Whitney Gent | College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media

Dr. Whitney Gent

Communication, Assistant Professor

email:

wgent@unomaha.edu

office:

ASH 107D

department phone:

402.554.2600

office hours:

Tuesday 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. , Thursday 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Google Scholar:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hQQ1-GMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

note:

This profile is pulling in data from Digital Measures. Postings on personal websites or social media do not indicate that the individual is speaking on behalf of UNO.

General Information

Biography

Whitney Gent is an assistant professor of rhetoric and civic engagement at University of Nebraska Omaha. Her research focuses on rhetoric regarding homelessness and poverty in the United States. She examines how such rhetorics circulate among advocates and policymakers in public policymaking processes, and she attends to representations of people experiencing homelessness in popular culture -- in film, on television, and online. Dr. Gent's research and teaching are informed by her experience as a communication professional in policy advocacy work at the local and national levels. She has been working, studying, advocating, and volunteering around issues related to homelessness and communication for more than 15 years.

Teaching Interests

Rhetorical Criticism, Critical/Cultural Studies, Argumentation, Rhetorical and Communication Theory

Research Interests

Homelessness & Poverty, Advocacy, Public Policymaking, Deliberative Democratic Theory, Public Sphere Theory, Social Movements and Activist Rhetoric

Education

Ph D, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, Rhetoric, Politics, & Culture, 2018

Scholarship/Research/Creative Activity

Selected Publications

Gent, Whitney. 2024. Black Women’s Rights-Blurring Strategies in a Culture of Rights Discrimination , Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Forthcoming.

Gent, Whitney, Loehwing, Melanie. 2024. "Police Brutality without Race: Post-Racial Fantasies of Collective Organizing in The Public", University Press of Mississippi.

Gent, Whitney. 2022. "Not in My Back Yard": Democratic Rhetorics in Spatial Gatekeeping, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 19, 2, 140-157.

Gent, Whitney, Loehwing, Melanie. 2022. The Public Screen as Contextual Field: Visibility and Agency in U.S. Films About Homelessness, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 18, 1, 24-47.

Gent, Whitney, Sauter, Emily, Cronn-Mills, Daniel. 2020. Validity and the Art of Rhetorical Criticism, Annals of the International Communication Association, 44, 3, 201-209.