🚀 go-pugleaf

Doug,

From the sound of your message, your student should check out the Speech
Communication Department here at the University of Washington in Seattle.  John
Campbell is a critic of some note, Bill Purcell is an historian of rhetorical
theory (especially medieval), Barbara Warnick is an argumentation theorist (with
a philosophical "bone"), and John Stewart is a philosopher of communication.  My
friend and colleague Jen MacLennan, now teaching at ULeth, would be a good
contact. She's got an English background (so she could speak to your student's
concern in that regard), is fresh out of this program (she's about to do her
oral defence) and she's worked with all the above named profs.

I should think UW's program of study is such that your student could pursue his
 or her
interests with first rate scholar/teachers in Speech Communication, and UW also
has a strong Philosophy Department (though they lean heavily toward analytic
philosophy/formal reasoning and, consequently, look at us funny when we talk
about informal logic and rhetorical reasoning!). Good luck.

Jim Tallmon