Kurt Imhoff

Specializations: Algorithmic rhetoric

Kurt Imhoff is an incoming doctoral student who will be studying rhetoric and public culture. They graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, but quickly shifted to communication studies by pursuing a master’s degree at Eastern Michigan University. To bridge the gap between these two fields, Kurt studies algorithmic rhetoric. Their master’s thesis explores a Burkean approach to reading the programmatic choices in code and considers how those choices come together to construct an algorithm. Throughout their academic career, Kurt participated in collegiate forensics. They competed for four years at Northwestern and coached for two at Eastern Michigan. Kurt is excited to continue this work as a coach for Ohio University’s speech team. In addition to research interests and coaching, Kurt is street performing beatboxer and cannot wait to see what the coming years have in store.