Profiles of new and notable books written by Communication scholars
To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images
T. J. Thomson
Rowman and Littlefield International
This book examines the production and reception of news images. It seeks to answer questions about how those images are constructed, how people photographed by journalists are depicted, how the environment shapes those images, and much more. This book takes an in-depth approach to these topics by drawing from the insights of social media users, journalists, photo editors, and people who were documented by journalists.
This book is the winner of the NCA Visual Communication Division’s 2020 Diane Hope Book of the Year Award.
T.J. Thomson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
Communication Strategies for Engaging Climate Skeptics
Emma Frances Bloomfield
Routledge
This book examines the intersection of climate skepticism and Christianity and proposes strategies to engage climate skeptics when discussing climate change. Bloomfield identifies three main types of climate skeptics, “separators,” “bargainers,” and “harmonizers,” and considers how to tailor communication strategies to different kinds of skeptics when discussing climate change.
This book is the winner of the NCA Argumentation and Forensics Division’s 2020 Book of the Year Award.
Emma Frances Bloomfield is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The Global Public Relations Handbook, Third Edition
Edited by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Verčič
Routledge
This edited volume explores the global public relations industry, with perspectives from both academics and practitioners. The essays address a variety of issues, actors, and concepts that are important in today’s public relations landscape, including the relationship between public relations and international political systems, intergovernmental organizations, and risk and crisis communication.
This book is the winner of the NCA Public Relations Division’s 2020 PRIDE Award for Outstanding Book/Monograph.
Krishnamurthy Sriramesh is a Professor of Public Relations and the Director of the Professional Masters in Corporate Communication program in the College of Media, Communication, and Information at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Dejan Verčič is a Professor, the Head of Department of Communication, and the Head of the Centre for Marketing and Public Relations at the University of Ljubljana, and Partner and Knowledge Director at the strategic communication company Stratkom d.o.o., Slovenia.
Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World
Ashley Hinck
Louisiana State University Press
Hinck examines “fan-based citizenship,” the mobilization of fan bases for political purposes, such as Harry Potter fans fighting for fair trade or football fans volunteering to serve as youth mentors. Traditionally, people have often engaged in civic activities through churches, political parties, or other organizations. Hinck argues that fan-based citizenship represents a shift in civic action and offers new opportunities for political engagement.
This book is the winner of the NCA Political Communication Division’s 2020 Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award.
Ashley Hinck is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Xavier University.
Social Media for Strategic Communication: Creative Strategies and Research-Based Applications
Karen Freberg
SAGE Publications
Social Media for Strategic Communication covers the skills and principles necessary to effectively use social media in communication campaigns. Students will gain familiarity with both research and real-world strategies that they can take into the workplace. In addition, the text prepares students with the strategic thinking skills they will need to adapt to new platforms and technologies as they advance in their careers.
This book is the winner of the NCA Public Relations Division’s 2020 PRIDE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Relations Education.
Karen Freberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Louisville.
Embodiment, Relation, Community: A Continental Philosophy of Communication
Garnet C. Butchart
Penn State University Press
In this book, Butchart challenges common assumptions of Communication theory, including the model of Communication as a process of “transmission.” Butchart theorizes a “communication community” that includes the context of interactions. The book is relevant for researchers in cultural studies, rhetorical studies, and other interpretative fields.
This book is the winner of the NCA Philosophy of Communication Division’s 2020 Top Book Award.
Garnet C. Butchart is an Associate Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University.
Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact (2nd Edition)
Sarah J. Tracy
Wiley Blackwell
This textbook offers a comprehensive look at qualitative methodology. Readers can expect to learn how to conduct a qualitative research project from start to finish, including designing the study, collecting data, and communicating results. The book also covers a range of topics related to qualitative methods, including ethics, fieldwork, and interview techniques.
This book is the winner of the NCA Organizational Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Textbook of the Year Award.
Sarah J. Tracy is a Professor of Organizational Communication and Qualitative Methodology in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.
Feeding the Other: Whiteness, Privilege, and Neoliberal Stigma in Food Pantries
Rebecca de Souza
MIT Press
In this book, de Souza examines how food pantries in the United States stigmatize their clients through discourse that, among other things, emphasizes the need for help as an individual problem, rather than a societal problem. De Souza undertakes a case study of two food pantries in Duluth, Minnesota, and looks at the problems that people living with hunger face when navigating food pantries.
