Dr. David Metzger is a Professor of English at Old Dominion University. He came to Old Dominion in 1993 after teaching at Montana State University. He has earned a B.A. in English and French and an M.A. in English from Emporia State University (Emporia, KS), an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College (Boston), an M.A. in Eastern Classics from St. John's College (Santa Fe), and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition (classics minor) from the University of Missouri. The author and editor of four books and over forty single-authored articles and book chapters, he has served the university in a number of capacities. He has served as Dean of the Honors College and Professor of English (July 2008 to June 2024). From 2010-2013, he also served as the Interim Dean of Academic Enhancement and led the reorganization of that unit. Other administrative duties have included Chair of English, inaugural GPD for the PhD in English, Founding Academic Director for the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, and Founding Director of Writing Tutorial Services (now The Writing Center).
M.A. in Jewish Studies, Hebrew College, (2006)
Ph.D. in English, University of Missouri, (1991)
M.A. in English Literature, Emporia State University, (1986)
B.A. in French and English, Emporia State University, (1984)
Research Interests
History and Philosophy of Rhetoric (biblical, classical, modern, global)
Rhetoric of Science
Jewish Studies
Composition Studies and Pedagogy
Psychoanalytic Theory
Medieval Studies
Articles
- Metzger, D. (2018). "No Gap, No Interval": Time, Vision, and Argument in Adam Smith's Rhetoric. Scotia: Interdisciplinary Journal of Scottish Studies XL (2018) , pp. 1-20.
- Metzger, D. (2015). "From Thought Experiment and Machines to Ethical Maps: A Response to Jim Brown". Media Commons: a digital scholarly network.
- Metzger, D. (2011). "Bobby Who?: A Response to Diane Davis" . Journal of Advanced Composition 31 (2011) , pp. 273-282.
- Metzger, D. (2004). "The Call of Rhetoric". Enculturation 5 (2).
- Metzger, D. (2003). "The Process of Analysis and the Queering of Obsessional Discourse". Literature and Psychology 49 (3) , pp. 1-15.
- Metzger, D. and Willson, A. (2003). "But is He Really Smart?: Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory in the World of Harry Potter". Popular Culture Review 14 , pp. 25-36.
- Metzger, D. (2002). "Jacques Maritain and the Development of Academic Medievalism". Popular Culture Review 13 , pp. 24-32.
- Metzger, D. (2000). "4 Degrees of Richard Weaver: the rhetoric of responsibility in standards-based education". Kairos: a Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 5 (1).
- Metzger, D. (1998). "Identification and the Real of Obsession". Umbr(a) 4.
- Metzger, D. (1998). "St. Catherine, Lacan, and the Problem of Psycho-Biography". Disputatio: A Transdisiplinary Journal of Medieval Studies 3 , pp. 87-105.
- Metzger, D. (1997). "Saul/Paul and the Promise of Technological Reforms. Enculturation 1.
- Metzger, D. (1997). "Sexuation and the Drive". Umbr(a) 3 , pp. 123-139.
- Metzger, D. (1997). Freud's "Jewish Science" and Lacan's Sinthome. American Imago 57 , pp. 87-99.
- Metzger, D. (1994). "Writing as Symptom and Desire: A Lacanian Perspective on the Emergence of Popular Culture in the Composition Classroom". The Writing Instructor 13 (3) , pp. 101-111.
- Metzger, D. (1992). "Rhetoric and Death in Thelma and Louise". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 5.
- Metzger, D. (1989). "Platonic Allegory and the Origins of Writing in the Faerie Queene". Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 16 , pp. 3-4, 8.
- Metzger, D. (1988). "Eternity and Patterns of Conversion in the Digby Mary Magdalene". Athenaeum Society Review 4.
Books
- Metzger, D. and Schulman, P. (2006). Chasing Esther: Jewish Expressions of Cultural Difference. Kol Katan Press/University of Haifa.
- Metzger, D. (2000). Medievalism and the Academy II: Cultural Studies. D.S. Brewer.
- Metzger, D. (1995). "Lacan and The Question of Writing." Special Issue of Pre/Text a Journal of Rhetorical Theory.
- Metzger, D. (1995). The Lost Cause of Rhetoric: the relation of rhetoric and geometry in Aristotle and Lacan. Southern Illinois University Press.
- Metzger, D. (1993). Rhetoric and the Language Arts Classroom: A Handbook for Language Arts Teachers. Journal of Montana Association of Teachers of English Langauge Arts.
Book Chapters
- Metzger, D. (2022). "Socrates in the City of Bones: Plato's Republic & August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean" The Aliens Within: Danger, Disease, and Displacement in Representations of the Racialized Poor (pp. 277-291) Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Metzger, D. (2019). "Psychoanalysis, Dignity, and Life" (pp. 18 pages) Media Commons: Media Commons Field Guide.
- Metzger, D. (2014). Maimonides' Contribution to a Theory of Self Persuasion Jewish Rhetorics: History, Theory, Practice (pp. 112-130) Brandeis University Press.
- Metzger, D. (2013). "Foreword: It/Rhetoric is (not) in Heaven" Continegency, Immanence, and the Subject of Rhetoric (pp. ix-xii) Parlor Press.
- Scialdone-Kimberley, H. and Metzger, D. (2009). Writing in the 3rd Space from the Sun: A Pentadic Analysis of Discussion Papers Written for the 7th Session of the UN Form on Forests (pp. 39-54) Routledge: In Rhetorics, Literacies, & Narratives of Sustainability .
- Metzger, D. (2004). Interpretation and the Topology of Language Topologically Speaking (pp. 134-149) New York: The Other Press.
- Metzger, D. (2003). "Shoah and The Origins of Teaching" Witinessing the Disaster. (pp. 231-244) Madison, Wisconsin: U of Wisconsin P.
- Metzger, D. (2000). The Neurotic Orientation of Religion in Freud and Lacan The Subject of Lacan: A Lacanian Reader for Psychologists (pp. 45-58) Albany, New York: State University of New York P.
- Metzger, D. (2000). "A Dialogue on Dialogues." Genre by Example: Teachers Writing What They Teach. Ed. David Starkey (pp. 55-78) Portsmouth, NH:.
- Metzger, D. (1998). "Medievalism and the Problem of Radical Evil in Snodgrass's The Fuehrer Bunker" Medievalism and the Idea of the Middle Ages Amsterdam: Brepols.
- Metzger, D. (1998). "Teaching as a Test of Truth" Rhetoric in an Anti-Foundational World (pp. 423-453) Cambridge, MA: Yale UP.
- 2018: President, Virginia Collegiate Honors College
- 2017: "Most Inspiring Faculty Member" Award, ODU Alumni Center
- 2017: Vice President, Virginia Collegiate Honors Council, VCHC
- 2014: "Champion of Diversity", Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity
- 2012: "Living Learning Community of the Year", Student Engagement and Enrollment Services
- 2007: Award of Recognition for Outstanding Leadership and Service, IJIU Advisory Board
- 2006: Outstanding Service Award to Arts and Letters, College of Arts and Letters
- 1993: The NORCHE Prize for Instructional Innovation, Northern Rockies Consortium for Higher Education