Faculty Publications
Our Faculty Publication Bookshelf
Click the books below to get a synopsis and information on where you can buy them
Adventures in Shondaland: Identity Politics and the Power of Representation
Edited by Rachel Alicia Griffin and Michaela D. E. Meyer (2018)
Innovator Award for Edited Collection from the Central States Communication Association (CSCA)
Shonda Rhimes is one of the most powerful players in contemporary American network television. Beginning with her break-out hit series Grey’s Anatomy, she has successfully debuted Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, The Catch, For The People, and Station 19. Rhimes’s work is attentive to identity politics, “post-” identity politics, power, and representation, addressing innumerable societal issues. Rhimes intentionally addresses these issues with diverse characters and story lines that center, for example, on interracial friendships and relationships, LGBTIQ relationships and parenting, the impact of disability on familial and work dynamics, and complex representations of womanhood. This volume serves as a means to theorize Rhimes’s contributions and influence by inspiring provocative conversations about television as a deeply politicized institution and exploring how Rhimes fits into the implications of twenty-first century television.
Out of the Woods: Seeing Nature in the Everyday
Julia Corbett (2018)
Have you ever wondered about society's desire to cultivate the perfect lawn, why we view some animals as "good" and some as "bad," or even thought about the bits of nature inside everyday items - toothbrushes, cell phones, and coffee mugs? In this fresh and introspective collection of essays, Julia Corbett examines nature in our lives with all of its ironies and contradictions by seamlessly integrating personal narratives with morsels of highly digestable science and research.
The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times
Joshua M. Scacco and Kevin Coe (2021)
American democracy is in a period of striking tumult. The clash of a rapidly changing socio-technological environment and the traditional presidency has led to an upheaval in the scope and standards of executive leadership. Yet research on the presidency, although abundant, has been slow to adjust to changing realities associated with digital technologies, diverse audiences, and new elite practices. Meanwhile, journalists and the public continue to encounter and shape emerging presidential efforts in deeply consequential ways.
Joshua Scacco and Kevin Coe bring needed insight to this complex situation by offering the first comprehensive framework for understanding contemporary presidential communication in relation to the current socio-technological environment. They call this framework the "ubiquitous presidency." Scacco and Coe argue that presidents harness new opportunities in the media environment to create a nearly constant and highly visible presence in political and nonpolitical arenas. They do this by trying to achieve longstanding presidential goals, namely visibility, adaptation, and control. However, in an environment where accessibility, personalization, and pluralism are omnipresent considerations, the strategies presidents use to achieve these goals are very different from what we once knew.
Using this novel framework as a conceptual anchor, The Ubiquitous Presidency undertakes one of the most expansive analyses of presidential communication to date. Scacco and Coe employ a wide variety of approaches--ranging from surveys and survey-experiments, to large-scale automated content and network analyses, to qualitative textual analysis--to uncover new aspects of the intricate relationship between the president, news media, and the public. Focusing on the presidency since Ronald Reagan, and devoting particular attention to the cases of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the book uncovers remarkable shifts in communication that test the institution of the presidency and, consequently, democratic governance itself.
Right to Mourn
Suhi Choi (2019)
"At once personal, historical, and political, this book explores, with compassion and insight, the complex terrain of memory and memorialization in contemporary Korea. Choi uncovers the struggle, both individual and collective, to remember the atrocities of war long suppressed by an authoritarian government; what she discovers and elaborates is an 'empathetic mourning,' a grieving for those lost, which is itself a performative act of resistance, a claiming of the right to mourn. This book is a powerful foray into the formidable landscape of memory politics after war."
-Alison Landing, Professor of History and Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975
Kimberley Mangun (2019)
This cultural biography tells the story of Birmingham World editor Emory O. Jackson. During his 35-year career in Alabama, he waged numerous sustained civil-rights campaigns for the franchise, equal educational opportunities, and justice for the victims of police brutality and bombings. The semiweekly newspaper was central to his advocacy. Jackson wrote editorials and columns that documented injustices and urged legislative and legal action in an effort to secure civil rights for Black Alabamians. His body of work, grounded in protest and passion, was part of the long tradition of the Black Press as an instrument to agitate for social and political change. Jackson also was a frequent speaker at NAACP branches, colleges, and churches. He was known as a commanding, even fiery, speaker who stressed first-class citizenship. Issues explored in the book demonstrate an assertion of constitutional rights in post-World War II America and a remarkable resilience. Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940-1975 is the first scholarly analysis of his work and as such contributes to scholarship on the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and the nation.
