Ronisha Browdy

Assistant Professor
WMS 221
Black Women’s Rhetorics, Black Feminist Rhetorics, Global Black Rhetorics

Ronisha Browdy, Assistant Professor, holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing from Michigan State University, a M.A. in English from the University of South Florida, and a B.A. in English from the University of Florida.

Her primary research focuses on Black women’s and Black feminist rhetorical practices, histories, and experiences. The Black feminist practice of “self-definition” (see Patricia Hill Collins) is a major point of inquiry within her scholarship. Specifically, Browdy interrogates how self-definition functions rhetorically as a means of asserting and affirming one’s ethos within Black women and Black feminist stories, images, and representations of Black womanhood. Her scholarship on this subject matter ranges from the rhetorics of everyday Black women within private spaces to interpreting the rhetorical stories and naming practices of Black women public figures like Michelle Obama, Patrisse Cullors, and Issa Rae. Dr. Browdy’s work has been published in Peitho Journal, Prose Studies: History, Theory, and Criticism, Reflections Journal, Women & Language, and Reflections: Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning, and edited collections.

Select Publications

  • Special Issue Co-editor and Co-author with Esther Milu, “Global Black Rhetorics: A New Framework for Engaging African and Afro-Diasporic Rhetorical Traditions” Rhetoric Society Quarterly (forthcoming 2022)
  • “Black Women’s Rhetorics: A Conversation Starter for Naming and Claiming a Field of Study,” Peitho Journal, vol. 23 (4), 2021 https://cfshrc.org/article/black-womens-rhetorics-a-conversation-starter-for-naming-and-claiming-a-field-of-study/
  • Co-author with Laura Gonzales, Victor del Hierro, and Esther Milu, “From Cohort to Family: Coalitional Stories of Love and Survivance,” Composition Studies Journal, vol. 49 (2), 2021
    https://compstudiesjournal.com/current-issue-summer-2021-49-2/
  • ‘I Am Not a Terrorist’: Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Storytelling as an Act of Self-Definition, Inclusivity, and Activism,” Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism, vol. 40 (1-2), 15-49 DOI: 10.1080/01440357.2019.1656395
  • ‘More than just a plot of land’: Intersecting identities and rhetorical impact of Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden. Women & Language, 40(1), 51-66.
  • Strong, black, and woman: Examining self-definition and self-valuation as black women’s everyday rhetorical practices. Reflections: Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning, (Special Winter Issue 2017–18), 7-36.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TBwfdPy5nfBNn6piBzxIL8XdsQJIgEaC/view