Dr. Thomas Roach

Biographical Information
 

Dr. Thomas Roach is a tenured associate professor in Communication and Creative Arts at Purdue University Calumet. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and a Master of Arts degree in English, both from Northern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University.  Since his arrival at Purdue in 1987, he has taught public relations, interviewing, journalism, public speaking, and classical rhetoric, as well as photography.  He has published several book chapters and articles on the news media, public opinion, and rhetorical strategy.  He has three articles, including one on “Technical Communication,” in the prestigious Oxford Encyclopedia of Rhetoric.

His interest in photography began with a high school photography class where he made his own box camera and was introduced to black and white darkroom techniques.  While attending NIU, he took undergraduate and graduate courses in art history and color photography.  His Midwestern artistic sensibilities were colored by four summers spent studying and teaching in Oxford, England, two trips through Europe, and several visits to Byzantine Orthodox monasteries in and around Jerusalem and Mount Athos, Greece.

Dr. Roach published photographs in suburban Chicago newspapers from 1978 to 1980.  Between 1980 and 1984 he served as Media Coordinator for Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet where he took photographs for internal and external publications.  In the 1990s he occasionally engaged in freelance advertising photography.  Today his exclusive interest is fine art photography.  He uses Canon digital cameras and a medium format Mamiya for film.  He currently teaches two digital photography courses at Purdue University Calumet. 

Most of the compositions in his portfolio were created by the artist between 2000 and 2005.