Bryan Crable
Founding Dean
College of Human Development Culture and Media
(973) 761-9668
Jubilee Hall
4th Floor Dean's Suite
Bryan Crable
Founding Dean
College of Human Development Culture and Media
Bryan Crable, Ph.D., is Founding Dean of the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media at Seton Hall University. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Crable served as Professor of Communication/Rhetorical Studies and Founding Director of the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society (WFI) at Villanova University. Through the activities of the WFI, Dr. Crable helped highlight and celebrate the connection between communication and social justice—and helped support a number of programs aimed at diversifying higher education. In addition to his administrative and disciplinary service, Dr. Crable is a noted scholar of rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke and American novelist and critic Ralph Ellison, both of whom were the focus of his book, Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke: At the Roots of the Racial Divide (University of Virginia Press, 2012). More broadly, Dr. Crable’s research engages the intersection of rhetorical theory and rhetorics of race, and in recent years has increasingly focused on the ritual construction and defense of whiteness. His forthcoming book, White Sacraments, therefore represents his attempt to retheorize whiteness from a radically new perspective. The book, which is nearing publication, draws upon archival materials from both Ralph Ellison and Jane Ellen Harrison to recast American white supremacy as a sacramental (not simply sacrificial) ritual structure and practice. A committed teacher-scholar, Dr. Crable has consistently brought this scholarship into his classrooms, and has, in turn, been able to cite his students’ work and insights within his publications, including White Sacraments. As a result of these efforts, his teaching and mentorship have also been recognized with Villanova University’s 2021 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Teaching Award, three nominations for the National Communication Association’s top teaching award, and the 2016 Faculty Mentor Award from Villanova University’s Honors Program.
Education
- Ph.D., Purdue University, December 1998 Steven C. Beering Presidential Fellow Specialization: Communication and Philosophy (interdisciplinary, dual degree Ph.D.)
- M.A., Purdue University, May 1995 Steven C. Beering Presidential Fellow Specialization: Rhetorical Studies
- B.A. Purdue University, December 1992 Steven C. Beering Presidential Scholar Bachelor of Arts in Communication with Highest Distinction University Honors Program
Scholarship
Publications: Books
- Crable, Bryan. White Sacraments: Everyday Rituals of White Supremacy. [under contract, Ohio State University Press]
- Crable, Bryan, ed. Transcendence by Perspective: Meditations on and with Kenneth Burke. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-1602355286. I am also the author of the first chapter, “Burkean Perspectives on Transcendence: A Prospective Retrospective” (pp. 3-32).
- Crable, Bryan. Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke: At the Roots of the Racial Divide. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-0813932163. This single-authored book was selected for publication as part of the Mellon Foundation-funded American Literatures Initiative. Chapter Three reprinted in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol. 286 (Gale, 2013). Book reviewed in: Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters; African American Review; Rhetoric & Public Affairs; Rhetoric Review; The KB Journal; Resources for American Literary Study; JiveTalk.com: Jazz Fiction, Jazz Research; Choice Reviews Online (Recommended). It was also profiled in December 2019 on Book Oblivion
Publications: Book Chapters
- ‘Ke[eping] the Strong Talk Flowing’: Ralph Ellison, Stanley Edgar Hyman, and the Fellowship of the Verbal Needle. In Biographical Perspectives on Ralph Ellison, ed. Marc Conner. [in press]
- Rhetoric, Identity, and Conflict: Engaging Burke, Engaging Culture. In the Classroom with Kenneth Burke, ed. Ann George and Elizabeth Weiser. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2023. 50-72.
- Doing Rhetorical History with Ralph Ellison: Meta-Archival Meditations on the Present, via the Past. In Reframing Rhetorical History, ed. Kathleen J. Turner and Jason Edward Black. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2022. 112-130.
- Beyond Raglan’s Hero: Ralph Ellison’s Ritualist Influences. In Ralph Ellison in Context, ed. Paul Devlin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 260-269. [This volume was reviewed and “Recommended” by Choice Reviews Online in December, 2022]
- From Sacrifice to Sacraments: Ralph Ellison’s Appropriation of Jane Ellen Harrison’s Themis. In Global Ralph Ellison: Transnational Aesthetics and Politics, eds. Tessa Roynon and Marc Conner. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021. 55-86.
- Invisible Man in the Age of Obama: Ellison on (Color)blindness, Visibility, and the Hopes for a ‘Post-Racial’ America. In The New Territory: Ralph Ellison and the Twenty-First Century, ed. Marc Conner & Lucas Morel. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2016. 99-115.
- Camus, Sartre, and the Rhetorical Nature of Myth. In Creating Albert Camus: Foundations and Explorations of his Philosophy of Communication, ed. Brent C. Sleasman. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2016. 103-119. [Volume and chapter by Crable reviewed in H-France Review Vol. 16 (August 2016), No. 170.]
