Rate My Professor Richard Besel

Besel's research interests encompass rhetorical theory, history, and criticism; environmental communication; science communication; climate change; media studies; and political communication. He has co-edited two influential books: Green Voices: Defending Nature and the Environment in American Civic Discourse (2016, SUNY Press, with Bernard K. Duffy) and Performance on Behalf of the Environment (2014, Lexington Books, with Jnan Blau). Notable peer-reviewed articles include "Opening the 'Black Box' of Climate Change Science: Actor-Network Theory and Rhetorical Practice in Scientific Controversies" (2011, Southern Communication Journal, 95 citations), "Accommodating Climate Change Science: James Hansen and the Rhetorical/Political Emergence of Global Warming" (2013, Science in Context), "Words That (Don’t) Matter: An Exploratory Study of Four Climate Change Names in Environmental Discourse" (2013, Applied Environmental Education & Communication), and "Prolepsis and the Environmental Rhetoric of Congressional Politics: Defeating the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003" (2012, Environmental Communication). At Cal Poly, he received the Teacher of the Year award (2010), California Faculty Association’s Distinguished Educator Award (2010), Richard K. Simon Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship (2012), and Early Career Award for Achievement in Teaching (2016). Besel is a past president of the National Communication Association’s Environmental Communication Division and founded GVSU's Speech and Debate Team in 2019. His scholarship contributes significantly to understanding rhetorical strategies in environmental and scientific discourses.