Candice Rai is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Washington, where she serves as Faculty Coordinator for UW in the High School, a dual-enrollment writing program under the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. She has been appointed as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts & Sciences, effective July 1, 2026, to coordinate undergraduate policy, practice, advising, and curriculum, while fostering inclusive and innovative education initiatives. Previously, she directed the Program in Writing and Rhetoric from 2014 to 2021. Rai earned her B.F.A. from Roosevelt University and both her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarship centers on rhetorical theory, public and material rhetorics, rhetoric and composition, research methods, urban and spatial theory, and political theory. She explores education and urban justice through critical place-based approaches to public rhetoric, writing, political discourse, and ethical communication across difference, emphasizing how language and culture connect to places and material conditions.

Rai's publications include the monograph Democracy’s Lot: Rhetoric, Publics, and the Places of Invention (University of Alabama Press, 2016). She co-authored Rhetorical Climatology (Michigan State University Press, 2023) with Chris Ingraham, Jennifer LeMesurier, Bridie McGreavy, Nathan Stormer, and John Ackerman. As co-editor with Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, she published Field Rhetoric: Ethnography, Ecology, and Engagement in the Places of Persuasion (University of Alabama Press, 2018). With James Rushing Daniel and Katie Malcolm, she co-edited Writing Across Difference: Theory and Intervention (Utah State University Press, 2022), featuring her chapter “Anti-Racist Translingual Praxis in Writing Ecologies” co-authored with Sumyat Thu, Katie Malcolm, and Anis Bawarshi. Other works include “Making Worlds with Cyborg Fish” with Caroline Gottschalk Druschke (2018), “Publics, Power and the Rhetorics of Democracy” (2010), and contributions to Making Writing Matter (2008) and the Michigan Journal of Community Service (2006). Her research integrates rhetoric with ecology, ethnography, and community engagement, advancing place-based pedagogies and public scholarship.

Professional Email: crai@uw.edu