Maj. Adam Cody studies and teaches rhetoric as the art of effective communication. He earned a doctorate in Communication Arts and Sciences from The Pennsylvania State University in 2020 and joined the Virginia Military Institute’s academic faculty later that same year. 

In his capacity as Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and Oral Communication, it has been Maj. Cody’s pleasure to teach classes in basic public speaking (ERH-103), classical rhetoric (ERH-201), rhetorical criticism (ERH-202), public address (ERH-301), and civic discourse (ERH-302). Maj. Cody also teaches an advanced seminar (ERH-421) on Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War, an ancient text of perennial significance for the study of history, politics, and strategy. Students in Maj. Cody’s classes may expect to encounter practical exercises and open discussions designed to hone their abilities with the transferable skills of communication. 

As a scholar, Maj. Cody is a historian of arguments and narratives relating to topics of democracy, citizenship, and empire, with a particular focus on the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. His most recent publication, “Dialectics, Post-Dialectics, and the Democratic Argument of Lysias XII,” argues that post-dialectical persuasive forces, such as fascistic argument, can be explained in dialectical terms as practices of strategic maneuvering. The essay goes on to identify the concept of “democratic argument,” a type of post-dialectical persuasion that seeks to control the terms of discourse by negating disinterested choice. Ongoing and future projects focus on the forensic oratory of 5th-century BCE Attic orator Antiphon of Rhamnus and on the 4th-century BCE textbook Rhetorica ad Alexandrum. 

Maj. Cody also supports the Writing Center as the Oral and Digital Communication Specialist. He encourages any cadets who are interested in or would like help with public speaking to arrange a meeting with him.