Pat J. Gehrke

Pat J. Gehrke is a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina’s McCausland College of Arts and Sciences. He holds a PhD in Communication Arts and Sciences from The Pennsylvania State University (2003), alongside MA and BA degrees in the same field from California State University at Chico (1997, 1995). His research spans communication education, rhetorical theory, communication ethics, and the intersection of public engagement with emerging technologies.

• Specialization
• Communication education
• History of communication
• Public engagement (new technologies)
• Communication ethics
• Rhetorical theory

His recent scholarship focuses on equitable assessment tools in communication pedagogy, mediated public speaking, and ecological approaches to science communication. Gehrke has authored or co-authored books such as Contemporary Public Speaking (2023) and Nano-Publics (2018), with articles examining topics like Habermas’s public sphere theory, the rhetoric of science, and the politics of reasoned discourse.

Accolades include:

• National Communication Association Presidential Citation for Service (2016, 2015)
• James A. Jaksa Scholar in Residence (2014)
• NCA Philosophy of Communication Division Book Award (2011)

Gehrke has secured significant external funding, including National Science Foundation grants for nanotechnology education and interdisciplinary research. He also serves on editorial boards for communication studies journals and has co-edited influential volumes like The Unfinished Conversation: 100 Years of Communication Studies (2014).