Adam David Roth
Adam David Roth’s expertise spans rhetorical theory and criticism, persuasion and society, communication studies, and rhetoric of science. He has earned several prestigious honors, including the Douglas Ehninger Award for Teaching. His research on the central role of rhetoric in the evolution of Western medicine has been well received in the United States, Greece, Cyprus, Russia and China.
Throughout his career, Roth has developed and launched numerous interdisciplinary programs and collaborative strategic initiatives, beginning as director of the Communication Across the Curriculum program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh from 2006-07. From 2007-21, he held a range of administrative positions at the University of Rhode Island, including communication course director for the general education program from 2007-14, interim director and director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media from 2014-20, and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2017-20. Roth was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Quinnipiac in 2021.
Roth graduated from the University of Pittsburgh’s business dual-major program with a bachelor’s degree in communication and rhetoric, and business administration. He pursued his graduate studies at the University of Iowa, where he earned his master’s degree and PhD in communication studies and rhetoric, and a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary inquiry. He also completed the management development program at Harvard University’s Institutes for Higher Education.
Phone: 401-659-6690
Throughout his career, Roth has developed and launched numerous interdisciplinary programs and collaborative strategic initiatives, beginning as director of the Communication Across the Curriculum program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh from 2006-07. From 2007-21, he held a range of administrative positions at the University of Rhode Island, including communication course director for the general education program from 2007-14, interim director and director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media from 2014-20, and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2017-20. Roth was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Quinnipiac in 2021.
Roth graduated from the University of Pittsburgh’s business dual-major program with a bachelor’s degree in communication and rhetoric, and business administration. He pursued his graduate studies at the University of Iowa, where he earned his master’s degree and PhD in communication studies and rhetoric, and a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary inquiry. He also completed the management development program at Harvard University’s Institutes for Higher Education.
Phone: 401-659-6690
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Papers by Adam David Roth
We argue the model for higher education institutions of the near future will need to emphasize civic responsibility and career mobility if institutions are to accommodate and adapt to an industry-friendly higher education model focused upon increasing public support, tuition dollars, and corporate partnerships (Hart Research Associates, 2011). Current financial conditions, coupled with the introduction of new curriculum delivery modes, skill- and competency-based learning, low-cost education providers, and the disproportionate rise and governmental support of for-profit and technical institutions signal a potential paradigm shift in many higher-education institutions. This emerging paradigm prescribes organizational structures and an institutional mission that encourage industry-need-focused education and job placement, sometimes at the expense of, or at least in combination with, the exploration and accumulation of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. As higher education’s constituents—students, their families, and the citizens who partially fund public higher education (Harnisch & Opalich, 2017)—call upon institutions to justify the ever-growing cost of a college education, institutions are asked to heed constituents’ calls for degrees that “get students jobs.”
While many faculty members and administrators profess their reluctance to respond to these perceived exigencies and embrace so-called market-driven motivations and objectives, we argue these current perceptions of higher education might yield critical opportunities for pedagogical discovery, curricular diversity, and financial sustainability. By creating curricular opportunities that cater to the diverse needs and desires of learners and managing expenses effectively to produce revenue streams to support ambitious educational missions, higher education institutions might arrive at a sustainable, practical, and more inclusive model of higher education that serves the educational needs of twenty-first-century learners. We argue that, in the process, faculty need not sacrifice their ethos as academics or their intellectual mission as professionals in order to operate within higher education’s current clime. Faculty will, however, need to rethink and reinvent the ways they frame and deliver twenty-first-century higher education so as to prepare students for future life and work few of us anticipate or imagine. In the following sections, we lay out and describe three main disruptions we see as instigating the paradigm shift we describe in higher education. In our paper’s final section we offer recommendations for curriculum innovation that emphasize holistic learning and experiential development as essential components to producing graduates both well-equipped for citizenship and ready to reap the rewards of satisfying work.
We argue the model for higher education institutions of the near future will need to emphasize civic responsibility and career mobility if institutions are to accommodate and adapt to an industry-friendly higher education model focused upon increasing public support, tuition dollars, and corporate partnerships (Hart Research Associates, 2011). Current financial conditions, coupled with the introduction of new curriculum delivery modes, skill- and competency-based learning, low-cost education providers, and the disproportionate rise and governmental support of for-profit and technical institutions signal a potential paradigm shift in many higher-education institutions. This emerging paradigm prescribes organizational structures and an institutional mission that encourage industry-need-focused education and job placement, sometimes at the expense of, or at least in combination with, the exploration and accumulation of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. As higher education’s constituents—students, their families, and the citizens who partially fund public higher education (Harnisch & Opalich, 2017)—call upon institutions to justify the ever-growing cost of a college education, institutions are asked to heed constituents’ calls for degrees that “get students jobs.”
While many faculty members and administrators profess their reluctance to respond to these perceived exigencies and embrace so-called market-driven motivations and objectives, we argue these current perceptions of higher education might yield critical opportunities for pedagogical discovery, curricular diversity, and financial sustainability. By creating curricular opportunities that cater to the diverse needs and desires of learners and managing expenses effectively to produce revenue streams to support ambitious educational missions, higher education institutions might arrive at a sustainable, practical, and more inclusive model of higher education that serves the educational needs of twenty-first-century learners. We argue that, in the process, faculty need not sacrifice their ethos as academics or their intellectual mission as professionals in order to operate within higher education’s current clime. Faculty will, however, need to rethink and reinvent the ways they frame and deliver twenty-first-century higher education so as to prepare students for future life and work few of us anticipate or imagine. In the following sections, we lay out and describe three main disruptions we see as instigating the paradigm shift we describe in higher education. In our paper’s final section we offer recommendations for curriculum innovation that emphasize holistic learning and experiential development as essential components to producing graduates both well-equipped for citizenship and ready to reap the rewards of satisfying work.