Associate Provost for Academic Programs
Lois Agnew was named associate provost for academic programs in April 2023. In this role, she works with colleagues in Academic Affairs and across campus to support teaching, learning and student success at Syracuse University.
Previously, Agnew served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) from 2022-23, A&S associate dean of curriculum, innovation and pedagogy from 2017-22 and as chair of the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition from 2012-17. A professor of writing and rhetoric and a gifted leader, scholar and teacher, Agnew has been a member of the Syracuse University community since 2004.
Among Agnew’s academic honors and awards received at Syracuse are the 2015 William Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching, recognizing exceptional teaching and mentoring of graduate students; the 2011 Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award; and the 2007 Meredith Teaching Recognition Award.
Agnew’s research specializes in rhetorical history and theory, with a focus on classical and British rhetoric and rhetorics of health, medicine, and disability. She has published over 25 journal articles and book chapters and is author of two books: “Thomas De Quincey: British Rhetoric’s Romantic Turn. Rhetoric in the Modern Era Series” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012) and “Outward, Visible Propriety: Stoic Philosophy and Eighteenth-Century British Rhetorics” (University of South Carolina Press, 2008), with a third book manuscript in progress: “Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric” (forthcoming with University of Alabama Press).