Paul M. Dombrowski

Professor

pdombrow@mail.ucf.edu
Office Hours: None in Summer 2008.
Campus Location: CNH 417F

Education

Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1990)
Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science, Ph.D. Program, one year only. from Indiana University (1971)
M.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University (1987)
M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Pennsylvania State University (1984)

A swell guy.

Research Interests

Rhetoric theory, history, and practice, classical to contemporary; Texts and Technology, rhetorical and ethical aspects, and statistics and research design; technical communication, especially rhetorical and ethical aspects; discourse about rhetoric studies.

Recent Research Activities

1. Working on an invited article about practicing "safe" technical communication, focussing on the rhetorically shifting and shifty meaning of key technical concepts such as "safe", "flightworthy", "practical", and "radiation". 2. Working on an article on the rhetorical techniques used in efforts to enlighten the public consciousness on the hazards of dihydrogen monoxide. 3. Working on a book manuscript on the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of the discourse of Trofim Lysenko in the Soviet Union and Ernest Haeckel in early twentieth-century Europe as they challenged prevailing notions of what science is, can be, or should be, and relating these studies to contemporary anti-science movements in both the popular and the academic realms.

Awards

1. Best Article of the Past Fifty Years of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, October 2007.

2. Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, 1996-2008.

3. Selected to serve as UCF Provost's Senior Faculty Fellow, 2004-05.

Activities

Raising two teenage daughters.