David Heineman

Dr. Heineman's research interests are located at the intersection of rhetorical/critical theory and new media technologies. A firm believer in public-facing scholarship, he publishes and exhibits his work across both academic and popular contexts.

Most recently, Dr. Heineman directed the award-winning nonverbal documentary feature NEPADOC, a film that explores the intersections of environment, industry, and identity in Northeastern Pennsylvania over the past 300 years. Inspired by non-verbal documentary film landmarks such as "Koyaanisqatsi" and "Baraka," the film blends 4K cinematography, local historical footage, and a sweeping score into a dizzying and contemplative meditation on culture, place, and public memory. He was featured discussing the film on WVIA/NPR in late 2023. Previously, he directed the short autoethnographic film The Pandemic Nature Project. Dr. Heineman's films have been presented at international conferences and symposia and screened at juried film festivals.

Dr. Heineman is also author of the book Thinking About Video Games: Interviews With the Experts (Indiana University Press, 2015), which combines interviews and critical essays to offer insights into the past, present, and future of video games, the field of Game Studies, and the video game industry. He was recently featured on NPR’s “Pop Life” podcast, discussing some of this research. He is also co-author (with Barbara Warnick) of Rhetoric Online: The Politics of New Media (Peter Lang, 2012), which considers the impact of digital technologies in both electoral politics and activist movements.

Dr. Heineman’s scholarship has also focused on topics such as public memory, film, virtual reality, pedagogy, and gender. He has published essays and other original work in scholarly journals such as New Media and Society and The Journal of Games Criticism and on popular media sites like Kotaku and The Solute. He has worked as a subject-matter expert and grant reviewer with organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities (USA) and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and served as a reviewer for highly regarded journals including The Western Journal of Communication, New Media and Society, and Communication Quarterly.

Dr. Heineman teaches courses such as New Media and Visual Culture, Persuasion in Popular Film, The Rhetoric of Social Movements, Introduction to Game Studies, Rhetorical Criticism, Understanding Social Influence (rhetorical theory), Gender Issues in Communication, and Issue and Image Campaigns. He teaches introductory courses such as Communication in Everyday Life and Public Speaking and has also taught interdisciplinary courses such as The Art, History, and Culture of Video Games and Prison Scholarship (the latter of which is taught at The State Correctional Institute at Mahanoy).

In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Heineman is active in areas of service. He has chaired the Bloomsburg University Tenure Committee and the College of Liberal Arts Curriculum Committee, served on various search and evaluation committees across campus, served as an advisor to the Lambda Pi Eta Communication Studies National Honor Society, chaired departmental program review, and is typically involved in a wide array of university, college, and departmental committees. In addition to organizing events such as public film screenings and various research symposia, he regularly gives invited lectures on campus and serves as a moderator for university colloquia.

Dr. Heineman earned his Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa, where his dissertation work focused on hacktivism. He earned Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Syracuse University’s Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies.