Biography and education
Dr. Wallace S. Golding is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetorical criticism and theory, political communication, public address, public memory, and persuasion. Golding earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and B.A. in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Golding's scholarship examines the rhetorical histories of arguments over citizenship, national identity, and public policy. He studies the ways politicians and activists use political language to define their identities, enact particular visions of citizenship, and advocate change in democratic practice and policy. His scholarship and reviews have appeared in journals such as Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Communication and Democracy, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Born and raised outside of Memphis, Tennessee, Golding is a first-generation college graduate committed to supporting students from backgrounds underrepresented in higher education. His teaching encourages students to think critically about the rhetorical world around them and to see communication as a vital tool for civic engagement and social change. When left to his own devices, you can find him enjoying local coffee shops, debating the best local BBQ, or listening to a broad variety of music.
Golding's scholarship examines the rhetorical histories of arguments over citizenship, national identity, and public policy. He studies the ways politicians and activists use political language to define their identities, enact particular visions of citizenship, and advocate change in democratic practice and policy. His scholarship and reviews have appeared in journals such as Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Communication and Democracy, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Born and raised outside of Memphis, Tennessee, Golding is a first-generation college graduate committed to supporting students from backgrounds underrepresented in higher education. His teaching encourages students to think critically about the rhetorical world around them and to see communication as a vital tool for civic engagement and social change. When left to his own devices, you can find him enjoying local coffee shops, debating the best local BBQ, or listening to a broad variety of music.
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Golding, W. S. (2024). “‘A Monument of Disenfranchisement’: Inventing Black Commemorative Authority in the Mammy Monument Controversy.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 27(4), 1–28. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965343
- Golding, W. S. (2023). “Description and Abstraction After Racial Violence: The Case of Jesse Washington.” In E. Wright & D. Beard (Eds.), A Charge for Change (pp. 30–39). Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.
- Golding, W. S. (2022). “Un/Civil Demonstrators: Race and Civility Politics in the 1917 Silent Protest Parade.” Communication and Democracy, 56(1), 28–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/27671127.2022.2049452
- Golding, W. S. (2022). “Book Review: Ecologies of Harm: Rhetorics of Violence in the United States.” Quarterly Journal of Speech. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2022.2144182
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: List of Teachers Ranked as "Excellent" by Their Students, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 2018 - 2025
- Award / Honor Recipient: Robert Gunderson Award for Top Student Paper, Public Address Division, National Communication Association. 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: Ruth S. and Charles H. Bowman Award, Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: President's Research Award, University of Illinois System. 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: Nichols-Ehninger Award for Top Student Paper, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division, National Communication Association. 2023

Featured service activities
- Other
Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society, Texas State University
- Reviewer / Referee
Rhetoric Society of America Biennial Conference
- Other
Southern Communication Journal
- Reviewer / Referee
Southern States Communication Association Annual Convention
- Reviewer / Referee
National Communication Association Annual Convention
- Member
National Communication Association Public Address Division Nominating Committee