Faculty: Department of Communication

Rachel Whidden

Rachel Avon Whidden

Assistant Professor
Department of Communication


Education

  • Ph.D. Communication Studies, University of Iowa, 2005.
  • M.A.  Communication, Wake Forest University, 2000.
  • B.A. Communication and History, Wake Forest University, 1998.

Specialization

  • Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
  • Argumentation Theory
  • Rhetoric of Science
  • History of Rhetoric

Interests

  • Discourses on miracles and the evolution of standards of proof.
  • The Intelligent Design debate
  • Representing science in public.
  • Rhetorics of expertise.
  • Integration of scholarship & service with teaching to strengthen student scholarship

Courses Taught

  • COMM112: Introduction to Visual Communication
  • COMM235: Rhetoric and Speech
  • COMM250: Classical Rhetorical Tradition
  • COMM253: Argumentation and Advocacy
  • COMM255: Rhetorical Criticism
  • COMM350: Topics in Communication: Rhetoric of Science
  • COMM350: Topics in Communication: Rhetoric of Experience
  • COMM385: The Public Sphere
  • COMM387: Rhetoric of Law
  • COMM420: Senior Seminar: Visual Rhetoric
  • COMM490: Senior Thesis

Student Collaboration

  • “Parental Expertise and the Silencing of Science.” (Co-authored with Nicole Kosanke, Lake Forest College ‘13).  Paper presented at the Seventeenth AFA/NCA Alta Conference on Argumentation, August 2011.
  • “Because I Said So”: Mother as the New Voice of Scientific Expertise (Co-authored with Jessica Kuchinski, Lake Forest College ’11). Paper presented at the Association for Rhetoric of Science and Technology Pre-Conference at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Chicago, IL, November 12-15, 2009.
  • “Good Parents Vaccinate: An Analysis of Merck’s Gardasil Campaign.”  (Co-authored with Taylor Tuscherer, Lake Forest College ‘10.)  Paper presented at the Fifteenth AFA/NCA Alta Conference on Argumentation, August, 2007.

Selected Publications

Whidden, Rachel Avon and Nicole Kosanke.  “Parental Expertise and the Silencing of Science.” In  Reasoned Argument and Social Change.  Washington, D.C.: NCA, forthcoming.

Whidden, Rachel Avon.  Book Review.  Rhetorics of Display. Ed. Lawrence Prelli.  Columbia:  University of South Carolina Press, 2006.  Quarterly Journal of Speech, Forthcoming.

Whidden, Rachel Avon.  “Science, Pseudoscience, and Junk Science.” In Keywords and Controversies in the Rhetoric of Science.  Eds. David Depew and Lisa Keränen. Forthcoming.

Whidden, Rachel Avon.  “When the Personal Becomes Public: Rethinking the Relationship Between Personal, Technical and Public Spheres of Argument.”  In Argumentation, the Law, and Justice. Eds. T. Suzuki, T. Kato, and A. Kubota.  Tokyo:  Japan Debate Association,  2008: 266-270.

Whidden, Rachel Avon and Taylor Tuscherer.  “Good Parents Vaccinate.”  In Selected Papers from the Fifteenth NCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation.  Washington, D.C.: NCA, 2008.  Available on EBSCOHost.

Whidden, Rachel Avon.  “Making the Impossible Possible: Arguing Miracles From the Realm of Science.”  In Selected Papers from the Second Tokyo Conference on Argumentation.  Tokyo, Japan: Japan Debate Association, 2004.

Whidden, Rachel Avon.  “Manufacturing Controversy: Intelligent Design and the Ohio Science Standards.”  In Critical Problems in Argumentation.  Washington, D.C.: NCA, 2004:705-711. Available soon on EBSCOHost.

Avon, Rachel and Randy Hirokawa.  “The Rhetoric of the Precautionary Principle.”  In Arguing Communication and Culture. Washington, D.C.: NCA, 2002: 153-160. Available on EBSCOHost.

Recent Conference Presentations

  • “Analytic Under Siege: Stealth Dialectics and Rhetorical Deligitimation of Scientific Argument in the Public Sphere.”  (Co-authored with Dr. Margaret D. Zulick, Wake Forest University).  Paper presented at the Thirteenth Biennial Argumentation Conference, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, March 19-21, 2010.
  • “Because I Said So”: Mother as the New Voice of Scientific Expertise (Co-authored with Jessica Kuchinski, Lake Forest College ’11). Paper presented at the Association for Rhetoric of Science and Technology Pre-Conference at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Chicago, IL, November 12-15, 2009.
  •  “David Hume’s Rhetorical Negotiation of Wealth.”  Paper presented at the American Society for the History of Rhetoric at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association.  Chicago, IL, November 12-15, 2009.
  • “Legitimizing Body Worlds Through the Trope of Science.”  Paper presented at the Association for Rhetoric of Science and Technology Pre-Conference at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association.  San Diego, CA, November 19-22, 2008.
  • “When the Personal Becomes Public: Rethinking the Relationship Between Personal, Technical and Public Spheres of Argument.”  Paper presented at the Third Tokyo Conference on Argumentation.  Tokyo, Japan, August 8-10, 2008.
  • “Appealing to the Fairer Sex:  The Rhetorical Strategy of Hume’s ‘Womanly Essays.’” Paper presented to the American Society for the History of Rhetoric at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association.  Chicago, IL, November 15-18, 2007.

 

Current Research Projects

Highlighted Student Work