Rebecca Alt

  • Ph.D., M.A., Communication, University of Maryland
  • B.A., Communication, Pennsylvania State University

Rebecca Alt is an assistant professor of communication at Lenoir-Rhyne University since 2019. She also serves as the director of the speech preparation lab. Alt specializes in communication theory and practice. She teaches courses focused on sports communication, media, rhetoric, social change, research methods, convergent media writing and speech. In her role as director of the speech lab, Alt develops training materials for peer tutors and teaches them how to provide the best support to undergraduate and graduate student clients seeking to improve their speaking skills across disciplines for a variety of speech situations.

Alt enjoys teaching first-year students in any major program about how knowledge and skill in communication contribute to the development of the whole person for the sake of the public good. As a first-generation college student herself, Alt is especially passionate about guiding first-generation students as they navigate the unfamiliar parts of university life. Alt also enjoys mentoring communication majors throughout their time in the program as their interests and extracurricular engagement develop into their vocation and purpose.

Alt’s scholarship stems from her dedication to rhetorical education rooted in ancient principles yet updated for the ever-evolving needs of the current century. Her research in the context of the sport focuses on how the culture of big-time sport – namely, high-profile college sports and elite Olympic sports – is maintained and contested through acts of communication. In studying the structural dynamics that create an urgent need for activism-related social justice issues, Alt’s work aims to amplify the voices of current or former athletes and their proposals for policy reform and cultural change. Her work appears in the "Review of Communication, Social Media + Society," the "Journal of Public Interest Communication," "Engaging Sports" and the edited volume "Case Studies in Sport Communication: You Make The Call."