David Dockery
  • PhD Program

Biography

David Dockery is a Ph.D. student active in the areas of Religious Communication and Game Studies. He is interested in how digital games enable players to explore ideas of the sacred. These can include exploration of sacred spaces, participation in narratives of the sacred, and mythologies embedded in the world of the game.

Some of his favorite games to play and analyze are Elden Ring, Minecraft, Civilizations VI, Battlefield, and Total War. 

He has previously done research in the field of rhetorical history, with a special interest in the rhetoric of the Founding Generation. His M.A. thesis was on interpretation of the Declaration of Independence as a way of arbitrating public moral controversies.

Most of all, he welcomes a good conversation.

David received his B.S. in Communication from Tennessee Tech University. He went on to receive an M.A. in Communication from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Afterward, he was excited to accept an opportunity to study in the Texas A&M doctoral program.

Courses Taught

  • COMM 203– Public Speaking (Recitation Leader & Instructor of Record)
  • COMM 205– Communication for the Technical Professions
  • COMM 240– Rhetorical Criticism 
  • COMM 243– Argumentation and Debate

Selected Publications

    • Semiotic Placemaking in Game Design: A Synthesis of Barthes and De Certeau (To be Presented at NCA 2023, Top Student Paper).

    • Hideo Kojima: Prophesying Connection in a Digital Age (Presented at the Global Network for Digital Theology GoNe Digital Conference, 2023).

    • The Language of Despotism: The Ottoman Empire and American Revolutionary Rhetoric (Presented at the American Society for the History of Rhetoric division of NCA, 2021).

    • Discourse and the Divine: A Rhetorical Theory of Religion (Presented at the Religious Communication Association, 2020).