This book is the winner of the NCA Organizational Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Monograph of the Year Award.
Rebecca de Souza is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
New Media in Times of Crisis
Edited by Keri K. Stephens
Routledge
In this edited volume, the contributors take an interdisciplinary approach to examining how new media is used during crises, with chapters on corporate PR crises, wireless emergency alerts, the relationship between social media and community resilience after a crisis, and more. The multi-faceted approach incorporates the perspectives of first responders, crisis communicators, and people experiencing tragic events.
This book is the winner of the NCA Organizational Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Edited Book of the Year Award.
Keri K. Stephens is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Affectionate Communication in Close Relationships
Kory Floyd
Cambridge University Press
In this book, Floyd examines research on affection exchange from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The chapters cover numerous aspects of affection including the health benefits of affectionate behavior and the risks associated with expressing affection. In addition, the text offers a critique of principal theories and measurement models, as well as suggestions for future research.
This book is the winner of the NCA Interpersonal Communication Division’s 2020 Gerald R. Miller Book Award.
Kory Floyd is a Professor in the University of Arizona Department of Communication.
Sex and Stigma: Stories of Everyday Life in Nevada’s Legal Brothels
Sarah Jane Blithe, Anna Wiederhold Wolfe, and Breanna Mohr
NYU Press
Nevada has the only legal brothels in the United States. This book relies on interviews with the state’s sex workers, brothel owners, local police, and others to examine how beliefs about sexual services have influenced the history and laws related to legal brothels. In addition, the book looks at the experiences of sex workers themselves and their struggles within the industry and transitioning out of the industry.
This book is the winner of the NCA Organizational Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Monograph of the Year Award.
Sarah Jane Blithe is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Anna Wiederhold Wolfe is an Associate Professor of Organizational Communication and the Associate Head for Graduate Admissions in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University.
Breanna Mohr holds an M.A. in Communication from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Interrogating the Communicative Power of Whiteness
Edited by Dawn Marie D. McIntosh, Dreama G. Moon, and Thomas K. Nakayama
Routledge
This edited volume includes contributions on the study of whiteness from a variety of academic specialties within Communication, including rhetorical analysis, qualitative research, performance studies, and interpretive research. The contributors engage with a variety of timely topics related to whiteness, including white fragility and the multifaceted identities that intersect with whiteness.
This book is the winner of the NCA International and Intercultural Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Co-Edited Book Award.
Dawn Marie D. McIntosh is an independent scholar located in Colorado.
Dreama G. Moon is a Professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, San Marcos.
Thomas K. Nakayama is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University.
Undocumented Storytellers: Narrating the Immigrant Rights Movement
Sarah C. Bishop
Oxford University Press
This book examines the experiences of undocumented immigrants in the United States and how immigrants tell their stories online. Through 40 in-depth interviews with immigrants from 18 different countries, as well as an examination of events, protests, and immigrant-produced media, the book offers insight into the possibilities and limitations of digital storytelling, as well as the role that story-sharing plays in advocacy.
This book is the winner of the NCA International and Intercultural Communication Division’s 2020 Outstanding Single-Authored Book.
Sarah C. Bishop is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Baruch College.
Communicating Health: A Culture-Centered Approach
Mohan J. Dutta
Polity Press
This book takes a culture-centered approach to health communication. It situates health communication within local contexts by exploring identities, meanings, and experiences of health among community members, as well as the structures that constitute health. The book also provides theoretical and practical suggestions for developing a culture-centered understanding of health communication processes.
This book is the winner of the NCA Health Communication Division’s 2020 Top Book Award.
Mohan J. Dutta is Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research & Evaluation (CARE) at Massey University.
Embodied Reckonings: “Comfort Women,” Performance, and Transpacific Redress
Elizabeth W. Son
University of Michigan Press
“Comfort women” is a euphemistic term used by the Japanese military to refer to women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery during and prior to World War II. These harms went unaddressed for decades following the end of the war. This book uses archival and ethnographic research to examine the role that performance has played in protests and other calls for justice for the survivors.
This book is the winner of the NCA Feminist and Gender Studies Division’s 2020 Bonnie Ritter Outstanding Feminist Book Award.
