Professor for the Department of English
Hoyt Hall 301, topatton@uwyo.edu
Biography
Prof./Dr. Tracey Owens Patton is Professor of Rhetoric and Critical Cultural & Mediated Studies in the Department of English at The University of Wyoming. She joined the UW English Department in 2022 after being in the Department of Communication & Journalism (2003-2022). She also served as the Director of the African American & Diaspora Studies Program from 2009-2017 at the University of Wyoming. Patton’s area of specialization is critical cultural communication, rhetorical studies, and transnational studies. She is the author of A Nation’s Undesirables: Mixed-Race Children and Whiteness in the Post-Nazi Era (2024) and co-author of Gender, Whiteness, and Power in Rodeo: Breaking Away from the Ties of Sexism and Racism. Patton has presented her research at over 80 different academic conferences and her work has appeared in numerous books, journals, and in the media. Patton teaches courses involving critical theory, critical media, cultural studies, womanist theory, and rhetorical theory.
Education
Ph.D., in Communication, The University of Utah
M.A., in Speech Communication, Colorado State University
B.A., in Speech Communication, Colorado State University
B.A., in German, Colorado State University
Certificate, in German, Lessing Kolleg, Marburg, Germany
Recent and Upcoming Courses
Black American Rhetoric
Culture, Communication and Work
Rhetoric, Media, and Culture
Rhetoric and Social Justice
Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
Rhetoric and Social Movements
Selected Publications/Awards
Patton, T. O. (2024, April). A Nation's Undesirables: Mixed Race Children and Whiteness in the Post-Nazi Era. This book is also, part of the Intersectional Rhetorics Collection, Karma Chávez (Series Ed.). The Ohio State University Press.
Patton, T. O. (2024, July). Staying East of the Mississippi: Reengaging with Rodeo’s Diverse History and the Connecticut Connection. Invited, refereed book chapter for R. Cvornyek & D. Stark (Eds.), Boston’s Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism. Lexington Books, a division of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
Patton, T. O. & Snyder-Yuly (2024, April 27). Unapologetically Blackfishing: Being Black without the Consequences of Blackness). Communication Studies, 75 (4), 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10510974.2024.2345935
Patton, T. O., & Small, N. (2020, November 29). Making Waves in the Water: Maxine Waters and her Challenge to Black Women’s Erasure and White Hegemony. In M. Goins, J. F. McAlister, and B. K. Alexander, Chapter 15. The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Gender
The 2024 Fall speaker in the Arnold Nemirow Lecture Series in Holocaust Studies, Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies, College of Charleston, SC.
The 2024 Fall Speaker in the Departments of History and English, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL.
The 2024 Jason Thompson Award recipient, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY.
The 2022 Demorest Keynote Professor, Casper College Humanities Festival.
The 2021 Sandeen Lecture in the Humanities Award
The 2021 University of Wyoming President’s Speaker Series and Award
To learn more about Tracey’s publications, see her full C.V..
