Michael Bernard-Donals

Michael Bernard-Donals is the Chaim Perelman Professor of Rhetoric and Culture and the Nancy Hoefs Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, positions that reflect his expertise in literature, rhetoric, and Jewish studies. He joined the faculty in 1998 after teaching English at Mississippi State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia. Bernard-Donals holds a Ph.D. in English from Stony Brook University and a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame. His academic career encompasses teaching and research in the Department of English, where he contributes to programs in composition and rhetoric, as well as affiliations with the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and the Institute for Research in the Humanities, where he served as a Resident Fellow from 2008 to 2009.

Bernard-Donals's research focuses on the history and theory of rhetoric from its classical roots to contemporary applications, intersections of rhetorical theory with critical theory, and explorations of history, memory, and representation, particularly in Holocaust studies, Jewish rhetorics, Jewish history and memory, and Jewish ethics. He has authored and co-authored numerous influential works, including Mikhail Bakhtin: Between Phenomenology and Marxism (Cambridge University Press, 1994), Rhetoric in an Antifoundational World: Language, Culture, and Pedagogy (Yale University Press, 1998, with Richard Glejzer), The Practice of Theory: Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Pedagogy in the Academy (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Between Witness and Testimony: The Holocaust and the Limits of Representation (State University of New York Press, 2001, with Richard Glejzer), An Introduction to the Holocaust Studies (Prentice-Hall, 2004), Forgetful Memory: Representation and Remembrance in the Wake of the Holocaust (State University of New York Press, 2009), Witnessing the Disaster: Essays on Representation and the Holocaust (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), Figures of Memory: The Rhetoric of Displacement at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2016), and Responding to the Sacred: An Inquiry into the Limits of Rhetoric (2022). These publications have shaped discussions in rhetoric, cultural theory, and Holocaust representation. Beyond scholarship, he has served as Executive Director of the Center for Teaching, Research, and Writing, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff, President of the UW-Madison chapter of the American Association of University Professors (PROFS), and on the editorial board of Philosophy & Rhetoric.

Professional Email: michael.bernarddonals@wisc.edu