Elizabeth W. Son is an Associate Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama Program in the School of Communication at Northwestern University.
¡Sí, Ella Puede! The Rhetorical Legacy of Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers
Stacey Sowards
University of Texas Press
In this book, Sowards analyzes speeches, letters, and interviews written by Dolores Huerta, a leader in the farm workers’ movement whose contributions are often overshadowed by those of César Chávez and others. Sowards’ examination not only includes the creation of the United Farm Workers, but also an exploration of Huerta’s public persona as a mother.
This book is the winner of the NCA Feminist and Gender Studies Division’s 2020 Bonnie Ritter Outstanding Feminist Book Award and the NCA Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus’s 2020 Outstanding Book Award.
Stacey Sowards is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Bullying
Edited by Richard West, Christina S. Beck
Routledge
This edited volume provides an analysis of bullying and anti-bullying efforts from a communication-based perspective. It includes both empirical research and first-hand accounts of those who have been bullied, making it a useful resource for educators, administrators, managers, and other stakeholders who are challenged by this difficult issue.
This book is the winner of the NCA Applied Communication Division’s 2020 Distinguished Edited Book Award.
Richard West is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College in Boston.
Christina S. Beck is a Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University.
Gender Futurity, Intersectional Autoethnography: Embodied Theorizing from the Margins
Edited by Amber L. Johnson and Lore/tta LeMaster
Routledge, Taylor & Francis
This edited volume includes a variety of autoethnographic essays that delve into the complexities of gender as it intersects with other identities, such as race, ability, and socioeconomic status. Chapters offer insight into the lived experience of gender and challenge societal assumptions about what is considered to be real or normal, such as the gender binary.
This book is the winner of the NCA Ethnography Division’s 2020 Best Book Award.
Amber L. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Communication and Social Justice at Saint Louis University.
Lore/tta LeMaster is an Assistant Professor of Critical/Cultural Communication Studies and Performance in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.
Stress and Coping in Families
Katheryn C. Maguire
Polity Press
Drawing on interdisciplinary research, Maguire examines family interactions during such stressful situations as military family separation, breast cancer, and the transition to parenthood. The book highlights a unique Communication-based model that can offer insight for students, scholars, and practitioners on how families cope with stress.
This book is the winner of the NCA Family Communication Division’s 2020 Distinguished Book Award.
Katheryn C. Maguire is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at Wayne State University.
Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity
Edited by Tema Milstein and José Castro-Sotomayor
Routledge, Taylor & Francis
This edited volume introduces the concept of ecocultural identity, which postulates, in part, that all identities have ecological dimensions. A cohort of interdisciplinary contributors examines the formation and nature of ecocultural identities, as well as the possibilities that this framework offers for addressing pressing environmental issues in today’s world.
This book is the winner of the NCA Environmental Communication Division’s 2020 Tarla Rai Peterson Book Award.
Tema Milstein is an Associate Professor of Environment and Society at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
José Castro-Sotomayor is an Assistant Professor of Communication at California State University Channel Islands.
Culturally Speaking: The Rhetoric of Voice and Identity in a Mediated Culture
Amanda Nell Edgar
The Ohio State University Press
Perceptions of people’s voices are often tied to our understanding of race and gender. In Culturally Speaking, Amanda Nell Edgar analyzes prominent voices in American culture, such as Morgan Freeman, Tina Fey, and George Lopez, to consider the connections between voice, identity, and discrimination based on voice.
This book is the winner of the NCA Critical and Cultural Studies Division’s 2020 Book of the Year.
Amanda Nell Edgar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Film at the University of Memphis.
CTE, Media, and the NFL: Framing a Public Health Crisis as a Football Epidemic
Travis R. Bell, Janelle Applequist, and Christian Dotson-Pierson
Lexington Books
This book examines media coverage and films related to the crisis surrounding Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the National Football League (NFL). Bell, Applequist, and Dotson-Pierson examine CTE as a public health crisis and consider how media coverage, particularly the use of controversial scientific studies, has failed to hold the NFL accountable.
This book is the winner of the NCA Communication and Sport Division’s 2020 Outstanding Book Award.
Travis R. Bell is an Assistant Professor in the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida.
