhetorical Dimensions of Public Refusals
2020
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: Understanding the Lived Experiences of U.S. Trained Saudi Male Scholars Returning
to Teach in the Saudi Post-secondary Education System
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Communication Skills,
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Rhetorical Leadership in Organizational Conflict and Change: Case Studies
of Antiracist Preaching
Current Position: Department of Communication Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Amanda N. Edgar
Dissertation: Resistive Black Masculinities: Race, Masculinity, and the Hip-Hop Sensibilities
of Black Popular Culture
Current Position: Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and the African American Studies
Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at .
Advisor: Dr. Andre E. Johnson
Dissertation: Daring to be Herself: Womanist Rhetorical Theory and Black Women's Presidential
Announcement Speeches
Current Position: Adjunct Professor, and
2019
Dr. Carolyn Block
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Don't Touch me like That: Masculinity, Touch, and the Role of effect
in Media Representations of Animal Attacks
Current Position: Speech Instructor, Henry Ford College
Advisor: Dr. Craig O. Stewart
Dissertation: Good Food in the City of Blues: Understanding Community and Culture
within 蜜桃导航 Alternative Food Networks
Current Position: Assistant Professor in Public Health at
Advisor: Dr. Joy Goldsmith and Dr. Sachiko Terui
Dissertation: This is the Liberian Way: "Coping and Health Literacy in Narratives
of Sickness from Liberia, West Africa"!
Current Position: Assistant Professor in Communication Studies,
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Borders as Documents of Violence: Colonial Cartography and the Epidermal
Border
Current Position: Assistant Professor of the Practice,
Advisor: Dr. Craig O. Stewart
Dissertation: College Student Retention Behavior: Testing Persuasion with Social Identity
Framed Messages on FAFSA Submission
Current Position: Vice Provost, Enrollment and Student Services,
Advisor: Dr. Joy Goldsmith
Dissertation: A Failed Clean Water Intervention in the Haitian Central Plateau
Current Position: Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Louder than Words: Voicing, Sounding and Listening to Deafness in "A
Quiet Place"
Current Position: Assistant Professor in Communications Studies at
2018
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Monstrous Mouths, Im/mature Lips: Orality and the Queering of Age and
Gender in Contemporary Horror
Current Position: Associate Professor of Communication Studies at
Dr. Earle Fisher
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: A close reading of Albert Cleage Jr's The Black Messiah: A Study in
Rhetorical Hermeneutics, Black Prophetic Rhetoric, and Radical Black Politics
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Religion and Communication and Dean of Chapel, , 蜜桃导航, Tennessee.
2017
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: Contemporary American Citizenship: A Genre Analysis and Phenomenological
Investigation of Civic Education Centers
Current Position: Executive Director,
Advisor: Dr. Marina Levina
Dissertation: Out of Bounds: The Bodies, Borders, and Voices of Female Athletes
Current Position: Assistant Professor in Communication Studies,
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Kenneth Burke's Adolescence, 1915-1920: An Archival Study of Influence
Current Position: Adjunct Lecturer,
2016
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Rhetoric, Race and Barack Obama's Discourse of Division
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Dr. Kristen Hungerford
Advisor: Dr. Craig O. Stewart
Dissertation: Disabled Women on Saturday Night Live: Ideological Constructions and
Cultural Contradictions
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Advisors: Dr. Kris M. Markman and Dr. Craig O. Stewart
Dissertation: Ditka wears Prada: Inclusion, Competition, and Resistance through Fantasy
Football
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
2015
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Living Your Best Life: Identities of Televangelist Joel Osteen and His
Imagined Audience
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication and Public Relations at
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Anarchy is Order: Confronting the Definitional Tension in the Vanguard
Group's Anarchist Rhetoric
Current Position: Lecturer,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Under Siege: Conspiracy, I-Pistemology, and Resistance Through Hip-Hop
in Killarmy's Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
Recipient of the 2015 Top Dissertation Award from NCA's African American Communication
and Culture Division
Current Position: Adjunct/Associate Professor,
Dr. Brian Heslop
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: Piercing the Religious Hinge: Understanding Religio-Civic Controversy
Through Analogical Argument
Current Position: Associate Professor,
2014
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: The Experience of The Addiction-Affected Family: A Communication Based
Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis
Current Position:
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: The Post-Termination Rhetoric of the American Restoration Movement
Current Position: Lead Minister,
2013
Advisor: Dr. Antonio de Velasco
Dissertation: "Talking It Over" with Hillary: Domestic and Global Advocacy, 1995-2000
Current Position: Associate Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: An Appeal to the World: The Controversial Rhetoric of Samuel Adams
Current Position: Assistant Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Craig O. Stewart
Dissertation: From Slurs to Science, Racism to Revisionism: White Nationalist Rhetors
and Legitimation in the Stormfront Community
Current Position: Professor of Communications (Converged),
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Communication Apprehension in First-Generation
College Students at a Four-Year College
Current Position: Associate Professor and Director for Graduate Studies and Faculty
Development, 蜜桃导航 College of Urban and Theological Studies,
2012
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Cindy Sheehan's Confrontational Iraq War Protests: A Case Study in Contentious
Rhetoric.
