Welcome. I am Elizabeth Weiser, an Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor in the English Department at The Ohio State University. I am a rhetorical theorist, historiographer, and museologist, studying the rhetorical practices occurring in heritage museums around the world. I look at how the stories we tell about our communal past influence our communal identity and determine our communal actions.
Click here for my CV
I am currently finishing a project examining the ways that museums run by diverse marginalized communities in the U.S. tell difficult histories in a manner that promotes healing–a daunting task when toxic polarization has led to calls to stifle all such “divisive concepts” from public education forums. Titled Rhetorics of Repair: Lessons from Museums for Rebuilding a Divided World, the book looks at a dozen such museums, most new, most located in the conservative heartland.
I’ve published two single-authored monographs, four edited collections, two special journal issues, and about 35 articles & chapters. Although I identify as a Burkean rhetorician and narrative museologist, my published articles have ranged from analyses of Dorothy Day to global technology museums, from the Boca Juniors soccer stadium to the international museum definition debate to the Newark Earthworks. You can find many of them at https://osu.academia.edu/ElizabethWeiser
I am the only American on the executive board of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM), the world’s largest network of museum scholars, and I currently serve as Editor-in-Chief of the 53-year old ICOFOM Study Series.
Meanwhile, on the Newark campus of Ohio State, where I have worked since 2004, I teach classes in whatever the scheduler decides will fill the desks that year, usually not in anything I am actually known for. I’ve won campus and university awards for my teaching, mentoring, research, service, and inclusive alliance. I have a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Texas Christian University, an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in International Education.
When I’m not working, I write novels (my novel Lumen is available from Amazon); I love hiking & biking, concerts & plays, and I play tin whistle & piano. I am happiest either with a coffee and the New York Times on my back deck or with my backpack exploring a new country.
