Lydia McDermott

Lydia McDermott is the Director of the Center for Writing and Speaking, and Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse at Whitman. She is currently serving as the First Year Seminars Writing Coordinator and as Chair of Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse.

McDermott's Ph.D. is in Rhetoric and Composition and her M.A. is in Creative Writing. Her research has centered on rhetorical historiography, looking in particular at the concurrent emergence of classical rhetoric and gynecology and the 19th century shift from midwifery to obstetrics. Her more recent research has centered on midwifery in the global context and rhetorics of racism. In general, her approach to studying rhetoric is feminist and queer. She studies marginalized rhetors and rhetorics that resist dominant discourses because these dominant discourses have the power to shape and constrain not only our rhetorical choices, but also our material bodies. She strives in her research to discover, validate, and create alternative discourses that can expand our understandings of real and metaphorical bodies.

McDermott loves the power of language to shape our lived experiences, and to that end, she still actively publishes poetry alongside her scholarly research. She loves to write in practically any genre and especially loves helping others find a passion for writing. In her spare time she loves to walk her two puggos, Napoleon Bone-Apart and Laura, and she occasionally posts youtube videos on the channel “Laura the Rhetorical Pug,” in which Laura explains important rhetorical theories with the occasional cameo from Napoleon. She also happens to have three sons, three cats, and a partner.  

Previous to coming to Whitman College, McDermott was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and helped to found and direct the Graduate Writing and Research Center at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Within Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse, Professor McDermott teaches courses on composition, rhetorical theory, and rhetorical bodies, and facilitates writing education and support across Whitman's curriculum. Her first book, Liminial Bodies, Reproductive Health, and Feminist Rhetoric: Searching the Negative Spaces in the History of Rhetoric, came out with Rowman Littlefield Press, Lexington Books, in 2016. Her articles, chapters, and poetry have appeared in a variety of venues. She is a member of the Rhetoric Society of America and the Conference on College Composition and Communication, where she has served as co-chair, with Prof. Patty Wilde, of the Feminist Workshop for the past four years and is currently co-chair of the Rhetoric Special Interest Group with Professor Bo Wang.