2015 Teaching Initiative Award Winner

Elise Verzosa Hurley, Ph.D.

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of English, University of Arizona (2013)
• Assistant Professor, Department of English

Teaching philosophy

I believe in higher education for the public good, and I view any act of composing whether through written text, visuals, or new media as a powerful rhetorical act with the potential to produce positive social change.

My motivation to become a college professor

First, I believe in higher education for the public good, and I view any act of composing (whether through written text, visuals, or new media) as a powerful rhetorical act with the potential to produce positive social change. Second, I am committed to teaching a praxis-based view of rhetoric, wherein students not only learn effective communication skills but also to take responsibility for their communication across a range of spaces. Finally, I consciously view diversity not as a simplistic representation of difference, but as a practice that promotes multiple ways of knowing, learning, and being in both academic spaces and in larger civic contexts.

The three most important methods that I bring to my teaching practice

1. Fostering learning environments that bridge students’ academic experiences with broader publics

2. Positioning rhetoric as both strategic engagement and reflective decision-making

3. To engage multiple, and to make use of a wide-range of media (web sites, blogs, wikis, social media).

Best compliment that I’ve received from a student

I directly impacted a student’s teaching and pedagogy.