I am an assistant professor of rhetoric in the Speech Communication Program of the English Department.  I am interested in the intersection of language and religious experience, the use of argumentation in producing and analyzing public texts, and the importance of teaching young people the proper definitions and uses of rhetoric.

When I am not prepping lectures, leading discussions, responding to emails, or fretting over the next article or presentation, I am probably at home, sitting on the sofa, wrestling with my kids, chatting with my wife, reading a book, or watching a good sitcom. In a former life, I enjoyed playing a lot of basketball and music.  

Office/Office Hours

Interests

• Rhetoric Theory and Criticism
• Rhetoric and Religion
• Rhetoric and Pedagogy
• Argumentation

Selected Publications

• Crosby, Richard Benjamin. "Which is the Wisest Course?": Political Power and Prophetic Agency in 19th-Century Mormon Rhetoric. Journal of Communication and Religion 32.2 (2009).
• Crosby, Richard Benjamin. "Kairos as God's Time in Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Sunday Sermon." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 39.3 (2009): 260-280.
• McGarrity, Mathew and Richard Benjamin Crosby. "Inventing the Public in the Public Speaking Textbook." Under Review
• Crosby, Richard Benjamin. "Building Kairos of Stone, Wood, and Glass: The National Cathedral as a Kairic Space." In Progress

Affiliations

• Rhetoric Society of America
• National Communication Association
• Religious Communication Association

Degrees

• PhD - University of Washington
• MA - University of Utah