Department of Rhetoric & Communication Studies

Department of Rhetoric & Communication Studies

The RHCS curriculum analyzes and theorizes symbolic action across a variety of venues, including law, rhetoric, media, elective politics, history, resistance efforts, public memory, and relational dynamics.
Major & MinorCourses

Upcoming Courses for Spring 2024

Hvorecky Lecture Promo Image

AI’s Ethical Categories: Are They the Same as Ours?

AI Lecture

April 2 | 4:30-6 p.m.

Jepson 118

Dr. Juraj Hvorecky, a Prague-based analytic philosopher and ethicist, presents some of the findings of research funded by the European Union in his lecture, which aims to support our understanding of how AI categories intersect with ethical thought in humans.

Revised Staged News Book Talk Promo Size

Book Talk & Discussion

Staged News: The Federal Theatre Project’s Living Newspapers in New York

Thursday, October 12, 4-6 p.m. | Brown Alley Room, Weinstein Hall

In 1935, a group of journalists and theater artists embarked on an unusual collaboration. With funds from the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a Depression-era employment initiative established by President Roosevelt’s New Deal, they set out to produce news for the theatrical stage. Over the next four years, the New York–based team created six productions, known as Living Newspapers.

In this talk, Jordana Cox, former UR postdoc, discussed her recent book, Staged News, which shows how Living Newspapers reimagined journalism and democratic participation in a changing news landscape. Then, turning to the present, she considered possibilities that emerge from resonances with contemporary live journalism and experimental performance. How do the conditions of performance reconfigure journalistic conventions like objectivity, eyewitness, and immediacy? What might theatrical techniques offer to people seeking more just and equitable ways to make and consume news?

4-5 p.m. Talk
5-6 p.m. Q&A


This event is sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric & Communication Studies and the School of Arts & Sciences. 

Student Success

With its innovative bridging between an emphasis on critical/ethical thinking and a focus on the practical role of communication in public life, the Department of Rhetoric Communication Studies empowers students to find fulfilling careers and professional and educational experiences across a wide diversity of subjects. Our RHCS students have gone on from UR to make exciting, creative, and vital contributions to civic culture.

Rhetoric student Lindsey Frank, '23, wins Female Athlete of the Year Award

Lacrosse & Field Hockey and Two Sport Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference Player Lindsey Frank, '23, was named the 2023 Female Athlete of the Year at the RVA Sports Awards.

Frank exemplifies all the positive aspects of sport and has made a positive impact on the Richmond community in 2022. Congrats, Lindsey!

RHCS Inclusivity Statement

Faculty Highlights

Dr. Lauren Craig Tilton
Tilton Promoted & Named Robins Professor

Lauren Tilton was promoted to professor of digital humanities and was appointed the E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Liberal Arts. Tilton specializes in analyzing, developing, and applying digital and computational methods to the study of 20th and 21st century documentary expression and visual culture.

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Dr. Timothy Barney
Barney Promoted

Timothy Barney was promoted to professor of rhetoric and communication studies. Barney specializes in the history, politics, rhetoric, and visual culture of the Cold War era, specifically cartography as visual rhetoric, Cold War and post-Cold War presidential rhetoric, and philanthropic development with a particular focus on small business loans to women.

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Dr. Lauren Craig Tilton
Tilton and Undergraduate Awarded

Lauren Tilton, E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Liberal Arts and Digital Humanities, and undergraduate student Mia Lazar, '24, have received a grant from Virginia Humanities for their project, Digital Documerica: Picturing the Environment in 1970’s America. Digital Documerica is a joint project of The Digital Scholarship Lab and the Distant Viewing Lab.

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Dr. Timothy Barney
Barney Presented

Timothy Barney, associate professor of rhetoric and communications studies, was a featured presenter at Mapping Armageddon 1945-2045, sponsored by the UK-based Living Maps Network, which gathers researchers, community activists, artists, and others around the idea of mapping for social change, public engagement, and critical debate.

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Upcoming Events

Scholarship Repository Readership

The University of Richmond's Scholarship Repository shares faculty publications with a world-wide audience. The map below shows where articles from RHCS faculty are being read around the globe.

Contact Us

Mailing Address:
Department of Rhetoric & Communication Studies
402-C Weinstein Hall
231 Richmond Way
University of Richmond, VA 23173

Phone: (804) 289-8263
Fax: (804) 287-6496

Department Chair: Paul Achter
Academic Administrative Coordinator: Robin Mundle