Michael Rhett Cuozzo
Tagline:Communication & Writing Instructor | Communication, Rhetoric, & Media Studies Scholar
Morristown, New Jersey, USA
About Michael
Michael Rhett Cuozzo, Ph.D., is a communication scholar and instructor whose central contributions lie in teaching and curriculum design. He has taught and designed undergraduate courses in writing, communication, and theatre across diverse institutions, co‑designing an Intercultural Communication program and overhauling a Mass Communication program to strengthen alignment with disciplinary standards and institutional missions. His pedagogy emphasizes rhetorical training, textual analysis, and criticism, guiding students to examine how communication shapes civic identity, public perception, and cultural discourse, with particular attention to the rhetorical dynamics of politics, gender, religion, and popular culture and the intersections of persuasion and public discourse. He earned his doctorate from Regent University, where he developed the accept‑support model, a rhetorical framework distinguishing between acceptance and support of socio‑cultural worldviews. He also brings professional experience in publishing and media production with Best Version Media and WWOR‑TV.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy
from: 2016, until: 2021Field of study:CommunicationSchool:Regent UniversityLocation:Virginia Beach, VA
Master of Arts
from: 2004, until: 2004Field of study:TheatreSchool:Montclair State UniversityLocation:Montclair, NJ
Bachelor of Arts
from: 1996, until: 2000Field of study:Communication & TheatreSchool:Muhlenberg CollegeLocation:Allentown, PA
Research Interests
- Rhetorical & Theoretical Frameworks
- Media & Performance
- Politics, Gender, Religion, & Persuasion
Publications
Women in Hell: Hofstede’s Masculinity-Femininity Framework as an Ideological Lens on Female Pro-Wrestling Performance.
Journal ArticlePublisher:Professional Wrestling Studies JournalDate:unpublishedAuthors:Cuozzo, Michael RhettDescription:Forthcoming in 2026
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), formerly World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), former CEO Vince McMahon took professional wrestling from a group of regional organizations in the early 1980s to the global powerhouse it is today. Until 2015, female wrestlers were positioned mostly as valets, enhancement talents, and competed in stipulation matches- bra and panties matches, pillow fights, mud wrestling, catfights, with the occasional exception, and were valued more for their looks as opposed to their talent. In 2016, though, cracks appeared in the masculine hegemony of WWE when Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair competed for the the RAW Women’s Championship in the first women’s “Hell in a Cell” match, specifically framed though the “contract signing for said match. In order to explicate the signing’s meaning, an ideological analysis viewed through Geert Hofstede’s Masculinity-Femininity Cultural Dimension signals that, in order to be accepted, female wrestlers needed to embrace masculine-coded rhetoric.Sermonic Discourse in the Motive State of Rhetoric: A Generic Criticism of John Wesley's Sermon 1 – "Salvation by Faith."
Journal ArticlePublisher:Artifact Analysis, 1(2)Date:2022Authors:Rhett (Cuozzo), MichaelDescription:While much has been written on Methodist founder John Wesley, little
theoretical criticism of his sermons has been done. A communicative
critical approach to his sermons will thus add to Wesleyan research,
communication theory in general, and generic criticism in particular. This
research answers Walter Fisher’s call for more rhetorical examples in the
second level (of four) of generic criticism, using one of Wesley’s sermons,
Sermon 1, “Salvation by Faith.” It is labeled 1 because of Thomas
Jackson’s 1872 edition of Wesley’s writings (“The sermons of,” n.d. ).
This sermon was delivered after a turning point in Wesley’s life, his
spiritual transformation at Aldersgate in London. Fisher’s second level of
genre contains the rhetoric of motive, of which there are four: affirmation,
presenting a new idea; reaffirmation, revitalizing an ideology;
purification, clarifying an image or concept; and subversion, undermining
an ideology. It was determined through a close read of the text,
specifically each paragraph, that while there are a few paragraphs of
reaffirmation and subversion, the overwhelming majority of Sermon 1
uses the purification motive.Rights and Respect: How Politicians and Their Followers View Anthem Protests.
Book ChapterPublisher:Rowan and LittlefieldDate:2018Authors:Rhett (Cuozzo), Michael; Weiss, JoshuaDescription:A fantasy theme analysis of political responses to #takeaknee