Infertility: Tracing the History of a Transformative Term
Robin E. Jensen (2017)
Named Outstanding Book of 2017
"This book was fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the richness of the rhetorical analysis as she explored the rhetorical complexity of infertility. By understanding the role of 'Kairos' throughout centuries of rhetorical artifacts, she gave us a richness to her analysis. I also enjoyed the historical perspective that helps us understand just how complex the term infertility really is."
Cybersecurity Discourse in the United States: Cyber-Doom Rhetoric and Beyond
Sean T. Lawson (2020)
This book examines the role of cyber-doom rhetoric in the U.S. cybersecurity debate.
For more than two decades, fear of "cyber-doom" scenarios―i.e. cyberattacks against critical infrastructure resulting in catastrophic physical, social, and economic impacts―has been a persistent feature of the U.S. cybersecurity debate. This is despite the fact that no cyberattack has come close to realizing such impacts. This book argues that such scenarios are part of a broader rhetoric of cyber-doom within the U.S. cybersecurity debate, and takes a multidisciplinary approach that draws on research in history, sociology, communication, psychology, and political science. It identifies a number of variations of cyber-doom rhetoric, then places them into a larger historical context, assesses how realistic the fears expressed in such rhetoric are, and finally draws out the policy implications of relying on these fears to structure our response to cybersecurity challenges. The United States faces very real cybersecurity challenges that are, nonetheless, much less dramatic than what is implied in the rhetoric. This book argues that relying on cyber-doom rhetoric to frame our thinking about such threats is counterproductive, and encourages us to develop ways of thinking and speaking about cybersecurity beyond cyber-doom.
The Paradox of Connection
Diana Bossio, Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Avery E. Holton, and Logan Molyneux (2024)
Using a framework of online connection and disconnection, The Paradox of Connection examines how journalists’ practices are formed, negotiated, and maintained in dynamic social media environments. The interactions of journalists with the technological, social, and cultural features of online and social media environments have shaped new values and competencies--and the combination of these factors influence online work practices. Merging case studies with analysis, the authors show how the tactics of online connection and disconnection interact with the complex realities of working in today’s media environments. The result is an insightful portrait of fast-changing journalistic practices and their implications for both audiences and professional identities and norms.
Readings in Rhetorical Fieldwork
Edited by Samantha Senda-Cook, Aaron Hess, Michael K. Middleton, and Danielle Endres (2019)
Readings in Rhetorical Fieldwork compiles foundational articles highlighting the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism. Presenting a wide variety of approaches, the volume begins with a section establishing the starting points for the development of fieldwork in rhetorical criticism and then examines five topics: Space and Place; Public Memory; Publics and Counterpublics; Advocacy and Activism; and Science, Technology and Medicine. Within these sections, readers evaluate a full spectrum of methods, from interviews, to oral histories, to participant observation. This volume is invaluable for advanced undergradute and graduate students of rhetorical criticism, rhetorical fieldwork, and qualitative methods looking for a comprhensive overview of the development of rhetorical fieldwork.
Gestures of Concern
Chris Ingraham (2020)
“Chris Ingraham is a lively and engaging writer. While crafting beautiful prose he exhibits remarkable patience with trivial—often ephemeral—objects. Thus, he gives us ample opportunity to appreciate their public relevance and the role they play in helping to constitute public life in the internet age. And all of this he draws under the aegis of ‘gestures of concern’—a gem of a concept that makes a significant contribution to rhetoric, political theory, and public sphere theory.”
— Ted Striphas, author of The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control
LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media
Edited by Nicholas Taylor and Chris Ingraham (2020)
LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media provides a multi-faceted exploration of LEGO fandom, addressing a blindspot in current accounts of LEGO and an emerging area of interest to media scholars: namely, the role of hobbyist enthusiasts and content producers in LEGO's emergence as a ubiquitous transmedia franchise. This book examines a range of LEGO hobbyism and their attendant forms of mediated self-expression and identity (their “technicities”): artists, aspiring Master Builders, collectors, and entrepreneurs who refashion LEGO bricks into new commodities (sets, tchotchkes, and minifigures). The practices and perspectives that constitute this diverse scene lie at the intersection of multiple transformations in contemporary culture, including the shifting relationships between culture industries and the audiences that form their most ardent consumer base, but also the emerging forms of entrepreneurialism, professionalization, and globalization that characterize the burgeoning DIY movement.
Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy
Edited By Andrea M. Feldpausch-Parker, Danielle Endres, Tarla Rai Peterson, Stephanie L. Gomez (2022)
This handbook offers a comprehensive transdisciplinary examination of the research and practices that constitute the emerging research agenda in energy democracy.
