LINKS
Homepage: http://rghoward.com
CV: http://rghoward.com/Howard.CV.pdf

COURSES
(For current and past course websites, please go to: http://rghoward.com)
CA374/RS374: Rhetoric of Religion
CA472: Rhetoric and Technology
CA570: Classical Rhetorical Theory
CA610/FL530: Ethnography and Internet Communities
CA610/FL560: Folklore in a Digital Age
CA610: Rhetoric and the Internet
CA976: Ethnographic Methods for Rhetorical Analysis
CA969: Seminar in Kenneth Burke
CA969: Vernacular Rhetoric

ACTIVITIES
Associated with The Communication Technologies Research Cluster, Religious Studies, and Folklore Programs, my research focus is on an interdisciplinary approach to religious communication and technology. Through both fieldwork and document analysis, I research theories of vernacular rhetoric, Christian identity, fundamentalism, and the promise and limits of performative communication in network media.

DEGREES
Ph.D. University of Oregon, 2001
MA University of California, Los Angeles, 1996
BA University of California, Berkeley, 1993

MAJOR HONORS/AWARDS
InTime Multimedia Research Grant, University of Wisconsin. July, 2001
Risa Palm Memorial Dissertation Research Grant. March, 2000.
Don Yoder Prize for the Best Article in Folk Belief and Religious Folklife. American Folklore Society. October, 1998. ("Apocalypse in your In-Box: End-Times Communication on the Internet," 1997).
Title VI Language Fellowship for the Study of Quechua. University of California at Los Angeles. June, 1995.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(For a complete list with many available for download, please go to: http://rghoward.com)

Currently working on: Digital Jesus: The Emergence of Vernacular Christian Fundamentalism on the Internet

“Vernacular Media, Vernacular Belief: Locating Christian Fundamentalism in the Vernacular Web” in Western Folklore. Forthcoming 2009 [32 manuscript pages].

“The Media Savvy Ritual Suicides: How the Heaven’s Gate Group Co-opted Institutional Media and Created a New Tradition” in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Volume 12 Number 1 (Summer 2008). Forthcoming [32 manuscript pages].

“Electronic Hybridity: The Persistent Processes of the Vernacular Web” in Journal of American Folklore. Volume 121, Number 480 (Spring 2008). Forthcoming [50 manuscript pages].

“Vernacular Religion in an Age of Participatory Media: Everyday Christian Fundamentalism Online” in Fundamentalisms and the Media, Stewart M. Hoover and Nadia Kaneva editors. London: Continuum Publishing, 2009. Forthcoming [23 manuscript pages].

“Sustainability and Narrative Plasticity in Online Apocalyptic Discourse after September 11, 2001” in Journal of Media and Religion. Volume 5, Number 1 (March 2006). 25-47.

“The Double Bind of the Protestant Reformation: The Birth of Fundamentalism and the Necessity of Pluralism” in Journal of Church and State. Volume 47, Number 1 (Winter 2005): 91-108 (Peer Reviewed).

“Toward a Theory of the Worldwide Web Vernacular: The Case for Pet Cloning” in Journal of Folklore Research. Volume 42, Number 3 (December 2005). 323-360.

“A Theory of Vernacular Rhetoric: The Case of the ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ Online” in Folklore. Volume 116, Number 2 (August 2005). 172-188.

“Sustainability and Radical Rhetorical Closure: The Case of the 1996 ‘Heaven’s Gate’ Newsgroup Campaign” in Journal of Communication and Religion. Volume 28, Number 1 (March 2005): 99-130.

“Apocalypse in your In-Box: End-Times Communication on the Internet,” in Western Folklore. Volume 56, Number 3/4 (Summer/Fall 1997): 295-315.