Dr. Cedric Burrows

Dr. Cedric BurrowsMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 233

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of Americacedric.burrows@marquette.edu

Associate Professor

English

Cedric D. Burrows (Ph.D., University of Kansas, 2011) researches and teaches courses in writing, cultural rhetorics, African American rhetoric and culture, social movements, and protest literature. His book Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Rhetorical Presence in White Culture (University of Pittsburgh Press, Fall 2020) examines the alterations of African American rhetoric when it moves into mainstream spaces. Rhetorical Crossover uses examples from music, education, film, and social movements to argue that the dominant culture has created coded narratives on how African Americans should behave in majority spaces. In response, African Americans have created their own narratives that reaffirms their right to exist in those spaces, thereby creating duel narratives about African Americans in society. 

Currently, Dr. Burrows is undergoing several research projects. One is on how the United States constructs narratives around the civil rights movement with public memorials. Another project researches literature and media that has been influenced by the Black Lives Matter Movement. Both projects are part of his larger research on how African American rhetoric has been framed by African American and mainstream communities. 

In his classes, Dr. Burrows challenges students to consider how history and culture shapes their worldviews and how it has affected their communication practices. In having students become informed of their own historical and cultural backgrounds, Dr. Burrows encourages students to reassess and revise their narratives as they enter into an ever increasingly diverse society.

Education

Ph.D., University of Kansas

Courses Taught

• Rhetoric
• Composition
• Advanced Composition

Research Interests

• Composition and rhetoric
• African-American rhetoric
• Cultural rhetoric
• Social activism

Publications

• Rhetorical Crossover: The Black Rhetorical Presence in White Culture (forthcoming, University of Pittsburgh Press, Fall 2020).
• “How Whiteness Haunts the Textbook Industry: The Reception of Nonwhites in Composition Textbooks.” Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education. Eds. Tammie Kennedy, Joyce Irene Middleton, and Krista Ratcliffe. Carbondale, IL. Southern Illinois UP, 2017: 265-280.
• “Writing While Black: The Black Tax on African American Graduate Students.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. 14.1 (2016): 1-6. Print.
• “The Yardstick of Whiteness in Composition Textbooks.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 39.2 (2016): 42-46. Print.
• "El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz or Malcolm X: The Construction of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz’s Religious Identity in Composition Readers." Journal of Africana Religions 3.1 (2015): 31-43.​

Honors and Awards

• 2020 Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Award, Marquette University.

Additional Information

Office Hours

Spring 2023

• TuTh 12:30-2:00

Teaching Schedule

Spring 2023

• 6820/101 TuTh 2:00-3:15 Lalumiere Hall 322
  
  • Studies in Modern Critical Theory and Practice