Richard Cherwitz
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Richard Cherwitz is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and in the Division of Rhetoric and Writing, and a Fellow at the Institute for Innovation, Creativity & Capital (IC²) at the University of Texas at Austin. https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/
He is the Founder and Director of the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE)—a cutting-edge and nationally acclaimed cross-disciplinary initiative designed to leverage knowledge for social good by educating “citizen-scholars.” https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_entrepreneurship
Cherwitz’ publications include two books and over one hundred journal articles, book chapters, reviews, and papers. As a rhetorician, his scholarly objective for the past three decades has been to explore the role played by symbolic influence (rhetoric) in human knowledge and behavior. This has resulted in publications about communication appearing in a variety of venues inside and outside of the political geography of "communication studies." Cherwitz' writing and scholarship investigate three inherently connected themes: how symbolic influence is a fundamental dimension of the philosophical process of coming to know; how part of the significance of rhetorical discourse, particularly in political contexts, resides in its capacity to construct social realities; and how "intellectual entrepreneurship," a philosophy of education and innovation intellectually grounded in traditional theories of rhetorical invention and knowledge, facilitates interdisciplinary learning and engaged scholarship. Underpinning Cherwitz' work is his belief that academics, especially those in disciplines such as communication, have an ethical obligation both to discover and put knowledge to work—-to unearth knowledge uniting theory, practice and production.
Cherwitz received two of the National Communication Association's top awards given to scholars in rhetoric: the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award and the Douglas Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award. His research has been supported by grants from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Houston Endowment, the Summerlee Foundation and the University of Texas Research Institute. Cherwitz was the recipient of the University of Texas AMOCO Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award, the Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award, the College of Communication Thomas R. McCartin Teaching Excellence Award, and the College of Communication Research Award. Cherwitz also received the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Innovation Award, the National Speakers Association Outstanding Professor Award, the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools Outstanding Contributions to Graduate Education Award, the Texas Blazers Faculty Excellence Award, the Ernest A. Lynton Award for Faculty Professional Service & Academic Outreach (New England Resource Center for Higher Education), and Honorable Mention in Fast Company Magazine’s “Fast 50 Global Readers’ Challenge” (for accomplishments as an “Innovator”).
Cherwitz has directed over twenty master’s theses and doctoral dissertations; his students have taken faculty positions at such institutions as The Ohio State University, Pittsburgh, Tulane, George Washington University, LSU, Macalester and others.
