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Program in
Communication of Science and Technology

Alex Morales

Mellon Assistant Professor

Dr. Alex Morales is a Mellon Assistant Professor in the Program for Communication of Science and Technology at Vanderbilt University. Before moving to Nashville, he received a PhD (University of Georgia), MA (University of South Florida), and BS (Appalachian State University) in communication and rhetorical studies. His research aims to connect several areas under the general heading of Enlightenment rhetoric, including 1) science communication, 2) global and comparative rhetoric, 3) the humanistic analysis of scientific inquiry, and 4) the philosophy of skepticism. This work aims to cultivate an understanding of rhetoric's role in the production and circulation of scientific ideas in public culture. More specifically, his research explores how European and Latin American thinkers utilized public skepticism about economic and political issues to mobilize transformations in scientific thinking. His dissertation project, for instance, examines how David Hume accommodated his mitigated skepticism and empirical philosophy to upend various forms of dogmatism that circulated during the Scottish Enlightenment. Ultimately, Morales contends that Hume's rhetorical efficacy lay in his ability to refashion the public's relationship with public institutions, a feature of his communication that was later retooled by Hispanist scholars and activists to challenge the authority of European monarchies in the nineteenth century. His research on David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the rhetoric of skepticism has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal for the History of Rhetoric, and Philosophy & Rhetoric.

Specializations

Dr. Morales' areas of specialization include enlightenment rhetoric, rhetoric of science, global and comparative rhetoric (primarily Western European and Ibero-American traditions), philosophical skepticism, history of rhetoric, and science & technology studies.

Above all, Dr. Morales' research synthesizes these areas to cultivate an understanding of rhetoric's role in the production and circulation of scientific ideas in public culture. In doing so, his research explores how European and Latin American thinkers have historically utilized public skepticism about political issues to mobilize transformations in scientific thinking.


Representative Publications

Books

  • Volume Editor, A Cultural History of Rhetoric: Age of Enlightenment (1700-1800), Bloomsbury Press (Forthcoming, 2028).

  • The Skeptical Voice: Scientific Rhetoric in an Overly Enlightened Age (Book monograph in progress).

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • with Jason Myres, “America’s Answer to Communism: Luis Muñoz Marín and Puerto Rican Exemplarity.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 112, no. 2 (2026): 109-133. (Awarded Outstanding Article)

  • “Skeptical Baconianism: David Hume, Scientific Christianity, and the Controversy Surrounding Miracles.” Journal for the History of Rhetoric 27, no. 3 (2024): 362-384.

  • “Skepticism as Ethos: David Hume’s Response to the Epistemological Revolution.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 110, no. 2 (2024): 221-243. (Awarded Journal Article of the Year)

  • “Enlightenment Rhetoric Reconsidered: Discursive Transcendence in Hume’s ‘Of Eloquence.’” Philosophy & Rhetoric 56, no. 3-4 (2023): 242-66.

Book Chapters & Reviews

  • “From a Whisper to a Movement: Investigating the Shared Rhetorical Spaces of Whistleblowing and Social Protest / Edited by Joshua Guitar and Alan Chu, Albany: SUNY Press, 2025, 326 pp., $120 USD Hardcover, ISBN: 9798855803280.” Critical Studies in Media Communication (2026): 1-3.

  • “Rhetoric, Poetics, and Literary Historiography: The Formation of a Discipline at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century by Stefan H. Uhlig. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024.” Journal of Eighteenth-Century Fiction 37, no. 3 (2025): 634-637.

  • “James M. Buchanan and the Unromantic Rhetoric of Public Choice.” In Political Process: New Perspectives on the Virginia and Bloomington Schools. Edited by Chris Coyne, Don Boudreaux, and Brian Kogelmann. Lexington: Bloomsbury Press (2025): 129-148.

  • “Why Didn’t I Pick a Fight About X?: An Inquisitive Response to Harris.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 11, no. 1 (2022): 1-6. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-6qv. 

  • “An X Too Far: A Review of Randy Allen Harris’s Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies and Issues and Methods.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 10, no. 5 (2021): 20-24. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-5Pu. 

  • “Informative Speaking.” In The Art and Craft of Public Speaking. Edited by Bjørn Stillion Southard. Athens, GA: University of Georgia (2020): 124-40.

  • “Presentation Aids.” In The Art and Craft of Public Speaking. Edited by Bjørn Stillion Southard. Athens, GA: University of Georgia (2020): 175-189.