Kathleen M. Torrens

  • Interim Director
  • ATL
  • Phone: 401.874.4809
  • Email: kmtorrens@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Tyler Hall

Biography

Kathleen M. Torrens became part of the University of Rhode Island community in 2002 when she joined the Department of Communication Studies. Since then, she has gone on to become a Professor for that department. In 2008, Kathleen began as a Mentor and part of the Steering Committee for Faculty Fellows for Online Teaching. She continued her work towards improving the University’s online program as Co-Chair of the Online Learning Task Force, then as Coordinator for the Office of Online and Distance Learning from 2010-2012. In 2013, Kathleen joined the Office of Online Teaching and Learning as Assistant Director. As such, Kathleen continues to run the Online Teaching Fellows Program, an asynchronous online program that aims to provide faculty with the information and tools needed to develop a successful online course by teaching best practices in online pedagogy. In 2011, Kathleen, along with Jose A. Amador published Taking Your Course Online: An Interdisciplinary Journey, focusing on online pedagogy and the transformation from face-to-face courses to online.

Research

Kathleen’s research has focused primarily on rhetoric, women studies and pedagogy. Kathleen has presented at multiple regional and national communication conferences as well as conferences for Women’s Studies.

Education

  • Ph.D., Speech Communication, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
  • M.A., Communication, University of Colorado at Boulder
  • B.A., Communication, University of Colorado at Boulder

Selected Publications

  • Hauser, Catherine, Jeannette E. Riley & Kathleen Torrens. (2010) Writer Citizen. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishers.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. (2009, Spring.) “Politics, Place and Narrative: The Activist Rhetoric of Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (10) 68-81.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. (2008, January). “Curious Only Need Apply: Discourses of Protest.” Review of Communication. 8(1) 38 – 43.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. (2007, Spring/Summer). “Disrupting the Transmission: Online Learning in Gender and Communication.” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 18(1) 52-62.
  • Riley, Jeannette E., Kathleen M. Torrens, & Susan Krumholz. (2005, March.) “Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning a Just World,” Contemporary Justice Review 8(1), 91-106.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. (2009). “Public Woman, Private Wife: Hillary Clinton Could Not Have Won.” In Cracked But Not Shattered: Hillary Clinton’s Unsuccessful Campaign For The Presidency (pp. 29-44). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. & Jeannette E. Riley. (2008). “Women’s Studies 101: Online Feminism in Action.” In Blair, Kristine, Radhika Gajjala & Christine Tully (Eds.). Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
  • Torrens, Kathleen M. (2007). “The Spaces Between: Transforming Heteronormativity with the Indigo Girls.” In Patricia Rudden, (Ed.), Singing for Themselves: Essays on Women in Popular Music (pp. 80-104). Cambridge Scholars Press.

Courses Recently Taught

Graduate
COM540: The Multicultural Voice

Undergraduate
COM100H: Honors Communication of Fundamentals
COM202: Public Speaking
COM322: Gender and Communication
COM383: Rhetorical Theory
COM409: American Public Address