Betsy Verhoeven

PHD, University of Denver

MA, Oklahoma State University Stil

BA, Oklahoma State University Stil

I am Susquehanna University’s writing coordinator, providing guidance for the teaching of writing in first-year seminars and in writing intensive courses. I teach composition and rhetoric, including first-year seminar classes and upper-division courses in professional and civic writing, publishing, American identity, and environmentalism.

The major through-thread in my scholarship is the role of rhetoric in programmatic and curricular development for civic education. I also do interdisciplinary work that furthers the awareness and outreach of rhetoric to other fields as part of the larger project to advocate for the humanities in the midst of cultural trends toward STEM and business. In my classes and in my research, I study the way texts (in the workplace, politics, art, and entertainment) shape our worldviews and values, often in the hope of finding common ground between otherwise opposed groups and of broadening the spectrum of inclusion in our democratic processes.

I am the leader of a grant project funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Engaging Democratic Ethos: Innovative Rhetorical Education for a Participatory Society. This project supports development of a Professional and Civic Writing major, democratic-culture Central Curriculum classes, and a certificate program to offer continuing education to community members in the Susquehanna River valley. One aspect of this project is to offer paid internships in professional writing for students in the major to work with local non-profits, small businesses, and government offices.

I recently completed a grant project in the National Endowment for the Humanities Connections program, which encourages partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. For this project, Promoting Civil Discourse in a Polarizing World, I worked with Dr. Emma Fleck in Marketing and Dr. Nick Clark in Political Science to design courses that explored university-community projects and that practiced civic communication on national issues. I have also published on the power of storytelling in Marketing and on the intersection between liberal arts education and preparation for life after college.

I am also proud to have served in a number of leadership roles at SU, including as Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning, as Associate Dean, and as Interim Dean of the School of the Arts and School of Humanities.