Tony A. Osborne, Ph.D.

Professor of Communication Studies

Tony Osborne writes and speaks about leadership and motivation, art, pop culture and film. He was a member of Humanities Washington’s Speaker’s Bureau. He was a political reporter and feature writer--specializing in arts and science, winning...

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Professor of Communication Studies, Tony Osborne, Ph.D.

Contact Information

  • Office Hours Fall 2024

    Tuesday & Thursday: 8:15am - 9:15am & 1:45pm - 2:45pm

  • (509) 313-6659

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. in Critical and Cultural Studies, Ohio State University, 1995

M.A. in Journalism, Ohio State University, 1990

M.S. in Journalism, Columbia University, 1985

B.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1975

Courses Taught

COMM 100: Communication and Speech

COMM 184: Communication, Culture & Society

COMM 193: Semiotics and Advertising

COMM 210: Meaning Making

COMM 270-H: Honors Rhetoric

COMM 362: Persuasion

COMM 401: Leadership and Communication 

COMM 450: Justice and Civic Art

COMM 480: Visual Rhetoric in the Renaissance

COML 523: Peace Building through Dialogue in Northern Ireland 

Tony Osborne writes and speaks about leadership and motivation, art, pop culture and film. He was a member of Humanities Washington’s Speaker’s Bureau. He was a political reporter and feature writer--specializing in arts and science, winning a Kiplinger Fellowship for Public Affairs Reporting; he worked for AT&T Communications as a speech writer and speaker and Account Executive. He chaired the Journalism and Communication Department at American University in Bulgaria, the first liberal arts university behind the Iron Curtain. He is the author of "‘Greed is Good’ and Other Fables: Office life in Popular Culture" (Praeger, 2012).

Osborne, T. (2020). Dialogue as Being With: An Antitoxin to Hate and Intolerance. Journal of Hate Studies, 16(1), pp. 12–20. DOI:

"‘Greed is Good’ and Other Fables: Office life in Popular Culture" Praeger. Santa Barbara, CA. 2012.