Associate Professor | Communication

Hilary Rasmussen is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of Communication. She has her Ph.D. in Communication with certificates in Rhetorical Leadership and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her MA in Communication with an emphasis in Women’s Historical Rhetoric from Northern Illinois University. Her areas of specialization are argumentation, pedagogy, public relations, social movement and legal discourses, and LGBTQIA+ studies.

Committed to an ethical paradigm rooted in social justice, I encourage students to take ownership of their education by promoting a collaborative atmosphere. Collaboration doesn’t begin and end with classroom interactions; it entails centering students’ ability to prioritize their time in the way that best serves their learning, promoting critical self-reflection as a valid hermeneutic, and offering students multiple options for achieving success.

Students learn to think critically and independently by engaging diverse educational opportunities that challenge them on multiple levels (i.e., intellectually, creatively, emotionally, etc.). Because students’ contributions comprise much of the applied learning content, and the richness of their contributions directly impacts the fruitfulness of the class, students come to understand that I value them as individuals, and that their time, their talents, and their perspectives are also valued.

Establishing a sense of collaboration along with rigorous standards for achievement is a difficult balance to strike. However, I have found that students often meet your expectations of them, whether those expectations are low or high, and I work with my students to raise our mutual expectations for what they can achieve. I am an educator who emphasizes student empowerment, social responsibility, and co-generation of knowledge.