Biography
Specializations
British Literature, Rhetoric and Composition
Sub Specializations
Renaissance
Biography
Nancy Christiansen specializes in rhetoric’s history, theory, and pedagogy, in rhetorical criticism, in reading theory and pedagogy, in style theory, and in Renaissance British literature, particularly Shakespeare. She is currently writing a book tentatively entitled Shakespeare’s Paideia: Five Tragedies as Rhetorical Handbooks and a textbook called The Critical Reader. She has completed a book titled Figuring style: The Legacy of Renaissance Rhetoric. She has articles published on Renaissance rhetoric, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and the classical rhetorical curriculum. She is particularly interested in articulating the relationships between rhetoric and poetics, ethics, and philosophy and in rhetorical and ethical criticism.
Degrees
PhD, UCLA, 1994
Awards & Honors
Department Research Award 2013
Research Interests
History of Rhetoric and Education, with emphasis on the Renaissance; Rhetorical Criticism of British Renaissance Literature; Rhetorical Theory, with emphasis on the relations between rhetoric, ethics, poetics, philosophy, and leadership; Philosophies of Rhetoric; Rhetorical theories and practices in Renaissance cultural artifacts and arts of meditation, scriptural exegesis, Christian conduct books and arts of preaching manuals; history of stylistic theories and methods of stylistic analysis.Teaching Interests
History of Rhetoric and Education, Philosophy of Rhetoric, Rhetorical Criticism and Theory, Renaissance British Literature and Rhetoric, History of Civilization, Shakespeare, relationships of Rhetoric, Leadership, and Ethics.Honors and Awards
- Faculty Scholarship Award 2013, BYU English Department (2014 - 2014)
Memberships
- International Society for the History of Rhetoric (1994 - Present)
- Rhetoric Society of America (1994 - Present)