Current Position: Associate Professor,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Freedom Faith of Prathea L. Hall: A Hybrid Rhetoric of Protest
Current Position: Adjunct Professor, University of 蜜桃导航
2011
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Sadi
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Al-Jazeera Television: Intifadah on the Air
Current Position: Assistant Professor: Media Department, An-Najah National University.
Dr. Leora Elli
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: Exam Room Computers and Patient-Clinician Communication
Current Position:
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: From the Closed Society to the Realization of Freedom: The Mississippi
Delegation Debate at the 1964 Democratic National Convention
Current Position: Project Manager,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: The Contested Reputation of Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Reception History
of Rhetorical Discourse
Current Position: Assistant Teaching Professor, - College English Program
2010
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: Engaging Rural Community Members as Problem Solvers: Application of
Health Communication to Improve the Quality of Health Care in Southwest Uganda
Current Position: Health Communication Specialist,
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: Echoing Silence: Fundamentalism, Inerrancy, and the Social Construction
of Reality in the Southern Baptist Holy War
Current Position: Lecturer, Department of Communication,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Say "Amen" for the Sistahs: The Rhetoric of Womanist Preaching
Current Position: Associate Professor of Speech Communication,
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: Mothers Against Democracy: Hebe de Bonafini's Rhetorical Strategies
of Resistance
Current Position: Academic Chair of Communication,
Advisors: Dr. Pradeep Sopory and Dr. Sandra Sarkela
Dissertation: A Cognitive Model of College Choice: Examining the decision making-process
and influence of visually-verbally redundant message design on college choice
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Communications,
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: America's P.R.I.D.E: Entertainment Education as a Health Communication
Intervention Strategy for Middle-School and High School Students
Current Position: Lecturer
2009
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: Examining Health Risk Perception Through Listening: The Effect of Receiver
Apprehension and Tailored Listening Style Preference Messages on Adult Pertussis Vaccination
Decisions
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Journalism,
Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sopory
Dissertation: Friendship and Components of Intimacy: Role of Relationship Modality
and Gender
Current Position: Associate Professor of Communication,
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: The Status and Function of Rhetorical Anecdotes in Presidential Debates
from 1980-2004: Synecdoche, Identification, and Ethotic Argument
Current Position: Associate Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies,
Dr. Walter T. Viner
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Logic of the Heart: Alexander Campbell's Rhetoric and Hermeneutics on
Christian Identity, Slavery, and Church Organization
Current Positions: Adjunct Faculty at and Senior Minister at
2008
Dr. Jonathan Camp
Advisor: Dr. Amanda Young
Dissertation: Improving Interorganizational Communication to Raise Standards for Human
Subjects Protection in El Salvador: A Focus Group's Study with Research Ethics Committee
Members and Parents of Children with Cancer
Current Position: Associate Professor / Associate Dean, Communication,
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Don Sundquist and Tax Reform: Is Political Prudence an Oxymoron?
Current Position: Professor of Speech/Director of Forensics at
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: From Grief to Hope: A Study of How the New York Times Inspired a Nation
to Transcend the Tragedy of 9/11
Dr. Andre Johnson
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: The Prophetic Oratory of Henry McNeal Turner
Current Position: Professor of Communication, University of 蜜桃导航
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: The Lessons of the School Desegregation Cases: The "Reasonable Basis
Test" and the Rhetoric of the Fourteenth Amendment
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Communication Studies and Theatre Arts,
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: "I'm Happy Tonight:" Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Discourse of Prophetic
Reconciliation
Current Position: Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics and Director
of the Academy of Preaching and Celebration,
Dr. Mark Vail
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: Realms of Reception: The Rhetorical Response to Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail
2007
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Reading for Intent: Why Authors Matter In Criticism
Current Position: Associate Professor,
Dr. Owen Brett Cooper
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Exploring the Rhetorical Impact of WDIA
Current Position: Vice President for Creative Services & Technology / Special Assistant
to the President,
Advisor: Dr. M. Allison Graham
Dissertation: How Many Can We Educate, Medicate, Incarcerate, Celebrate, Compensate?
