Diane Keeling, PhD

Keeling’s research emphasizes interdisciplinary relationships, particularly between rhetoric and the sciences. She collaborates and co-authors with systems biologists, environmental and ocean scientists, geologists, chemists and physicists to invigorate philosophical orientations of rhetorical theory and to expand knowledge about rhetoric across scientific disciplines. Across her work, she argues for situational understandings of communication and relationally crafted rhetorical action.

Her research is published in Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, POROI: Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Review of Communication, Communication and the Public, eLife, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication and the edited volumes Tracing Rhetoric and Material Life, Border Rhetorics, and COVID and...How to Do Rhetoric in a Pandemic. She has book reviews in Philosophy and Rhetoric, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Rhetoric Review.

Keeling teaches Rhetoric, Communication Criticism, Podcast Storytelling, Critical Whiteness and Communication Practices, Gender Communication, Cultural Studies, Advanced Public Speaking, Public Speaking, Introduction to Human Communication, and an honors linked course "Walking San Diego." Her courses foreground perspective-based communication that avoids the polarization of issues and emphasizes the value of difference in collaborations and coalition building. Students develop skills in deliberation through problem-based experiential learning. They describe Keeling as “engaging” and “enthusiastic,” and her classes as “activity-based” and “community-oriented.”

Keeling is the faculty producer of USD's podcast There's More, a collaboration between the Humanities Center, Changemaker Hub, and College of Arts & Sciences (theresmore.sandiego.edu). She is a past president of the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication (ofrgc.org). She is a member of the Rhetoric Society of America, National Communication Association, Western States Communication Association, and Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication.