Joshua Smith Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

Here at Davidson, I teach courses in Space and Place, Public Memory, Public Speaking, and Environmental Rhetoric. My research and teaching specialty in Communication is in rhetoric, frequently defined as the study of persuasion and symbolic meaning.

As a rhetorician, I am particularly interested in how we talk and communicate about the environment and our natural world. Specifically, my research examines public debates and arguments about public lands. My dissertation work examined such debates about Bears Ears National Monument in Southeast Utah.

I love thinking about public lands and how people use and communicate about these important spaces, and I am excited to think more about these issues with my students this coming year.

Prior to Davidson I taught at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.