Faculty

Rhetoric and Communication

Sanae Elmoudden, Assistant Professor, received her B.A. from Rutgers University, her M.A. and PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She studies the intersections between globalization, technology, and communication—her emphasis is on the implications of communication technologies on Organizational Communication and Interpersonal Communication.

John B. Greg, Associate Professor, received the Ph.D. from Wayne State University in Detroit.  He teaches public speaking, argumentation and debate, analytical and critical thinking, and decision making. Prof. Greg has co-authored research on analytical/critical thinking and decision-making.

Jeremiah Hickey, Assistant Professor, received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. His teaching interests include the connection between public address and political philosophy, especially in relation to the development and maintenance of a democratic society. He teaches courses that concern the first amendment and civil society, the rhetoric of social movements, political communication, the development of rhetorical history and rhetorical theory, public speaking, and argumentation and debate.

Michael J. Hostetler, Professor, holds Ph.D. from Northwestern University.  He specializes in the history and criticism of American public address and has an extensive background in religious rhetoric.  Prof. Hostetler was a Fulbright Teaching Fellow to Ukraine in 2007.  He is the Chairman of the Department of Rhetoric, Communication, and Theatre.

Flora Keshishian, Associate Professor, is a Fulbright Scholar (Armenia, 2008) who received her Ph.D. from New York University. She teaches courses in Interpersonal Communication, Language and Intercultural Communication, Public Speaking, Media Criticism, and News Analysis. Her research interests include the interface of culture, media, and economics; health communication; and education.

Stephen M. Llano, Assistant Professor, is a Doctoral Candidate from the University of Pittsburgh and the Director of the St. John’s University Argumentation and Debate Team.  Prof. Llano’s interests include, the relationship between poetry, rhetoric and argumentation, contemporary argument theory as it intersects with rhetoric, aesthetics, and culture, and the development of critical and revolutionary pedagogy in argumentation practice and theory, especially as it relates to the development of phronesis, or, practical wisdom. His research includes American debate theory and practice, Kenneth Burke, mid-20th century poetics, the Beat Generation, 20th and 21st century rhetorical and argumentation theory, classical theories of rhetoric, Argumentation and Eastern thought, international debate theories and methods.

Kelly Rocca-DelGaizo  (Ed.D., West Virginia University, 2000) is a Professor and the Associate Dean of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the Queens campus of St. John’s University.  She regularly teaches Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, Persuasion, and Discover New York at St. John’s, and has previously taught other courses, including Nonverbal Communication, Instructional Communication, Communication Media Effects, Research Methods, Communication in Contemporary Society, and Organizational Communication. Her research interests are in Interpersonal, Instructional, Health, and Sports Communication.

Jaime Wright, (Ph.D., University of Texas-Austin, 2007) received her BA from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and her MA from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin. Jaime has always harbored a fascination for the forms of language, the performance of ethics, and the ways in which those practices construct and convolute our lives.

Theatre

Larry Myers holds a Ph.D. from Kent State University. He specializes in playwriting and his plays have been performed in San Francisco, Louisville, Anchorage, and Edinburgh. His work is frequently produced off Broadway in New York City.