Wallace S. Golding

Wallace Golding is a rhetorical critic and historian of race and reparative justice and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication. His work explores the rhetorical history of Black activism in the United States, especially the ways that activists have used political language to define their identities and their relationship to the nation and to argue for changes in democratic practice and policy. His dissertation investigates the rhetorical history of Black reparations in the United States.

Wallace teaches courses in public speaking and writing, rhetorical criticism, public policy, and visual rhetoric. In the past, he served as a peer leader for CMN 111/112 (Oral and Written Communication I/II) and as President of the Communication Graduate Student Association. In fall 2022, he helped launch the Speaking Center at Illinois, a student-support initiative which provides free and personalized presentation and public speaking assistance to any Illinois student. In addition to his teaching, he currently manages the Center and its small but growing staff.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Wallace received his B.A. in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2018) and M.A. in Communication from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2020). His research has received awards such as the Robert Bostrom Young Scholar Award from the Southern States Communication Association and a laureate position for the James L. Golden Award from the National Communication Association.