Expertise
Rhetoric and Composition; Publishing and Editing; Gender and Sexuality; Digital Rhetoric and Video Games
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.): Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English , University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Master of Arts (M.A.): Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English , University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.): English (Writing) and French, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
Biosketch
Rebecca S. Richards is a professor of English. Her research and teaching explore the intersection of rhetoric, gender and sexuality and media. Her first book, "Transnational Feminist Rhetorics and Gendered Leadership in Global Politics: From Daughters of Destiny to Iron Ladies" (2015), analyzes how gendered concepts circulate among women who have been world leaders.
Her work also appears in journals like "Feminist Formations," "Feminist Teacher," "Kairos," "Composition Studies" as well as in edited collections like: 'Political Women: Language and Leadership" (2013), "Hillary Rodham Clinton and the 2016 Election" (2015), "The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminist Rhetoric" (2025), and "Emerging Genres: New Formations in Games" (2026). Her second book, "Not Playing Around: Feminist and Queer Rhetorics in Video Games" (2024), is published by Parlor Press in the Studies in Rhetorics and Feminisms series. "Not Playing Around" examines how video games function rhetorically to have material, affective and embodied consequences related to issues of gender and sexuality.
She also created and edits an undergraduate student portal for video game research called, Thoughtful Play.