Ben Wetherbee, PhD

I am incoming Assistant Professor of English and Director of Composition at Northern Michigan University. My research concerns the theory and history of rhetoric, particularly intersections of rhetoric and cultural evolution, theories of rhetorical invention, and intersections of rhetoric and poetics. I also specialize in rhetorics of science, writing pedagogy and film studies.

My current book project, Places in the Polity of Rhetoric, brings ancient rhetoric into conversation with postmodern theories of discursive fragmentation, examining cultural evolution through the interaction of human agents and rhetorical topoi. Elsewhere, my work has appeared in Rhetoric Review, the Journal for the History of Rhetoric, the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, Present Tense, JAC, the Henry James Review, Literacy in Composition Studies, Ethos Review, Excursions, and the edited collections Reinventing Rhetoric Scholarship: Fifty Years of the Rhetoric Society of America and Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches.

I also serve as Review Editor for enculturation: a journal of rhetoric, writing, and culture. Holler at me anytime with review pitches.

My research and editorial experience also fuel my teaching. As a teacher or rhetoric and writing, I want to help students become sophisticated critics of and contributors to the worlds of rhetorical text that surround them. I want students to understand themselves as writers speaking in meaningful conversation with other writers. I want students to merge their own interests and experience with an intellectually rich appreciation of rhetorical invention, style, and audience awareness.

I believe, further, that undergraduate writing should be read, discussed, and celebrated as writing. During my time at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, I founded and edit The Drover Review, a journal of standout undergraduate writing by USAO students.

I hold a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Louisville, an MA in Rhetoric and Composition from Miami University (Ohio), and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. I live in Marquette, in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula, with my wife, cats, guitars, and books.

You can find me on Twitter, Academia.edu, and you can contact me by email.