Janelle Applequist is an Associate Professor in the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida.
Christian Dotson-Pierson is an Instructor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina.
On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers
Alexandra C. Klarén
University of Pittsburgh Press
Fred Rogers was the host of the children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. This book examines the ethics of care within Rogers’ program using archival materials from the show. The author argues that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood created opportunities for dialogue about a changing world.
This book is the winner of the NCA Communication Ethics Division’s 2020 Top Book Award.
Alexandra C. Klarén is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.
Women’s Narratives of Health Disruption and Illness: Within and Across Their Life Stories
Edited by Peter M. Kellett and Jennifer M. Hawkins
Lexington Books
This edited volume brings together women’s narratives about health disruptions and illnesses. The book is organized into three sections that attempt to understand how illnesses impact women at different points in their lives: beginnings, middles, and endings and legacies. This book offers an opportunity to connect and learn from the personal experiences of women living with illnesses.
This book is the winner of the NCA Communication and Aging Division’s 2020 Outstanding Book Award. Peter M. Kellett is Professor of Communication Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Jennifer M. Hawkins is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Saint Cloud State University.
Korean Diaspora Across the World: Homeland in History, Memory, Imagination, Media, and Reality
Co-edited by Eun-Jeong Han, Min Wha Han, and JongHwa Lee
Rowman and Littlefield
This edited volume analyzes the Korean diaspora. The book’s contributors explore a variety of related discourses, including personal narratives and media coverage. This multifaceted look at the diaspora sheds light on the experiences of Koreans around the world in countries as varied as Japan, Chile, and Kazakhstan.
This book is the winner of NCA’s 2020 Diamond Anniversary Book Award.
Eun-Jeong Han is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Salisbury University.
Min Wha Han is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Communication and Mass Media at Angelo State University.
JongHwa Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Mass Media at Angelo State University.
Homeland Maternity: U.S. Security Culture and the New Reproductive Regime
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz
University of Illinois Press
Working from a reproductive justice framework that is necessarily attuned to race and class and myriad forms of consequential difference, Fixmer-Oraiz demonstrates how topics and practices of maternal “choice” are shaped by discourses of nationalism, racial difference, and poverty. Fixmer-Oraiz keeps the reader aware of how trans and gender non-binary people are implicated by or exiled from what is conceptually innovated as homeland maternity. Further, Homeland Maternity explains why all of the reasoned, rational, and evidenced-based arguments in the world are not enough; institutional, legal, and rhetorical constructions circumscribe women, pregnant people, those who parent, and mothers and, in so doing, define what evidence is admissible, which authorities are recognized, and what policies can be considered.
This book is the winner of NCA’s 2020 James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address.
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.
Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State
Mia Fischer
University of Nebraska Press
Terrorizing Gender is a timely and important exploration of increasing state-sanctioned violence and surveillance of trans people in the United States. This book mixes intersectionally anchored critical cultural and sexuality studies in Communication. In the book, Fischer explores this question: How does the exponential increase in trans visibility—perhaps notoriety— coexist with increased documented violence against trans communities? The author presents three case studies that invite readers to consider the limits of social citizenship for persons who might be visible in popular culture but remain invisible in political and public spheres. Terrorizing Gender exemplifies rigorous explication of the communication of identity and is necessary in this moment of rescinding federal protections for transgender students and workers.
This book is the winner of NCA’s 2020 Diamond Anniversary Book Award.
Mia Fischer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Colorado.
Watching: An Anthropological Study of Video Sharing on YouTube
Patricia G. Lange
University Press of Colorado
Lange’s work highlights the value of self-expression and freedom of expression on the world’s largest video hosting site, YouTube. In the book, Lange draws on interviews, content analysis, and participant-observation ethnography to poignantly uncover the journey of YouTubers as they negotiate their mediated sociality through the making and sharing of videos. Among other topics, this work addresses how a community of vloggers sought respite from the barriers and oversight of corporate media. The early users of the site harnessed the emancipatory potential of the digital sphere until the site was purchased itself and became yet another corporate entity, with the requisite regulations, monetization and subscription policies, along with content censorship, all of which serve as a threat to free speech on this social networking platform.
This book is the winner of NCA’s 2020 Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression.