Representations of Ethnic Groups in the 蜜桃导航 Commercial Appeal (1990-2006)
Current Position:
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: A Study of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Everquest:
Can a Virtual Game World be a Community?
Current Position: Chair, Media Communication and Technology,
Dr. Jason T. Phillips
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Bad Medicine: Extreme Contextualization in Popular Songs and Videos
from 1987-2005
Current Position: Lecturer of Telecommunications,
2006
Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sopory
Dissertation:Construction of Saudi Arabia's Social Reality Before and After September
11, 2001 by US Mainstream Television News Organizations in Relation to US Govt Officials'
News Framing
Current Position: Criminal Investigator,
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: Metaphorizing Identity: A Rhetorical/Ethnographic Account of Persuasion,
Invention, & the Process of Identity Transformation in Alcoholics Anonymous
Current Position: Professor, Division of Communication Studies, , Montevallo, AL
Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sopory
Dissertation: Building Successful Global Organizational Networks: A Model of International
Interorganizational Professional Communication
Current Position:
Advisor: Dr. Michael Leff
Dissertation: Cultural Variations as Predictors of Cross-Cultural Negotiation Outcomes:
Implications for International Business Communication
Current Position: Global Leadership Scholar, Union Institute and University of 蜜桃导航
2005
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: The Management of Communication Styles of Thai Mid-level Managers in
Multi-national Companies
Current Position: Senior Lecturer,
Advisor: Dr. Jim Redmond
Dissertation: Negotiating newsworthiness in local television news: A case study of
organizational influences in the story selection process
Current Position: Online Student Success Specialist,
Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sopory
Dissertation: Factors Influencing Social Support and Stress Among Nurses
Current Position: Instructor - Speech at
Advisor: Dr. Pradeep Sopory and Dr. Katherine Hendrix
Dissertation: The Effects of Competitive and Noncompetitive Educational Mathematics
Computer Games on Preschool Children: Gender Differences in Attitude Toward Games,
Mathematical Learning, and Recall of Game Playing Experience
Current Position: Associate Professor,
2004
Dr. Aliah Fouad Al-Matrouk
Advisor: Dr. Kevin Wright
Dissertation: The Use of the Internet as an Alternative News Source: An Examination
of Kuwaiti Traditional Media and the Internet for News Processing
Current Position: Assistant Professor, College of Arts, Department Mass Communication,
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix and Dr. Pradeep Sopory
Dissertation: Students' Use of Compliance-Seeking Strategies with Black and White
Graduate Teaching Assistants
Current Position: Professor and Department Chair, Communication Arts,
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: The Internet as an Alternative Source of Information and Alternative
Forum of Expression for Arab Americans
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies,
Advisor: Dr. Katherine G. Hendrix
Dissertation: Public Schools as Interactive Organizations: Developing a Model of Media
and Public Relations Strategies for Engaging External Constituencies
Current Position: Professor, Department of Communication,
2003
Dr. Marcia M. Smith
Advisor: Dr. Thomas Darwin
Dissertation: Figures of Speech: The Rhetorical Construction of Pregnancy Identification
Current Position: Professor Emeritus,
2002
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: To Protect the Children: An Examination of Arguments for the Content
Regulation of Mass Media
Current Position: Professor, Department of Communication,
Dissertation: Nurses' and patients' perceptions of relational communication
Current Position: Retired/Nurse Practitioner, University of 蜜桃导航
Advisor: Dr. Larry Frey
Dissertation: The Intercultural Hiring Interview: Applying Uncertainty Reduction Theory
to the Study of Nonverbal Behavior Between Indian Applicants & US Interviewers
Current Position: The School of Journalism and Communication,
2001
Advisor: Dr. Joann Keyton
Dissertation: Tracking the Communicative Impact of Women in Top Management Teams
Current Position: Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant at C3
Advisor: Dr. Joann Keyton
Dissertation: ADHD and Parental Willingness to Medicate: A Communication Approach
Current Position: Professor, Department of Communication, , OH
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: The Rhetoric of Childbirth: A Burkean Analysis of Medical Demarcation
in the Trial of a California Midwife
Current Position: Gnostic Teacher, Owns B&B in Jacksonville, OR
2000
Advisor: Dr. John Campbell
Dissertation: The Formation of American Community: George Whitefield, Rhetoric, Religion,
and Political Thought in The Great Awakening
Current Position: Lecturer, Department of Communication,
Advisor: Dr. Lynne Webb
Dissertation: Commitment in Close Relationships: The Development of a Theoretical
Model
Current Position: Professor of Communication - Department of Speech Communication,