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