He then enrolled for further study at Louisiana State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in speech communication in 1971.
[1][2] After obtaining his Ph.D., Dorgan joined the faculty of the Department of Communication of Appalachian State University, serving there from 1971 until his retirement in 2000.
[1] A fascination with the rhythmical style of Appalachia's old-time Baptist preachers led him into more than thirty years of rhetorical and ethnographic research on religion in Appalachia, with a particular focus on traditional Baptist sub-denominations indigenous to the region.
[3] He served as editor for the religion section of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia.
[4] He received the 1993 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award for the book Airwaves of Zion: Radio Religion In Appalachia.