Rate My Professor William Trapani

Trapani’s principal scholarly interests encompass the rhetoric of visual culture, national identity and citizenship studies, and the theorization of contemporary protest and social activism. He investigates the rhetorical construction and consequences of varying figurations of the American national character. His current research project explores the conception and role of the university in the public imaginary, particularly its alignment with neoliberal pastoral pedagogical ambitions. In 2013, he was appointed as the inaugural director of the Agora Project, a university-wide initiative dedicated to fostering civil dialogue, civility, and traditional academic values at Florida Atlantic University and beyond. Trapani teaches courses including COM 4603: New Media and Civic Discourse and SPC 6236: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory. His key publications include the co-edited volume Rhetoric, Materiality, and Politics (2010); ‘The Weaponisation of Public Comment Rules in Policy Deliberations’ published in Javnost - The Public (2023); ‘Kairos: On the Limits to Our (Rhetorical) Situation’ in Rhetoric Society Quarterly (2018); ‘Escaping the Voice of the Mass/ter: Late Neoliberalism, Object-Voice, and the Prospects for a Radical Democratic Future’ in Advances in the History of Rhetoric (2014); and ‘Cultural studies in the future tense’ in the Journal of Communication (2011).