Communications

Professor

College of Arts & Humanities - English

Bio

Dr. Seth Kahn joined the WCU faculty in 2002. He teaches courses from general education to graduate levels in writing and rhetoric. His teaching focuses on aspects of public rhetoric ranging from activism and organizing to propaganda and demagoguery. He also teaches research writing and research methods courses.

His research is focused on organizing academic workers via unions or other collectives, with special attention to the issues contingent/adjunct faculty face. Recent publications include “From Activism to Organizing, From Caring to Care Work,” with Amy Lynch-Biniek (Kutztown University) in the Labor Studies Journal (July 2022); “We Value Teaching Too Much to Keep Devaluing It” in College English (Summer 2020); and “ON STRIKE! A Rhetorician’s Guide to Solidarity Building” in Activism and Rhetoric: Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement 2nd edition, December 2019), a collection he co-edited with JongHwa Lee (Angelo State University).

He is involved in the faculty union (APSCUF) at campus and state levels and has served for many years on WCU’s Institutional Review Board. Nationally, he serves on editorial boards for several journals, the advisory board for the Center for the Study of Academic Labor at Colorado State University, and co-chairs the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Labor Committee.

Expertise

• Rhetoric
• Propaganda
• Demagoguery
• Faculty Unions
• Contingent Faculty
• Adjunct Faculty

Education

• B.A., Wake Forest University
• M.A., Florida State University
• Ph.D., Syracuse University

Media

WHYY, 2020
Philly Inquirer, 2021
Chronicle of Higher Ed, many times, most recently 2021
Inside Higher Ed, many times, most recently 2022
Council Chronicle, 2017