Kathleen E. Welch is the Samuel Roberts Noble Family Foundation Presidential Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. At the time of this interview, Professor Welch was serving as the Interim Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University. She is the author of Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and a New Literacy(MIT Press, 1999) and The Contemporary Reception of Classical Rhetoric: Appropriations of Ancient Discourse(Erlbaum, 1990). She has also written numerous articles and has contributed to many collections of essays. Professor Welch was the founding President of the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition and has served as President of the Rhetoric Society of America (1995-1997) and the Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (1989-1991).
