Dr. Kristy Maddux appointed the next Executive Director of the Honors College

Professor Kristy Maddux has been appointed the next Executive Director of the Honors College, effective July 1, 2024!

Professor Maddux has taught in the Department of Communication since 2007. As of fall 2024, she will be a full professor. Since 2023, she has served as a Lead Faculty Fellow in University Honors, leading a cluster called "Civil Bonds," which asks students to examine how human communities collaborate to solve shared problems and adapt to natural, industrial, and economic changes. In the Department of Communication, she has held numerous leadership positions, including chairing the committee to re-envision the undergraduate curriculum, serving as Director and Co-Director of Graduate Studies, and chairing the department's Faculty Advisory Committee. She has served on the Senate, the ARHU and Senate PCC committees, and the Graduate Council. She co-directed a Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute and has developed a number of local community partnerships.

 

Her research and teaching center on practices of democratic citizenship, especially as they intersect with gender, religion, race, and disability. She is enthusiastic about helping students find ways to participate in local democracy, and her classes typically send students out into College Park and other nearby communities to engage with civic affairs and local governance. Maddux is currently writing a book about a rare genetic disorder called Rett syndrome, and she is the author of Practicing Citizenship: Women’s Rhetoric at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities, along with numerous articles in scholarly journals.