Caroline Koons

Title
Assistant Professor
Email
Department
Humanities and Communication Department
College
College of Arts & Sciences

Areas of Expertise

Public speaking

Ethics

Speech apprehension

Rhetorical history



Dr. Koons is assistant professor of Communication director of the Writing and Design Lab. Since arriving in the fall of 2022, she has taught classes in speech, ethics, writing, social movements and strategic communication. She is the course monitor for HU 330 - Values and Ethics.

Her research takes two main trajectories:

  1. Rhetorical histories of music and American identity
  2. Pedagogy of speech apprehension reduction.

Current research projects underway include:

  • A study of "We Shall Overcome" in the developing rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement
  • A historical analysis of the music during the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA using archival resources from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
  • Two book chapters on speech apprehension, technology and psychological processes

Dr. Koons also oversees several undergraduate research projects in the psychology of speech apprehension, music pedagogy and ethics curriculum development. In the fall of 2023, Dr. Koons was elected Membership Coordinator and a Steering Committee Member for the American Society for the History of Rhetoric.


  • Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
  • M.A. - Master of Arts in Communication Studies, Baylor University

  • HU 399: Special Topics in Humanities
  • HU 299: Special Topics in Humanities
  • COM 219: Speech
  • HU 330: Values and Ethics

COM122 - English Composition

COM 219 - Speech

HU 112 - Rhetoric of Social Justice

HU 145 - Special Topics in Humanities (Rhetoric of Crisis Communication)

HU 299/399 - Special Topics in Humanities (Ancient Greek Rhetoric - Study Abroad)

HU 330 - Values & Ethics


National Communication Association 

Rhetoric Society of America 

American Society for the History of Rhetoric 

Southern States Communication Association 

Coalition of Feminist Scholars in Rhetoric and Composition

Council of Undergraduate Research