Rate My Professor Nicholas Dahl

Nicholas Dahl serves as Program Coordinator and Senior Instructor II in the Social Science program at Oregon State University-Cascades, where he teaches communication courses and oversees program coordination for social science and political science. He acts as the primary contact for multiple subject areas at the Cascades campus, including anthropology, speech communication, political science, sociology, and Spanish. Dahl joined OSU-Cascades in 2015 following teaching appointments at Cornell University, Clark College, and Portland State University. In recognition of his teaching excellence and service contributions, he was promoted to Senior Instructor II in 2025. Dahl maintains active involvement in faculty governance as a Faculty Senate member representing OSU-Cascades, including service on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee in 2025. A native of Redmond, Oregon, he graduated from Central Oregon Community College before advancing his studies at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Dahl earned a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from The Pennsylvania State University, with a dissertation chronicling the denigration of the term "liberal" in American political discourse during the 20th century. He holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies and a B.S. in Speech Communication, both from Oregon State University. His research interests center on the intersection of discourse, politics, and hospitality, particularly exploring cultural identities within dispersed communities. Dahl co-authored the chapter "A Cultural Rhetorical Model of Identity for Dispersed Communities: Case of Jam Band Communities" with Natalie J. Dollar and Alexa Tawzer in the edited volume Concepts We'll Ponder: Identity, Improvisation, and Community in the Phish Experience (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), stemming from the inaugural Phish Studies Conference at Oregon State University. He has chaired sessions at the National Communication Association convention, such as a 2021 panel on rhetorical strategies defining justice. Dahl has also participated in writing-intensive curriculum efforts and served as affiliated faculty for American Studies at OSU-Cascades.