Patricia G. Lange is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Critical Studies Program at the California College of the Arts.
Freedom of Expression: Foundational Documents and Historical Arguments
Stephen A. Smith
Oxbridge Research Associates
This anthology includes 188 primary sources on freedom of speech and freedom of the press from the Code of Hammurabi in 1754 B.C.E. to Louis Brandeis writing in 1927. Smith provides an overview of the history of both freedoms and introductions to each selection that provide historical context, background information, and a description of the selection’s importance. Freedom of Expression is a valuable reference collection for exploring and discussing freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
This book is the winner of the 2019 Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression.
Smith is a Professor of Communication at the University of Arkansas.
Killing Poetry: Blackness and Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities
Javon Johnson
Rutgers University Press
In Killing Poetry, Johnson gives readers a glimpse into the world of slam poetry, which has sparked a resurgent fascination with the world of poetry. As a slam poet, Johnson approaches the subject from the vantage point of both a participant and a scholar. Johnson argues that the truly radical potential in slam and spoken word communities lies not just in proving literary worth, speaking back to power, or even in altering power structures, but instead in imagining and working towards altogether different social relationships. Killing Poetry situates poetry slams within the black literary tradition.
Killing Poetry analyzes the masculine posturing in the Southern California community in particular, sexual assault in the national community, and the ways in which related social media inadvertently replicate many of the same white supremacist, patriarchal, and mainstream logics so many spoken word poets seem to be working against. Johnson’s analysis demonstrates the ways in which the slam and spoken word poets continue to work toward radical spaces.
This book is the winner of the 2019 Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies.
Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Director of African American & African Diaspora studies and holds an appointment in Gender & Sexuality Studies in the Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Homeless Advocacy and the Rhetorical Construction of the Civic Home
Melanie Loehwing
Penn State University Press
Homeless assistance has frequently adhered to the “three hots and a cot” model, which prioritizes immediate material needs. However, people experiencing homelessness often suffer from social and political exclusion, which is not always addressed by homeless assistance. Loehwing discusses the importance of homeless advocacy that moves beyond meeting physical needs, such as Food Not Bombs, the international competition of the Homeless World Cup, and the annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day campaign. These unconventional homeless advocacy programs counter the narratives around homelessness that characterize it as a state of abnormality. Loehwing argues that homeless advocacy that works to empower people is necessary to overcome the marginalization experienced by people experiencing homelessness. Loehwing’s interrogation of homeless advocacy rhetorics demonstrates how discursive practices shape democratic culture and how they may provide a potential civic remedy to the harms of disenfranchisement, discrimination, and displacement.
This book was honored with the 2019 Diamond Anniversary Book Award.
Loehwing is an Associate Professor at Mississippi State University.
Debating Women: Gender, Education, and Spaces for Argument, 1835-1945
Carly S. Woods
Michigan State University Press
In Debating Women, Woods begins by describing how women created spaces for debate when they were excluded from university debating clubs. Despite various obstacles, women transformed forests, parlors, dining rooms, ocean liners, classrooms, auditoriums, and prisons into vibrant spaces for ritual argument. From these nascent debate clubs to intercollegiate competitions, these debaters engaged with the issues of the day, often performing, questioning, and occasionally refining norms of gender, race, class, and nation. In tracing their involvement in an activity at the heart of civic culture, Woods demonstrates that debating women have much to teach us about the ongoing potential for debate to move arguments, ideas, and people to new spaces.
This book is the winner of the 2019 James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address.
Woods is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and affiliate faculty in the Department of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland.
Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right
Lawrence Grossberg
Pluto Press
Donald Trump has been treated as an outlier among conservative politicians by voters, the media, and politicians because of his behavior. While some have argued that Trump represents a chaotic break with conservative thought, Grossberg argues that Trump’s tactics are a continuation of the struggle between the new right and the reactionary right.
Although Trump’s tactics are part of a longer arc of conservatism in the United States, the reactionary right has been legitimized like never before in U.S. history. The legitimization of the reactionary right has altered contemporary political struggles and subjected those struggles to a changing national landscape of moods and feelings, marked by a growing absolutism of judgement and belief, and new forms of anxiety, alienation, and narcissism. Grossberg interrogates the intellectual arguments for the reactionary right and lays out a possible future: a cultural nationalism governed by a popular corporatocracy.
