People

Interests:

My research concerns the intersection of rhetorical studies, folklore studies, and performance studies. I am primarily interested in three issues: (1) The promotion of a critical folklore studies as an activist scholarship to examine and redress social injustice, with particular attention to the constitutive nature of expressive culture; (2) The investigation and contemporary appropriation of myths of rhetoric in classical antiquity, to include voices and concepts often excluded from the canonical texts of the rhetorical tradition; (3) The relationship between rhetorical studies and social theory, especially to criticize persistent discourses of fascism and violence, and to advocate democratic modes of living with others. I have published in such journals as the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Journal of American Folklore, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Folklore, Communication and Critical Cultural Studies, Journal of Folklore Research, and Communication Education.

Education:

PhD, Indiana University

Courses Taught:

Undergraduate: Democracy and Discourse; Critical Folklore Studies; Myth, Ritual, and Performance; Rhetoric and Social Theory. Graduate: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory; Theories of Language as Action and Performance

Publications:

Readings in Rhetoric and Performance. Strata Publications, Inc., 2010. Co-edited with Phaedra C. Pezzullo.

"Purifying Rhetoric: Empedocles and the Myth of Rhetorical Theory." Quarterly Journal of Speech, forthcoming.

"Gramsci, Good Sense, and Critical Folklore Studies." Journal of Folklore Research, forthcoming.

"Constituting Folklore: A Case for Critical Folklore Studies." Journal of American Folklore, 122(484), 172-196. 2009.

"The Myth of Rhetoric: Korax and the Art of Pollution." Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 37(3), 251-273. 2007.

"Seinfeld's Democratic Vistas." Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22(5), 390-408. 2005.

Projects:

Works in progress include a critical folklore study (with Hari Stephen Kumar) of New England identity and racism; a critical rhetorical analysis (with Brett Ingram) of cruelty and catharsis in contemporary popular comedy; and a critical folklore study (with Gregory Dorchak) of the concept of community. Future projects will continue to advance a critical folklore studies and to examine other myths of rhetoric in antiquity.