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Cassandra Hightower

  • Teaching Assistant - Doctoral, Communication

Education

  • PhD, Communication, program in Rhetoric and Public Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (expected May 2026)
  • MA, Communication Studies, Northern Illinois University, 2021
  • BA, Communication Studies with Minor in Journalism, Northern Illinois University, 2019
  • AA, Kishwaukee College, 2015

Courses Taught

  • COMMUN 105 - Business and Professional Communication
  • COMMUN 335 - Critical Analysis of Communication
  • COM 100 - Fundamentals of Oral Communication (Northern Illinois University)

Research Interests

Cassandra's research focuses on how rhetoric influences and motivates political thought and identity in America. Specific areas of interest include political communication, presidential rhetoric, feminist studies, digital politics, and propaganda/disinformation.

Service

  • Graduate Student Member, Rhetoric Society of America, UW-Milwaukee Graduate Student Chapter
  • Vice President of Communication, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, UW-Milwaukee Chapter

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.