Richard H. Thames, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor

Awards and Honors

(1972) Thomas Jamison Scholarship

(1972) Michael Wilson Memorial Homiletics Prize

(1972) Jennie Rigg Barbour Memorial Prize

(1972) James Purdy Scholarship

(1970) Fred McFeely Rogers Prize in Biblical Studies

(1969-70) Rockefeller Fellowship

(1969) Executive Editor of Ginger (college literary magazine)

(1968-69) Editor of Sou’wester (college newspaper

(1965-69) George F. Baker Scholarship

(1966) William O. Schumacher Award

(1965) National Merit Finalist

Professional Offices

Reviewer:   Purdue University Press, 2008-09

Editorial board, Kenneth Burke Society Journal, 2006-09

Candidate, 1st Vice-President Select, Eastern Communication Association, 2006

Western Journal of Communication, 2004

Pennsylvania Speech Communication Journal, 2001-03

Editor, Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter, 1993-2003

Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1998-2001

Principal organizer of the centennial conference at Duquesne,1996

Southern Journal of Communication, 1994-95

Communication Quarterly, 1987

A founder of the Kenneth Burke Society and principal organizer of the original Burke conference in Philadelphia, 1984

Editor of the Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter for over a decade 

Publications

Articles

“Preaching What We Practice: Course Design Based on the Psychology of Form.”  Chapter 7 in A Humanistic Critique of Education: Teaching & Learning as Symbolic Action, Peter M. Smuddee (ed).  West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press (forthcoming).

“Political Economy,” Encyclopedia of Identity, Ronald Jackson (ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (forthcoming).

“The Gordian Not: Untangling the Motivorum. Part One: Seeking the Symbolic.” Kenneth Burke Society Journal, Spring 2007.

“The Gordian Not: Untangling the Motivorum. Part Two: Situating the Symbolic.” Kenneth Burke Society Journal, Spring 2007.

Communication Research & Development

  • Kenneth Burke
  • Rhetoric of Religion
  • Rhetoric of Science & Social Science
  • Rhetoric of the Marketplace
  • Rhetoric of Popular Culture
  • Hermeneutics & Rhetorical Criticism
  • Political Communication.