Rate My Professor William Trapani

Dr. William C. Trapani is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies within Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, a position he has held since joining the university in 2009. In addition to his teaching and research roles in Communications, he serves as Director of the College of Arts and Letters’ School of Interdisciplinary Studies and was elected Faculty Senate President, with appointments to the Board of Trustees and Advisory Council of Faculty Senates. Trapani earned his Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Iowa in 2002, a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from Baylor University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Baylor University. His academic work draws upon rhetorical theory, criticism, and critical/cultural studies to examine discourse related to national identity and political agency.

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).