Communication & Media Studies

Associate Professor of Rhetoric

AS, Burlington Community College; BA, Rowan University; MA, Rutgers University; PhD, Duquesne University
Email: aholba@plymouth.edu

(2005), Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Co-Chair 2010-2011; Internship Coordinator; Spiritan Award for Alumni Scholarship, Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies Duquesne University, 2010; Visiting Scholar, Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, 2011

About Professor Holba

Professor Holba studies rhetoric, communication ethics, and philosophy of communication in relation to the human condition and in the context of mediated environments. Her research and teaching interests focus on the intersection of philosophy of communication and philosophical leisure, communication ethics, and mindfulness/contemplative pedagogies. Professor Holba has served the National Communication Association (NCA) in the areas of the Philosophy of Communication Division and the Communication Ethics Division in a variety of capacities that include division chair (Communication Ethics 2010-2011). She has also chaired interest groups in the Eastern Communication Association (ECA) in the areas of Philosophy of Communication and the Rhetoric and Public Address. Additionally, Professor Holba has a unique interest in the case of Lizzie Borden; she is a presenter with the New Hampshire Humanities Council where she travels around the state to present her program, Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, or Did She?

Selected Publications

Books:

Transformative leisure and the human condition. (forthcoming in 2013, Marquette University Press). 

An Overture to philosophy of communication: The carrier of meaning. (2012, co-authored with Ronald C. Arnett at Duquesne University; Peter Lang Publishing).                                                                

Communicative understandings of women’s leadership development: From ceilings of glass to labyrinth paths. (2011). Lexington Books, Division of Rowman & Littlefield. (Co-Edited with Elesha Ruminski at Frostburg State University).

The communicative relationship between dialogue and care. (2009) New York: Cambria Press. (co-authored with Marie Baker-Ohler at Northern Arizona University).

Media and the apocalypse. (2009). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (co-edited with Kylo-Patrick Hart at Plymouth State University).

Lizzie Borden took an axe, or did she? A rhetorical inquiry. (2008). New York: Teneo Press.

Philosophies of communication: Implications for everyday experience. (2008). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. (co-edited with Melissa A. Cook at St. Vincent’s College).

Philosophical leisure: Recuperative praxis for human communication. (2007). Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.

Selected Articles:

From advising to mentoring: Shifting the metaphor. (2012, in press). The Mentor.

Listening through leisure: Meeting the other in the spirit of civility. (2011). Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture. 46(1), 51-62.

Leisure and political communication. (2010). Review of Communication. 10(1), 20-37.

Revisiting Martin Buber’s I-It: A rhetorical strategy. (2008). Human Communication. 11(4), 495-510.

Philosophical leisure as recuperative praxis: Texturing human communication. (2006). World Leisure Journal, 48(1), 13-23.

Awards/Recognition

Visiting Scholar, Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, 2011;

Spiritan Award for Alumni Scholarship, Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies Duquesne University, 2010;

Courses Taught

• CM2400 Public Speaking
• CM2910 Introduction to Communication
• CM3510 Communication, Media, and Wellness
• CM3640 Communication Theory
• CM3700 Media as Popular Culture
• CM3710 Film and Identity Politics
• CM3800 Analyzing Television
• CM3910 Topics in Film and Media
• CM4910 Senior Seminar
• CMDI2010 Outlaws, Delinquents, and “Other” Deviants in Film and Society
• IS1111 First Year Seminar
• PY1010 Ultimate Questions
• PY3160 History of Philosophy III Contemporary
• PY3390 Applied Ethics