Assistant Professor Contact Info Maryam.Ahmadi@uga.edu Office: 613 Caldwell Hall Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:50 PM - 4:50 PM and by appointment 706-542-4893 Dr. Maryam Ahmadi is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication Arts (Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A. in Political Science (Political Sociology) from the University of Tehran. Her research interests lie at the intersection of rhetorical theory and history, political rhetoric and social movements, and critical studies of empire and colonialism. In her current work, Dr. Ahmadi explores the co-constitutive relationships of Persian/ate rhetorical forms and semicolonial formations of empire. Building on rhetorical histories of imperialism and through analyzing the work of Iranian social reformers, she examines how critical conceptions and configurations of speech emerge vis-à-vis the semicolonial bordering and ordering of the body politic and how these rhetorical formations at once resist and reproduce empire. RESEARCH INTERESTS Rhetorical theory Rhetorical historiography Global history Political rhetoric Social movements Empire and decolonization COURSES Doctoral-Level COMM 8310: Imperialism in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Undergraduate-Level COMM 3300: Intro to Rhetorical Criticism COMM 3310: Political Rhetoric, Empire, and Colonialism COMM 3310: Rhetoric and Global Politics LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE Chair (2024). Nominating Committee, Public Address Division, National Communication Association. Chair (2023). Nominating Committee, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication Association. RECENT PUBLICATIONS Ahmadi, Maryam (2024). Semicolonial Viscerality: Gharbzadegi and the Geopolitics of Sensing. In R. García, E. Cushman, & D. Baca (Eds.), Pluriversal Literacies: Tools for Perseverance and Livable Futures (pp. 196–208). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.13359162.15 Ahmadi, Maryam (2023). Semicolonial Rhetoric; or, a Rhetorical Sphere of Influence. Journal for the History of Rhetoric, 26(2), 140–151. https://doi.org/10.5325/jhistrhetoric.26.2.0140
