Kenneth Zagacki
Department Head and Professor
Ph.D., University of Texas, 1986

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Ken Zagacki is a Professor of rhetoric and public address and Head of the Department of Communication at NC State University. His research includes the study of Presidential speeches about American foreign policy, the rhetoric of scientific argumentation, the rhetorical dimensions of visual communication, and the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric. He has published numerous articles in major scholarly journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Philosophy & Rhetoric, and Rhetoric & Public Affairs.

His current research projects include co-authored works with his colleague Dr. Victoria Gallagher. They are exploring what they call a "commemorative experience" in the popular "Titanic: An Artifact Exhibit," which appeared in Raleigh, at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in 2005. They are also examining what they refer to as "rhetorical depiction” to demonstrate how the “material rhetoric” of the Museum Park at the North Carolina Museum of Art creates spaces of attention wherein various approaches to the human-nature interface are depicted. They show how the Park’s material and symbolic resources serve to provide the rhetorical infrastructure that visitors can use to generate arguments about the human nature-interface.

Ken joined the faculty at NCSU in August 2001, before which he was an associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University for 16 years.

Here are syllabi for courses taught by Ken Zagacki

COM 441: Ethical Issues in Communication

com 498: Communication & Propaganda

COM/ENG 516: Rhetorical Criticism - Theory and Practice

COM 561: Human Communication Theory