L. David Ritchie

L. David Ritchie grew up on a farm in Idaho, received a BA from Reed College in 1965 and a PhD from Stanford University in 1987. Currently employed as a Professor of Communication at Portland State University, he teaches and conducts research on the use of language in social interaction. His primary research focus is metaphor use, story-telling, metaphorical stories, and humor in naturally-occurring discourse, with emphasis on urban communities and cultural institutions.

Dr. Ritchie is the author of five books, Communication Concepts 2: Information (Sage, 1991), Context and Connection in Metaphor (Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, 2006), Metaphor (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Metaphorical Stories in Discourse, (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and a forthcoming book titled Feeling, Thinking and Talking: How the Embodied Brain Shapes Everyday Communication (Cambridge University Press).