Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Race In Rhetoric: A Textual Analysis Of Barack Obama's Campaign Discourse Regarding His Race, Andrea Dawn Andrews May 2011

Race In Rhetoric: A Textual Analysis Of Barack Obama's Campaign Discourse Regarding His Race, Andrea Dawn Andrews

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study is a textual analysis of Barack Obama's nine most noteworthy speeches from 2004 to 2009 during his rise to prominence and presidential campaign. Because Obama was considered an inspiring speaker and because he was the first African American to win either a major party's presidential nomination or a general • • presidential election, this study examines how Obama's use of language about his race may have contributed to his success. Previous research has shown that use of six rhetorical devices resonates with the American people: abstraction, democratic speech conversational speech, valence messages, conciliatory messages and imagery. The study …


Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill And The Racialization Of American Indian Identity, Casey R. Kelly Jan 2011

Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill And The Racialization Of American Indian Identity, Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

After publishing a controversial essay on 9/11, Professor Ward Churchill's scholarship and personal identity were subjected to a hostile public investigation. Evidence that Churchill had invented his American Indian identity created vehemence among many professors and tribal leaders who dismissed Churchill because he was not a “real Indian.” This essay examines the discourses of racial authenticity employed to distance Churchill from tribal communities and American Indian scholarship. Responses to Churchill's academic and ethnic self-identification have retrenched a racialized definition of tribal identity defined by a narrow concept of blood. Employing what I term blood-speak, Churchill's opponents harness a biological concept …


Visual Rhetoric And The Promotion Of Scientific Ideas: The Strange Case Of The Prion, Carol Reeves Jan 2011

Visual Rhetoric And The Promotion Of Scientific Ideas: The Strange Case Of The Prion, Carol Reeves

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In the field that investigates infectious brain diseases such as mad cow disease, the verbal and visual packaging of scientific visuals associated with identifying the agent, prion, its processes, and structure served the community ritual of establishing belief in a highly unorthodox phenomenon. Visual promotion fed into cultural expectations of single agents and simple processes, even though the actual agency and disease process have proven highly complex and perhaps unknowable.