This book was honored with the 2019 Diamond Anniversary Book Award.
Lawrence Grossberg is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Laying Claim: African American Cultural Memory and Southern Identity
Patricia Davis
University of Alabama Press
This book identifies the Civil War as the central narrative around which official depictions of southern culture have been defined. Because that narrative largely excluded African American points of view, the resulting southern identity was monolithically white. Davis traces how the increasing participation of black public voices in the realms of Civil War memory—battlefields, museums, online communities—has dispelled the mirage of “southernness” as a stolid cairn of white culture and has begun to create a more fluid sense of southernness that welcomes contributions by all of the region’s peoples.
Laying Claim offers insightful and penetrating examinations of African American participation in Civil War reenactments; the role of black history museums in enriching representations of the Civil War era with more varied interpretations; and the internet as a forum within which participants exchange and create historical narratives that offer alternatives to unquestioned and dominant public memories. From this evolving cultural landscape, Davis demonstrates how simplistic caricatures of African American experiences are giving way to more authentic, expansive, and inclusive interpretations of southernness.
This book is the winner of the 2018 NCA Critical/Cultural Studies Division’s Outstanding Book Award.
Davis is an Associate Professor of Communication at Georgia State University.
The Bad Sixties: Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, Antiwar, and Black Power Movements
Kristen Hoerl
University Press of Mississippi
This book explores the ongoing interest in the turmoil of the 1960s and clearly demonstrates how these social conflicts continue to affect contemporary politics. Hoerl focuses on fictionalized portrayals of 1960s activism in popular television and film, showing how Hollywood has perpetuated politics deploring the detrimental consequences of the 1960s on traditional American values. During the decade, people collectively raised fundamental questions about the limits of democracy under capitalism. But Hollywood has proved dismissive, if not adversarial, to the role of dissent in fostering progressive social change. Film and television are salient resources of shared understanding for audiences born after the 1960s because movies and television programs are the most accessible visual medium for observing the decade's social movements. Hoerl indicates that a variety of television programs, such as Family Ties, The Wonder Years, and Law and Order, along with Hollywood films, including Forrest Gump, have reinforced images of the "bad sixties." These stories portray a period in which urban riots, antiwar protests, sexual experimentation, drug abuse, and feminism led to national division and moral decay. Hoerl suggest these messages supply distorted civics lessons about what we should value and how we might legitimately participate in our democracy.
This book earned Kristen Hoerl the 2018 Best Book Award from NCA’s American Studies Division.
Kristen Hoerl is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
To Become an American: Immigrants and Americanization Campaigns of the Early Twentieth Century
Leslie A. Hahner
Michigan State University Press, 2017
Pledging allegiance, singing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” wearing a flag pin—these are all markers of modern patriotism, emblems that announce the devotion of American citizens. Most of these nationalistic performances were formulized during the early twentieth century and driven to new heights by the panic surrounding national identity during World War I. In To Become an American Leslie A. Hahner argues that, in part, the Americanization movement engendered the transformation of patriotism during this period. Americanization was a massive campaign designed to fashion immigrants into perfect Americans—those who were loyal in word, deed, and heart. The larger outcome of this widespread movement was a dramatic shift in the nation’s understanding of Americanism. Employing a rhetorical lens to analyze the visual and aesthetic practices of Americanization, Hahner contends that Americanization not only tutored students in the practices of citizenship but also created a normative visual metric that modified how Americans would come to understand, interpret, and judge their own patriotism and that of others.
In her review of the book, Cara A. Finnegan wrote, “This historically grounded, conceptually rich book will be welcomed by scholars across the humanities interested in exploring the often problematic ways that institutions seek to teach us who we are and what we should value as citizens.”
This book earned Leslie Hahner the 2018 NCA James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address.
Leslie Hahner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Baylor University. Her work explores how rhetoric shapes public culture, primarily by analyzing the ways visual artifacts and experiences constitute aesthetic values. Her work has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Argumentation and Advocacy, among many other outlets.
