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Education

Ph.D., Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University
M.A., Communication, Villanova University
B.A., Communication, Roberts Wesleyan College

Dr. Zaremba is a rhetorician and scholar of death, dying, and grief. They teach public speaking and various courses on culture, communication, and meaning-making. Their primary pedagogical focus is teaching communication across contexts. Their research sits at the intersection of embodied experience and culturally informed discourse about death and dying in an attempt to understand the distance between what we say and believe about death and grief and what we actually do and feel at end-of-life. Their publications can be found in Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Text and Performance Quarterly, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Death, Commemoration, and Cultural Meaning (Berghahn Books, 2025).

Research Interests

I specialize in the study of the rhetoric of death and dying: how people talk about and make meaning before, during, and after loss. My primary research foci include a variety of end-of-life spaces, such as hospices, hospitals, funeral homes, and cemeteries. Through studying these spaces and observing the kind of behavior and communication that takes place in relationship with them, I believe we can gain a better understanding of how meaning-making surrounding loss happens. I pursue this research to expose inequity at end-of-life and advocate for greater equity and acceptance of end-of-life experiences.

Teaching Philosophy

The principles of communication and rhetoric have ethical, empathetic, and civic implications beyond the classroom. It is my responsibility to ensure that students feel prepared to succeed outside of the classroom by designing lessons, assignments, and evaluations that embolden them to apply their knowledge and advocate for themselves and their communities. I believe that our communication and speech courses should teach students how to approach instances of public communication, controversy, and difficult subjects with compassionate listening, critical thinking, and ethical communication skills. Educators must be responsive to student’s needs to create pedagogical communities where content communicates with real world issues and students feel prepared to succeed beyond the classroom.