Dr. Ian Barnard (they/them/their)

I am Professor of Rhetoric and Composition in the English Department at Chapman University; I am also affiliated with the University Honors Program and the First-Year Foundations program. I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I completed my B.A. and B.A. Honours degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the US, at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego, respectively. Now I live in downtown Los Angeles, one of the most wonderfully cosmopolitan cities in the world!

My primary areas of research and teaching are rhetoric and composition, and queer studies; in addition, I have interests in critical theory, film, feminist theory, cultural studies, critical race studies, and African literature. I'm the author of three monographs: Queer Race: Cultural Interventions in the Racial Politics of Queer Theory; Upsetting Composition Commonplaces; and Sex Panic Rhetorics, Queer Interventions, winner of the 2021 Lavender Rhetorics Book Award for Excellence in Queer Scholarship from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. And I am co-editor of an open access anthology titled Trigger Warnings: Teaching Through Trauma, due out in February 2026. Prior to coming to Chapman, I was Professor of English at California State University, Northridge, where I taught for ten years, serving for two of those years as Chair of the University Writing Council. I have also previously held positions at USC, California State University Chico, and The Ohio State University.

For my current office hours and a complete list of my publications, as well as syllabi for courses I have taught at Chapman, please visit my website.