Faculty
(719) 502-3125 | Stephen.Collins@PikesPeak.edu
Box R16, Rampart Range | W-119i
Stephen Collins, Ph.D., is a Professor of Communication at Pikes Peak State College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Stephen has degrees in Engineering Physics, Communication, and Theology. His professional interests include the rhetorical history of the United States, civil rights rhetoric, the history of rhetorical theory, the intersectionality of rhetoric and poetry, as well as issues in Gender, Group, and interpersonal Communication. He teaches learning communities at PPSC that combine Public Speaking, Advanced Public Speaking, and Group Communication with U.S. History courses. He has presented papers at international conferences in Scotland, Canada, and the Netherlands as well as national, regional, and local conferences.
He also teaches ballroom dance and will give free ballroom dance lessons as a wedding gift to any current or former students who gets engaged and invites him to their wedding. He will attend any graduation—bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate—to which a student will invite him once they graduate from PPSC regardless of where the student earns those degrees. He travels whenever possible to sites in the United States where significant historical and rhetorical events have occurred in our nation’s history. He enjoys acting, singing, and juggling, and has performed in multiple roles in community theatre including the King in “The King and I,” Thénardier in “Les Miserables,” and Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias.” He is also a master puppeteer and has run puppet troupes for over 25 years.
Ph.D., Northwestern University, 2001
M.A., Colorado State University, 1990
B.S., Colorado School of Mines, 1986.
Guest editor, Black History Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 2, 2020.
Member of the Board of Directors, Rocky Mountain Communication Association, 2010-2020.
President-Elect, Rocky Mountain Communication Association and Program Planner of the 2019 Annual Conference, “Transitions, Transmissions, and Transgressions.”
The Sharon Butler Award (for outstanding service to students of diverse backgrounds), 2011.
Member of the Board of Directors, Colorado Education Association, 2005-2011.
“Introduction: The Black Family Rising: ‘Bringing the Gifts that My Ancestors Gave,” Black History Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 2, 2020, 14-18. (Co-authored with Regina Lewis and Katherine Scott Sturdevant)
“The Masculinity and Femininity of Mother Jones and the Miners at Ludlow: The Rhetorical Shaping of Identity,” in Massacre, Murder, and Mayhem in the Rocky Mountain West, Tim Blevins et al., Eds. (Colorado Springs: Pikes Peak Library District, 2016) 339-352.
“Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln on Black Equity in the Civil War: A Historical-Rhetorical Perspective,” Black History Bulletin, Vol. 73, No. 2, Summer/Fall 2010, 8-15. (Co-authored with Katherine Scott Sturdevant)
“Helen Hunt Jackson and the Rhetoric of Humanization,” in Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West, Tim Blevins et al., Eds. (Colorado Springs: Pikes Peak Library District, 2010) 153-165.
"Dudley Fenner (1558?–1587)," British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500–1660, First Series, Vol. 236, Dictionary of Literary Biography series (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2001) 117–125.
International Society for the History of Rhetoric
National Communication Association
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Rocky Mountain Communication Association