Banks serves as University of Kansas Langston Hughes Visiting Professor

Friday, March 19, 2010, By News Staff

Adam Banks, associate professor of writing and rhetoric in The College of Arts and Sciences, has been named the 2010 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas. He is teaching for the spring semester in KU’s Department of English.

In February, Banks presented the Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship lecture, “Rememory, Remixed: Reimagining African-American Rhetoric for a Digital Age.” At KU, Banks is teaching two courses. The undergraduate class is titled “Barack Obama and African American Rhetorical Tradition.” The graduate-level class, ” Digital Griots: Story, History, Technology and African American Rhetoric 2.0,” is based on Banks’ forthcoming book, “Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age.”

Author of the award-winning “Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground,” Banks received a bachelor’s degree in English from Cleveland State University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University, both in English.

The Langston Hughes Visiting Professorship at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas, was established in 1977 to honor the late poet, playwright and historian who lived in Lawrence as a child.