Becky Kuehl

Title

Associate Academic Director/Professor

Office Building

Pugsley Center

Office

115

Mailing Address

Pugsley Cont Ed Center 115
School of Communication and Journalism-Box 2218
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007

Biography

Dr. Rebecca A. Kuehl is associate academic director and professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University. She also teaches in women, gender and sexuality studies at SDSU. Her research focuses on intersections among rhetorical citizenship and public deliberation, civic rhetoric and education, workplace cultural diversity and community inclusion and women’s health discourses such as childbirth and breastfeeding. Her research has been funded by two Community Innovation Grants from the Bush Foundation. Her research has appeared in edited books, including Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy, Contemporary Rhetorical Citizenship, Speech and Debate as Civic Education and The Rhetoric of Health and Medicine As/Is. Her research has also appeared in Human Communication Research, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Southern Communication Journal, Communication Quarterly, Communication Design Quarterly Review, Health Communication, Translational Behavioral Medicine and the Journal of Human Lactation.

CV

Kuehl CV September 2016.doc(145.5 KB)

Education

B.A. in communication studies with honors | Gustavus Adolphus College | 2005
M.A. in speech communication | University of Georgia | 2007
Ph.D. in communication studies | University of Minnesota | 2011

Academic Interests

Rhetorical citizenship
Public dialogue and deliberation
Civic education
Women's health

Academic Responsibilities

CMST 101: Fundamentals of Speech
CMST 215: Public Speaking
CMST 222: Argumentation and Debate
CMST/WMST 415-515: Communication and Gender
CMST 416-516: Rhetorical Criticism
CMST 470: Intercultural Communication
CMST 470: Honors Intercultural Communication
CMST 492-592: Topics: Pop Culture and Communication
CMST 701: Intro to Graduate Studies
CMST 792: Topics: Graduate Writing Seminar
CMST 792: Topics: Rhetorical Citizenship

Committees and Professional Memberships

Committees

Brookings Inclusive Collaborative
Brookings Supports Breastfeeding
South Dakota State University Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Coalition

Professional Memberships

National Communication Association
Central States Communication Association
Speech Communication Association of South Dakota

Awards and Honors

2023, F. O. Butler Award for Excellence in Teaching, South Dakota State University
2023, Sewrey Colloquium on Research and Scholarship (with Dr. Molly Enz), South Dakota State University
2022, Award for Outstanding Service to College, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, South Dakota State University
2022, Sewrey Colloquium on Teaching and Learning, South Dakota State University
2022, Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College Faculty Mentor, South Dakota State University
2021, Edward Patrick Hogan Award for Excellence in Teaching, South Dakota State University

Grants

Enz, M. K., Kuehl, R. A. and Andrews, J. Supporting Caregiving and Employee Wellbeing: Visions of a Healthy University. Karen McComish Interdisciplinary Faculty Research Program Fund Proposal, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences internal grant, May 2024 – August 2024, $3,441.
Neubauer, M. and Kuehl, R. A. Brookings Public Library and Brookings Inclusive Collaborative: Brookings Community Intergroup Dialogues. South Dakota Humanities Council external grant, June - October 2023, $3,725.
Enz, M. K., Kuehl, R. A., Hanson, J. and Moore, E. Working caregivers in the age of COVID-19: Perspectives from South Dakota State University employees. Collaborative Scholarship Fund Proposal, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences internal grant, May 2021 – August 2021, $2,927.
Kuehl, R. A., Enz, M., Drury, S. A. M., Lammers, A., Garst-Santos, C., Williams, K., Rovai, M., Doom, K., Heuton, A., Hauge, S., Petterson, D., Rhodes, M., Plummer, L., Torres Chan, S. and Whitehead, L. Deliberating diversity: Communicating about our community climate to enhance inclusion in Brookings businesses. Bush Foundation Community Innovation external grant, February 2020 – December 2022, $193,256.

Work Experience

Graduate school fellow, University of Minnesota
Graduate instructor, University of Minnesota
Research assistant and teaching assistant, University of Georgia

Areas of Research

Rhetorical citizenship
Public deliberation
Civic education
Women's health discourses

I have been involved in a variety of community-based research partnerships while at SDSU, including with the South Dakota Department of Health, Brookings Health System, the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce, Brookings Economic Development Corporation, Vision Brookings and the Brookings Human Rights Commission.

Publications

Kuehl, R. A., Anderson, J. and Hanson, S. (2025, accepted). Communication about perinatal mental health disorders in the rural United States: Narrative and social support as communication strategies. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, special issue on rural health, forthcoming.
Kuehl, R. A., Enz, M. K. and Drury, S. A. M. (2023). Using enclave groups to discuss workplace cultural diversity and community inclusion. Human Communication Research, online first. DOI: 10.1093/hcr/hqad006.
Kuehl, R. A. (2022). Case study: Partnering intercultural communication students with campus co-cultural student groups to develop intercultural competence, allyship and curiosity. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 21(4). DOI: 10.14434/josotl.v21i4.32673.
Kuehl, R. A. and Knippling, O. R. (2021). Finding common ground: Analyzing Thomas A. Daschle’s Senate leadership speeches as a model for bipartisanship. Discourse: The Journal of the Speech Communication Association of South Dakota, 6, Article 1.

Department(s)

Image for School of Communication and Journalism
School of Communication and Journalism