Graduate students in Rhetoric & Political Culture at the University of Maryland have the opportunity to study with a number of active rhetorical critics and historians of rhetoric. Recent faculty hiring at both the senior and junior level has significantly increased the visibility of our faculty and the stature of our program. In October of 2004, the University of Maryland hosted the 9th Biennial Public Address Conference, and recent NCA rankings of doctoral programs placed our program as the second and first most improved program in rhetoric and political communication respectively and in the top ten overall in both specialties.
Our faculty is intensely involved in both research and graduate student education, yet still provides leadership to the Rhetoric & Political Culture community. Current faculty members include the past president of the American Forensic Association, members of national and regional editorial boards, the current editor of Advances in the History of Rhetoric, and a recent and a future chair of NCA's Public Address Division.
Awards won by our Rhetoric & Political Culture faculty include:
- Daniel Rohrer Award for the Outstanding Research Monograph in Argumentation
- Teaching and Research Fellows, Eastern Communication Association
- Donald and Carolyn Drummond Ecroyd Teaching Excellence Award, Eastern Communication Association
- Everett Lee Hunt Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Eastern Communication Association
- Past Presidents/Officers Award, Eastern Communication Association
- Karl Wallace Memorial Award, National Communication Association
- Diamond Anniversary Book Award, National Communication Association
- The Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism
- The Marie Hochmuth Nichols Award, Public Address Division, National Communication Association
Members of the rhetoric faculty have received a $195,023 NEH Grant for the Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. It is designed to promote the study of great speeches and debates throughout U.S. history.
Additionally, the location of the University of Maryland by Washington D.C. offers unique access to a range of governmental, political, and media institutions and organizations. Graduate students study in the richest venue in the United States for researching rhetorical artifacts. Our proximity to the National Archives I and National Archives II (located on campus in College Park), the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Meany Labor Archives, the Smithsonian Institution and many smaller archives of American social history is a benefit to graduate students unmatched by other universities.
Through the Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership (CPCCL) students have a wide range of opportunities for engaging with the major issues of the day and the opportunity for interaction with those who shape them. Taking advantage of its proximity to Washington, DC, the CPCCL has hosted, and is planning a full range of programs and research designed to fulfill its mission of uniting "research, education, and public engagement to foster democratic communication by a diverse people." CPCCL's most recent endeavor is the Political Advertising Resource Center, a non-partisan, independent Web site (http://www.umdparc.org/) dedicated to the analysis of political advertising.
