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Eric King Watts

Dr. Eric King WattsAssociate Professor

Area of Study: Rhetorical Studies

Email: ekwatts@email.unc.edu
Office: 300A Bynum Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 9-11AM or by appointment

Biography

B.A. and M.A., University of Cincinnati

PhD., Northwestern University

Dr. Watts’ research explores the manner in which public voice is invented, performed, consumed, and suppressed. This fundamental question constituting his research program extends into literary studies, aesthetics, and critical media studies. In particular, Dr. Watts examines the diverse phenomena of African American public voice and its relation to the representation of the black body, the meanings of blackness, the shape of civic culture and community; voice and voicelessness are understood as being impacted by the rhetorical agency of the subject, the terms of one’s publicity, and the power relations that make up one’s various identities.