- ‘By and Through Language, Beyond Language’: Envisioning a Burkean Curriculum. In Humanistic Critique of Education: Teaching and Learning as Symbolic Action, ed. Peter M. Smudde. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2010. 187-207.
- From Acceptance to Rejection: Kenneth Burke, Ralph Ellison, and Invisible Man. In Kenneth Burke and His Circles, ed. Jack Selzer and Robert Wess. West Lafayette,
IN: Parlor Press, 2008. 3-26. (lead chapter)
Publications: Journal Articles - Burke and Ong, Bodies and Technology: Transformations in our Attitudinal Dancing. Explorations in Media Ecology. [in press]
- Review of The War of Words, by Kenneth Burke. American Literary History. 34.3 (Fall 2022); 1217–1220.
- Review of White Negroes, by Lauren Michele Jackson. The Journal of Race and Policy 15.1 (2021): 91-93.
- ‘Beat the Devil, Beat the Devil, Beat the Devil, Beat the…’: Kenneth Burke on the Cleansing of Tensions, Both Comic and Tragic. Literature of the Americas 9 (2020): 12-42. [I also worked with the journal’s editor to solicit the contents and contributors to this bilingual special issue on Kenneth Burke, aimed at introducing his work to Russian literary scholars.]
- ‘The Myth and Ritual Business’: Ralph Ellison, Stanley Edgar Hyman, and American Sacramentalism. African American Review 53.2 (2020): 111-126.
- The Trauma of Our Symbolic Birth: Reading R. D. Laing Through Jane Ellen Harrison and Media Ecology. Explorations in Media Ecology 18.3 (2019): 259-279.
- Review of Ralph Ellison, Temporal Technologist, by Michael Germana. African American Review 51.4 (2018): 339-341. doi:10.1353/afa.2018.0051
- ‘Who Invents Rituals?’: Ralph Ellison Reads Lord Raglan. Literature of the Americas 5 (2018): 27-42. doi: 10.22455/2541-7894-2018-5-27-42
- Distance as Ultimate Motive: A Dialectical Interpretation of A Rhetoric of Motives. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 39.3 (Summer 2009): 213-239. (lead article)
- Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Rhetorical Nature of Passion. The Review of Communication 8.2 (2008): 195-200.
- Rhetoric, Anxiety, and Character Armor: Burke’s Interactional Rhetoric of Identity. Western Journal of Communication 70.1 (2006): 1-22. (lead article)
- Kenneth Burke’s Continued Relevance: Arguments Toward a Better Life. Argumentation and Advocacy 40.2 (2003): 118-123.
- Race and A Rhetoric of Motives: Kenneth Burke’s Dialogue with Ralph Ellison. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 33.3 (2003): 5-25. (lead article)
- Symbolizing Motion: Burke’s Rhetoric and Dialectic of the Body. Rhetoric Review 22.2 (2003): 121-137.
- Review of Greig Henderson and David Cratis Williams (Eds.), Unending Conversations: New Writings By and About Kenneth Burke. Argumentation & Advocacy 38 (Spring 2002): 273-276.
- Defending Dramatism as Ontological and Literal. Communication Quarterly 48 (Summer 2000): 323-342. (lead article)
- Burke’s Perspective on Perspectives: Grounding Dramatism in the Representative Anecdote. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 86 (2000): 318-333.
- The Thought of Prejudice and the Prejudice of Thought: A Review of Mills and Polanowski’s The Ontology of Prejudice. Human Studies 23 (2000): 317-323.
- Ideology as ‘Metabiology’: Rereading Permanence and Change. The Quarterly Journal of Speech 84 (1998): 303-319.
- Method as the Embodiment of Reason. disClosure 5 (1996): 107-124.
Publications: Other - White People, Please Don’t Share — or Even WATCH — the Tyre Nichols Video, op-ed, Medium.com, 30 Jan. 2023.
- The White Addiction to Blackface, podcast, The RAGE Podcast, 2-3 Oct. 2019. Part 1: https://theragepodcast.com/the-white-addiction-to-blackface/ Part 2: https://theragepodcast.com/the-white-addiction-to-blackface-pt-2/
- White People Have a Blackface Problem, op-ed, Salon.com, 20 Sept. 2019.
- What Does ‘Nationalist’ Mean?, op-ed, Mic.com, 26 Oct. 2018.
- Creating the Social Justice Exchange: Inspiration, Collaboration, and the Selection of our Partner Organizations. In Stephen J. Hartnett (ed.), Communication’s Civic Callings: The Social Justice Exchange and Community Engagement, ed. Stephen J. Hartnett. Washington, DC: National Communication Association, 2018. 9-11. [Available online: https://www.natcom.org/advocacy-public-engagement/social-justice-exchange]
- Language and Identity. In Encyclopedia of Identity, ed. Ronald L. Jackson. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press, 2010. 416-420. [recipient of the 2010 “Outstanding Reference Source” award from the American Library Association]
- Meaning Theories. In Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, ed. Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press, 2009. 618-623.
- Symbolic Interactionism. In Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, ed. Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press, 2009. 945-948.