Ryan Leack

I teach writing and rhetoric from philosophical perspectives in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California, and studied the productive intersections between rhetorical listening, quantum mechanics, philosophy, composition, and poetry for my Ph.D. in English, grounding each in language, embodiment, and materiality.

My English M.A. from Cal Poly Pomona covered seminars in rhetoric, literature, poetry, linguistics, and writing. I received a B.A. in English from Cal State Long Beach with an emphasis in Creative Writing, minoring in Anthropology.

My academic and creative work has been published in numerous journals for over a decade, as seen on my USC profile and personal website (ryandavidleack.com). This includes dozens of academic presentations, chaired panels, creative activities led across the country, and the like.

Numerous courses taught also inform my work, including Writing 340: Advanced Writing for Natural Sciences (USC), English 310: Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (Cal Poly), and English 315: Literacy, Language, and Cultural Practices (Cal Poly).

Currently, I study rhetoric and philosophy as ways of not only speaking and arguing, but also listening, hearing, and pursuing uncomfortable but necessary truths. Methodologically, I teach writing and reading as ways to enact rhetoric and philosophy, teaching different modes, genres, and approaches to writing, including poetry, which I teach and write myself, using it to explore and play with ideas, theoretical and practical.

Together, this background constellates an approach language, embodiment, and materiality that is curious, rigorous, and well-informed.