Lois Agnew, a professor of writing and rhetoric and a gifted leader, scholar and teacher, is the Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost at Syracuse University.
Agnew was appointed to the position in July 2024. Previously, she served as Associate Provost for Academic Programs from 2023-24, 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 three books: “Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric” (University of Alabama Press, 2024); “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).