Eric Detweiler joined the department in 2016, and he has since taught undergraduate and graduate courses including Rhetoric and Recorded Sound, Video Games and/as Literature, Digital Rhetoric and Writing, History of Rhetoric, and Fermentation, Culture, and Writing. He directs MTSU's Public Writing and Rhetoric program.

His book, Responsible Pedagogy: Moving Beyond Authority and Mastery in Higher Education, examines the history of writing and rhetoric pedagogy and makes a fresh case for the importance and value of public higher education and writing and rhetoric's role in it. He also studies digital rhetoric and multimodal composition, paying particular attention to the rise of podcasts and video games. He runs a podcast called Rhetoricity. His writing has been published in journals including Philosophy & Rhetoric, enculturation, and Rhetoric Review, as well as the collections Tuning in to Soundwriting and Teaching Games and Game Studies in Literature Classrooms.

Dr. Detweiler has two small dogs, a large amount of fermentation projects, and a never-ending supply of puns.

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"Sounding Out the Progymnasmata." Rhetoric Review, vol. 38, no. 2, 2019, pp. 205-218.

"Imitating Bechdels in Banned Books and Novel Ideas: An Exercise in Rhetorical Unmastery." Approaches to Teaching Bechdel's Fun Home, edited by Judith Kegan Gardiner, MLA, 2018, pp. 91-96.

“A Podcast?! Whatever Gave You That Idea? Some Reverberations from Walter Benjamin’s Radio Plays.” Rhetorics Change/Rhetoric’s Change, edited by Jenny Rice, Chelsea Graham, and Eric Detweiler, Intermezzo/Parlor P, 2018.

“Toward Pedagogical Turnings.” ADE Bulletin, vol. 155, 2018, pp. 52-60.

“Disfiguring Socratic Irony.” Philosophy & Rhetoric, vol. 49, no.2, 2016, pp. 149-172.

“‘/’ ‘And’ ‘-‘? An Empirical Consideration of the Relationship Between ‘Rhetoric’ and ‘Composition.'” enculturation, vol. 20, 2015.

With Scott Nelson et al. “Crossing Battle Lines: Teaching Multimodal Literacies Through Alternate Reality Games.” Kairos, vol. 17, no. 3, 2013.

“‘I Was Just Doing a Little Joke There’: Irony and the Paradoxes of the Sitcom in The Office.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 45, no. 4, 2012, pp. 727-748.

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“Everything’s a Narratio: Rhetoric’s Relevance to the Rise of Digital Storytelling.” American Society for the History of Rhetoric Conference. Austin, TX. 2019.

“Toward Future Methodologies for Studying the Circulation of Podcasts.” Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. Louisville, KY. 2018.

“Serial Uncertainty: The Rhetoric and Ethics of True Crime Podcasts.” Rhetoric Society of America Conference. Minneapolis, MN. 2018.

“Soundscapes as Exercises in Nondiscursive Description.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Kansas City, MO. 2018.

“A Bellowing Lecture Followed by a Tense, Suspicious Silence: On Welcome to Night Vale and Academic Podcasting.” Computers & Writing Conference. Rochester, NY. 2016.

“A Podcast?! Whatever Gave You That Idea? Some Reverberations from Walter Benjamin’s Radio Plays.” Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America. Atlanta, GA. 2016.

“Risking Uncertainty: Questioning Thesis Statements.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Tampa, FL. 2015.

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