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gavin.hurley@avemaria.edu
Phone:
(239) 280-1662
Office:
Henkels 2052
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Gavin Hurley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Communications and Literature; Director of the Writing Program; Director of Composition Program
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Gavin Hurley, Ph.D.

Dr. Hurley is an Associate Professor of Communication & Literature. He also directs the Writing Program.

He teaches the following courses: Rhetoric & Poetics I, Rhetoric & Poetics II, Business Communication, Writing for Journalism, Writing & Dialogue: Plato to Podcasts, Travel Writing, and Honors 101. He occasionally co-teaches "Popular Catholicism" courses (such as "The Spiritual Thriller" or "Detective Fiction and Film") with Dr. Jasso for the Communication & Literature Department. He teaches communication courses for the MBA graduate program, as well.

Over the years, he has published across a variety of scholarly and journalistic venues--and continues to do so.

His personal website can be found at .

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Education

  • B.A., Philosophy, Saint Joseph’s University
  • M.A., Writing Arts, Rowan University
  • Ph.D., Writing and Rhetoric, University of Rhode Island

About

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Peer-reviewed journal articles

  •  “Dialogic Gravitas: Catholic Horror Fiction and Dialectical Discourse.†Journal of Dialogic Ethics 4, no. 2 (Fall 2025).
  •  “Augustinian Composition Pedagogy and the Catholic Liberal Arts in the Time of Generative AI." Journal of Catholic Education 27, no. 2 (2024): 59-75.
  •  “The Chronos Principle: ‘Knowing Thy Time’ in Communication Management.†Philosophy of Management 21 (April 2022): 507-22.
  • “Funeral Doom Metal as the Rhetoric of Contemplation: A Burkean Perspective.†Metal Music Studies (Journal for the International Society of Metal Music Studies) 8, no. 1 (2022): 69-85.
  • “Accommodating Inspiration: Discernment and Imitation within the Ignatian Rhetorical Tradition.†Journal for the History of Rhetoric 24, no. 2 (2021): 223-38.
  • “Eschatology, Pluralism, and Communication in Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers.†Journal of Communication and Religion 41, no. 2 (2018): 75-92.
  • “Thinking Vertically, Writing Horizontally: A Trivium-Framed First-Year Composition Course.†Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture 53, no. 2 (2018): 92-101.
  • “William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist and Rhetoric-Dialectic Interplay.†Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 29, no. 2 (2017):  104-18.
  • “Empowering Catholic Communicators: A Trivium Heuristic for First-Year Writing Courses.†Journal of Catholic Higher Education 36, no. 2 (2017): 121-43.

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Scholarly essays

  • “Dario Argento’s Apollonian-Dionysian Dialectic.†In Critical Perspectives on Dario Argento, edited by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns. Bloomsbury, expected 2026.
  • “Victimhood and Rhetorical Communication within Clive Barker’s Faustian Fiction.†In Re-imagining the Victim in Post-1970s Horror Media, edited by Madelon Hoedt and Marko Lukic, pp. 153-69. Amsterdam University Press, 2024.
  • “The Analog of Self-Authenticity in The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion.†In Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in National Context and Abroad, edited by Matthew Edwards and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, pp. 84-101. University Press of Mississippi, 2023.
  • “The Rhetoric of Contemplative Horror: Inquiry, Discovery, and Optimism.†In Horror and Philosophy: Essays on Their Intersection in Film, Television and Literature, edited by Subashish Bhattacharjee and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, pp. 9-24. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2023.
  • “Touring the ‘Burning Times’: The Rhetoric of Witch-Hunting Films, 1968-1973.†In Virtual Dark Tourism: Ghost Roads, edited by Kathryn McDaniel, pp. 113-36. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

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Identifying an important subgenre of horror literature, Catholic Horror and Rhetoric Dialectics argues that Catholic horror literature distinctively inspires the philosophical, theological, and spiritual imaginations of readers from all backgrounds and faith traditions. Hurley analyzes four novels that are foundational to the genre of Catholic horror: J.K. Huysmans’s ³¢Ã -µþ²¹²õ (1891), Robert Hugh Benson’s The Light Invisible (1903) and A Mirror of Shalott (1907), and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971).

For hundreds of years, great rulers, teachers, and thinkers have embraced the arts of eloquence—that is, stylishly persuasive communication. Yet, over the last century or so, we’ve largely forgotten about these arts. Influence with Eloquence revives these timeless traditions, connects them to the modern workplace, and shares practical takeaways to strengthen one’s communication savvy.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

  •  “Dialogic Gravitas: Catholic Horror Fiction and Dialectical Discourse.†Journal of Dialogic Ethics 4, no. 2 (Fall 2025).
  •  “Augustinian Composition Pedagogy and the Catholic Liberal Arts in the Time of Generative AI." Journal of Catholic Education 27, no. 2 (2024): 59-75.
  •  “The Chronos Principle: ‘Knowing Thy Time’ in Communication Management.†Philosophy of Management 21 (April 2022): 507-22.
  • “Funeral Doom Metal as the Rhetoric of Contemplation: A Burkean Perspective.†Metal Music Studies (Journal for the International Society of Metal Music Studies) 8, no. 1 (2022): 69-85.
  • “Accommodating Inspiration: Discernment and Imitation within the Ignatian Rhetorical Tradition.†Journal for the History of Rhetoric 24, no. 2 (2021): 223-38.
  • “Eschatology, Pluralism, and Communication in Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers.†Journal of Communication and Religion 41, no. 2 (2018): 75-92.
  • “Thinking Vertically, Writing Horizontally: A Trivium-Framed First-Year Composition Course.†Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture 53, no. 2 (2018): 92-101.
  • “William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist and Rhetoric-Dialectic Interplay.†Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 29, no. 2 (2017):  104-18.
  • “Empowering Catholic Communicators: A Trivium Heuristic for First-Year Writing Courses.†Journal of Catholic Higher Education 36, no. 2 (2017): 121-43.

â€

Scholarly essays

  • “Dario Argento’s Apollonian-Dionysian Dialectic.†In Critical Perspectives on Dario Argento, edited by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns. Bloomsbury, expected 2026.
  • “Victimhood and Rhetorical Communication within Clive Barker’s Faustian Fiction.†In Re-imagining the Victim in Post-1970s Horror Media, edited by Madelon Hoedt and Marko Lukic, pp. 153-69. Amsterdam University Press, 2024.
  • “The Analog of Self-Authenticity in The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion.†In Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in National Context and Abroad, edited by Matthew Edwards and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, pp. 84-101. University Press of Mississippi, 2023.
  • “The Rhetoric of Contemplative Horror: Inquiry, Discovery, and Optimism.†In Horror and Philosophy: Essays on Their Intersection in Film, Television and Literature, edited by Subashish Bhattacharjee and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, pp. 9-24. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2023.
  • “Touring the ‘Burning Times’: The Rhetoric of Witch-Hunting Films, 1968-1973.†In Virtual Dark Tourism: Ghost Roads, edited by Kathryn McDaniel, pp. 113-36. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

â€