Autoethnography and the Other: Unsettling Power Through Utopian Performatives
Tami Spry
Routledge, 2016
Challenging the critique of autoethnography as overly focused on the self, Tami Spry calls for a performative autoethnography that both unsettles the "I" and represents the Other with equal commitment. Expanding on her popular book Body, Paper, Stage, Spry uses a variety of examples, literary forms, and theoretical traditions to reframe this research method as transgressive, liberatory, and decolonizing for both self and Other. Her book:
- draws on her own autoethnographic work with jazz musicians, shamans, and other groups;
- outlines a utopian performative methodology to spur hope and transformation;
- provides concrete guidance on how to implement this innovative methodological approach.
This book earned Tami Spry the 2018 NCA Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies.
Tami Spry is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at St. Cloud State University.
Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the African Diaspora: Travelling Blackness
Manoucheka Celeste
Routledge, 2017
With the exception of slave narratives, there are few stories of black international migration in U.S. news and popular culture. This book is interested in stratified immigrant experiences, diverse black experiences, and the intersection of black and immigrant identities. Citizenship as it is commonly understood today in the public sphere is a legal issue, yet scholars have done much to move beyond this popular view and situate citizenship in the context of economic, social, and political positioning. The book shows that citizenship in all of its forms is often rhetorically, representationally, and legally negated by blackness and considers the ways that blackness, and representations of blackness, impact one’s ability to travel across national and social borders and become a citizen. This book is a story of citizenship and the ways that race, gender, and class shape national belonging, with Haiti, Cuba, and the United States as the primary sites of examination.
This book received the 2018 NCA Diamond Anniversary Book Award.
Manoucheka Celeste is Assistant Professor of Women's & Gender and African American Studies at the University of Florida.
The Taming of Free Speech: America’s Civil Liberties Compromise
Laura Weinrib
Harvard University Press, 2016
In this strikingly original history, Laura Weinrib illustrates how a surprising coalition of lawyers and activists made judicial enforcement of the Bill of Rights a defining feature of American democracy.
The Taming of Free Speech traces our understanding of civil liberties to conflict between 1910 and 1940 over workers’ right to strike. As self-proclaimed partisans in the class war, the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union promoted a bold vision of free speech that encompassed unrestricted picketing and boycotts. Over time, however, they subdued their rhetoric to attract adherents and prevail in court. At the height of the New Deal, many liberals opposed the ACLU’s litigation strategy, fearing it would legitimize a judiciary they deemed too friendly to corporations and too hostile to the administrative state. Conversely, conservatives eager to insulate industry from government regulation pivoted to embrace civil liberties, despite their radical roots. The resulting transformation in constitutional jurisprudence—often understood as a triumph for the Left—was in fact a calculated bargain.
America’s civil liberties compromise saved the courts from New Deal attack and secured free speech for labor radicals and businesses alike. Ever since, competing groups have clashed in the arena of ideas, shielded by the First Amendment.
This book earned Laura Weinrib the 2018 NCA Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression.
Laura Weinrib is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Michael Osborn on Metaphor and Style
Michael Osborn
Michigan State University Press, 2018
This volume features two dimensions of Michael Osborn’s work with rhetorical metaphor. The first focuses on his early efforts to develop a conception of metaphor to advance the understanding of rhetoric, while the second concerns more recent efforts to apply this enriched conception in the analysis and criticism of significant rhetorical practice. The older emphasis features four of Osborn’s more prominent published essays, revealing the personal context in which they were generated, their strengths and shortcomings, and how they may have inspired the work of others. His more recent unpublished work analyzes patterns of metaphor in the major speeches of Demosthenes, the evolution of metaphors of illness and cure in speeches across several millennia, the exploitation of the birth-death-rebirth metaphor in Riefenstahl’s masterpiece of Nazi propaganda Triumph of the Will, and the contrasting forms of spatial imagery in the speeches of Edmund Burke and Barack Obama and what these contrasts may portend.
“This book is Michael Osborn at his best,” according to Mary Stuckey, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University. “It’s a wonderful read that everyone interested in metaphor should have in their library.”
Michael Osborn is Professor Emeritus at the University of Memphis, and a past president of NCA (when it was known as the Speech Communication Association). He has been a recipient of the NCA's Golden Anniversary Monograph Award, the Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award, the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award, the Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Service Award, the T. Earle Johnson–Edwin Paget Award, and the Distinguished Research Award from the University of Memphis.