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Department of Communication Studies

Kathleen M. Torrens

Kathleen Torrens

Associate Professor
Interim Coordinator, Online Teaching and Learning

CONTACT
Office: 212 Davis Hall
Phone: 401-874-4809
E-mail: kmtorrens@uri.edu

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Speech Communication
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
M.A., Communication
University of Colorado at Boulder
B.A., Communication
University of Colorado at Boulder
COURSES RECENTLY TAUGHT
Graduate
  • COM540: The multicultural voice
Undergraduate
  • COM100H: Honors Communication Fundamentals
  • COM202: Public Speaking
  • COM322: Gender and Communication
  • COM383: Rhetorical Theory
  • COM409: American Public Address

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS

Hauser, Catherine, Jeannette E. Riley & Kathleen Torrens. (2010) Writer Citizen. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishers.

Torrens, Kathleen M. (2009, Spring.) "Politics, Place and Narrative: The Activist Rhetoric of Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert." Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (10) 68-81.

Torrens, Kathleen M. (2008, January). "Curious Only Need Apply: Discourses of Protest." Review of Communication. 8(1) 38 – 43.

Torrens, Kathleen M. (2007, Spring/Summer). "Disrupting the Transmission: Online Learning in Gender and Communication." Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 18(1) 52-62.

Riley, Jeannette E., Kathleen M. Torrens, & Susan Krumholz. (2005, March.) "Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning a Just World," Contemporary Justice Review 8(1), 91-106.

Torrens, Kathleen M. (2009). "Public Woman, Private Wife: Hillary Clinton Could Not Have Won." In Cracked But Not Shattered: Hillary Clinton's Unsuccessful Campaign For The Presidency (pp. 29-44). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Torrens, Kathleen M. & Jeannette E. Riley. (2008). "Women's Studies 101: Online Feminism in Action." In Blair, Kristine, Radhika Gajjala & Christine Tully (Eds.). Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Torrens, Kathleen M. (2007). "The Spaces Between: Transforming Heteronormativity with the Indigo Girls." In Patricia Rudden, (Ed.), Singing for Themselves: Essays on Women in Popular Music (pp. 80-104). Cambridge Scholars Press.

BIO
A member of the Communication Studies Department since 2003, Kathleen Torrens is a tenured associate professor. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota-Twin cities, and an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her teaching covers rhetorical theory and criticism, public discourse, argumentation, public speaking, and communication fundamentals. Dr. Torrens' areas of research include public communication, online pedagogy, feminist rhetorical history, and Burkean studies. When not teaching, Dr. Torrens gardens, rows, reads, and lifts weights.

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