Kuehl selected as J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar, Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts lecturer

Rebecca Kuehl, associate academic director and professor in the South Dakota State University School of Communication and Journalism, has been selected as the J.P. Hendrickson Liberal Arts Faculty Scholar and will deliver the Herbert Cheever Jr. lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17.

Kuehl's lecture, “Practicing Difficult Dialogues: The Necessity of a Liberal Arts Education in Respectfully Discussing Controversial Topics Across Cultural Differences,” will be held in the Volstorff Ballroom at the University Student Union. The event is free and open to the public.

“My lecture will cover how the tenets of a liberal arts education prepare us to engage in difficult dialogues,” Kuehl said.

“These dialogues are needed, especially over complex and controversial community topics, more than ever before. We need to engage in dialogues with those who are different from us given the polarization of our nation and the complexity of the societal problems that we face.”

Kuehl will share stories from her own community-based participatory research, outreach efforts and personal life.

Her research focuses on intersections among rhetorical citizenship and public deliberation, civic rhetoric and education, workplace cultural diversity and community inclusion, and women’s health discourses such as childbirth and breastfeeding.

This is the first year a member of the School of Communication and Journalism has delivered the Cheever lecture and received the Hendrickson award. Previous recipients are George Tsakiridis (2019), Mark Freeland (2020), Luz Kirschner (2021) and Jim Wood (2022).

Kuehl hopes her lecture leaves audience members inspired to practice difficult dialogues.

“We know that communicating across cultural differences is difficult. ... If we value a liberal arts education, then we must use it to practice these difficult dialogues to face the pressing issues of our community, region and world,” she said.

The awards are named after two former professors in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. One is John Philip Hendrickson, a former department head of political science from 1957 to 1988. The other, Herbert Cheever Jr., also served as department head of political science and dean of what was then known as the College of Arts and Sciences for nine years.

The J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar award “stimulates collective thinking about the importance and value of providing all students with the strongest liberal arts experience and education in and out of the classroom.”

The Herbert Cheever Jr. lecture is the celebration of the value of liberal arts education within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Both emphasize the importance of liberal arts education in the world today.