With protests over fossil fuels and controversies over nuclear and renewable energy technologies, democratic ideals have contributed to an emerging social movement. Energy democracy captures this movement and addresses the issues of energy access, ownership, and participation at a time when there are expanding social, political, environmental, and economic demands on energy systems. This volume defines energy democracy as both a social movement and an academic area of study and examines it through a social science and humanities lens, explaining key concepts and reflecting state-of-the-art research.
Nuclear Decolonization: Indigenous Resistance to High-Level Nuclear Waste Siting
Danielle Endres (2024)
While research demonstrates how Indigenous populations have been disproportionately affected by the global nuclear production complex, less attention has been given to tactics that have successfully resisted such projects. Danielle Endres’s Nuclear Decolonization shifts the conversation around nuclear colonialism in important ways, offering an account of how the Western Shoshone, Southern Paiute, and Skull Valley Goshute peoples and nations prevented two high-level nuclear waste sites from being built on their lands.
Feminist Mentoring in Academia
Edited By Jessica Pauly, Stevie Munz, Leandra H. Hernandez (2023)
This book offers a varied collection of autoethnographic and research-based accounts of support, struggle, and resilience from the ivory tower. Contributors write about the moments in-between, where feminist mentoring initiates, renews, thrives, and sometimes struggles. The work presented in this book highlights how feminist mentoring happens between professor and student; junior faculty and tenured; and occurs repeatedly. Featuring contributions from scholars at varying points in their academic careers, the chapters of this book propose best feminist mentorship practices, disclose personal narratives, and critique traditional forms of mentoring with visions for feminist mentorship futures. Scholars of communication, feminist studies, higher education, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.
Challenging Reproductive Control and Gendered Violence in the Américas: Intersectionality, Power, and Struggles for Rights
Edited By Leandra Hinojosa Hernández and Sarah De Los Santos Upton (2018)
2018 NCA Feminist and Gender Studies Bonnie Ritter Book Award
This book utilizes an intersectional Chicana feminist approach to analyze reproductive and gendered violence against women in the Américas and the role of feminist activism through case studies including the current state of reproductive justice in Texas, feminicides in Latin America, raising awareness about Ni Una Más and anti-feminicidal activism in Ciudad Juárez, and reproductive rights in Latin America amidst the Zika virus. Each of these contemporary contexts provides new insights into the relationships between and among feminist activism; reproductive health; the role of the state, local governments, health organizations, and the media; and the women of color who are affected by the interplay of these discourses, mandates, and activist efforts.
This Bridge We Call Communication: Anzaldúan Approaches to Theory, Method, and Praxis
Edited By Leandra Hinojosa Hernández and Robert Gutierrez-Perez (2019)
Recipient of the Fall 2021 NCA Latina/o Communication Studies Division Outstanding Co-Edited Book Award and Fall 2020 Organization for the Study of Communication Language, & Gender (OSCLG) Outstanding Feminist Co-Edited Book Award
This book explores contemporary communication research studies, performative writing, poetry, Latina/o studies, and gender studies through the lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s theories, methods, and concepts. Utilizing different methodologies and approaches—testimonio, performative writing, and interpretive, rhetorical, and critical methodologies—the contributors provide original research on contexts including healing and pain, woundedness, identity, Chicana and Black feminisms, and experiences in academia.
Rhetorical Climatology
A Reading Group (2023)
What if rhetoric and climate are intimately connected? Taking climates to be rhetorical and rhetoric to be climatic, A Reading Group offers a generative framework for making sense of rhetorical studies as they grapple with the challenges posed by antiracist, decolonial, affective, ecological, and more-than-human scholarship to a tradition with a long history of being centered around individual, usually privileged, human agents wielding language as their principal instrument. Understanding the atmospheric and ambient energies of rhetoric underscores the challenges and promises of trying to heal a harmed world from within it. A cowritten “multigraph,” which began in 2018 as a reading group, this book enacts an intimate, mutualistic spirit of shared critical inquiry and play—an exciting new way of doing, thinking, and feeling rhetorical studies by six prominent scholars in rhetoric from communication and English departments alike.
Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public
Jacob L. Nelson (2021)
Finalist, Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award
Imagined Audiences explores how journalists' assumptions about their audiences shape their approaches to their audiences. The book examines the role that audiences have traditionally played in journalism, how that role has changed, and what those changes mean for both the profession and the public. The result is a comprehensive study of both news production and reception at a moment when the relationship between the two has grown more important than ever before.
