Elizabeth Gardner

Elizabeth Gardner serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Westmont College, a position she has held since joining the faculty in fall 2016.

She earned her bachelor's degree from Houghton College and her graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) in Communication from the University of Maryland, where she also served as managing director of the Oral Communication Program for three years.

Dr. Gardner specializes in public discourse, argumentation and advocacy, communication criticism, and the rhetorical construction of childhood. Her research examines social change through rhetoric, as demonstrated by her dissertation on an early 1900s anti-child labor campaign.

She has received the following scientific award:

• American Society for the History of Rhetoric’s Outstanding Dissertation Award (2017)

Dr. Gardner maintains her office in Deane Hall 105 and is available by appointment.