Victor Vitanza

Who is Victor Vitanza?

Victor J. Vitanza is a Professor of English at Clemson University. He is the Director of the interdisciplinary-transdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design, which is situated in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities.

Formerly at University of Texas at Arlington, Vitanza works in Media and Communication Philosophy, but that work also finds him teaching summer seminars at the European Graduate School in, where he holds the Jean-Francois Lyotard Chair. Previously he earned his second PhD at EGS under the title "Chaste Rape: Sexual Violence, Canon Formation, and Rhetorical Cultures".

In 1978-1979 Vitanza received a National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship-in-Residence to work with Richard E. Young at Carnegie Mellon University on the topic of "Rhetorical Invention." Other participants included Sharon Bassett, James A. Berlin, Lisa Ede, David Fractenberg, Robert P. Inkster, Charles Kneupper, Sam Watson, Jr., Vickie Winkler, and William Nelson. Other participating colleagues included Peter Becker, Linda Flower, and Janice Lauer, all important figures in the field of Rhetoric and Composition.