Bruce McComiskey

Bruce McComiskey, Professor of English and Director of the Center for Rhetoric in Society

_{Department of English

340C Shanks Hall

181 Turner St. NW

Blacksburg, VA 24061

mbruce21@vt.edu}

Bruce McComiskey is Professor of Rhetoric and Writing in the English department. He specializes in ancient and modern rhetorics, composition theory and history, and the discipline of English studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Rhetoric in Society.

McComiskey’s books include Rhetoric and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Penn State UP, 2021), Post-Truth Rhetoric and Composition (Utah State UP, 2017), Dialectical Rhetoric (Utah State UP, 2015), Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric (Southern Illinois UP, 2002), and Teaching Composition as a Social Process (Utah State UP, 2000). He is editor of English Studies: The Difference It Makes (NCTE, 2022), Microhistories of Composition (Utah State UP, 2016), and English Studies: An Introduction to the Discipline(s) (NCTE, 2006). He is co-editor (with Cynthia Ryan) of City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices (SUNY Press, 2003). Some of McComiskey’s work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Polish.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Ancient rhetorics (Classical and non-Western)
Modern rhetorical theory
Composition pedagogy
Composition history
English studies

Education

Ph.D. in English, specialization in Rhetoric and Composition, Purdue University, 1994
M.A. in English, specialization in Rhetoric and Composition, Illinois State University, 1988
B.S. in English Education, Illinois State University, 1986

Publications

Books

Rhetoric and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Penn State UP, 2021

Post-Truth Rhetoric and Composition. Utah State UP, 2017

Dialectical Rhetoric. Utah State UP, 2015

Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric. Southern Illinois UP, 2002. Translated into Chinese by the Hermes Publishing Company. Beijing, China, 2014

Teaching Composition as a Social Process. Utah State UP, 2000. Translated into Korean by the Kyungjin Publishing Company. Seoul, South Korea, 2012

Edited Collections

English Studies: The Difference It Makes. NCTE, February 2022

Microhistories of Composition. Utah State UP, 2016

English Studies: An Introduction to the Discipline(s). NCTE, 2006

City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices. SUNY P, 2003 (with Cynthia Ryan)

Recent Journal Articles

“Post-Truth Rhetoric and the Functions of Education.” Forum Artis Rhetoricae, vol. 59, no. 4, October-December 2019, pp. 25-38. Translated into Polish by Jakub Z. Lichanski and published in the same issue, pp. 38-50

“Performative Rhetorical Strategies in the Rule of the Community (Dead Sea Scroll 1QS).” Journal of Communication and Religion, vol. 38, no. 3, Fall 2015, pp. 89-106

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