My research investigates the ways in which public policy rhetoric creates, shapes, and renders visible relationships between the government and the governed. In recent projects, I have examined Congressional and presidential public address over the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
My dissertation project, tentatively titled "Sunlight and Shadows: The Rhetoric of Transparency and Secrecy in Debates Over the Freedom of Information Act, 1955-1976," provides a historical accounting of what I call “freedom of information” rhetoric. By “freedom of information” rhetoric, I mean discourses concerning normative conceptions of what the public should be allowed to know, what the proper balance between secrecy and transparency should be, and how government information should properly be managed and protected. Looking at Congressional and archival sources, I analyze policy debates and popular arguments over transparency and secrecy that began in the early 1950s and culminated in the 1970s.
Below are some of my recent research projects:
“Constituting An Economy of Heroes: The Rehabilitation of an Economic Idiom in Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Economic Recovery Campaign.” Winner of the Robert Gunderson Award (Top Student Paper). Public Address Division. National Communication Association Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 2015.
In 1981, in the context of an economic crisis, passionate Congressional opposition, and the aftermath of the unpopular presidency of Jimmy Carter, President Ronald Reagan devoted four high-profile speeches to convincing the American people to support his economic recovery program. While Reagan’s economic campaign opened up rhetorical space for justifying new economic policies, the most significant rhetorical work the speeches did was constitutive. I argue that Reagan’s rhetoric reflected a discursive shift in how presidents discuss the economy that defined distinct roles for the president, the American people, and the federal government. In doing so, Reagan proposed a new, “realist” idiom for the economy that both marked a break from Carter’s technocratic approach and dissociated government from the president and the people in order to restore confidence and agency to the American people. While Reagan’s language was new, it was also set against an intellectual rehabilitation of an older economic theory: New Classical macroeconomics. Reagan’s language thus did not merely seek to address the immediate exigencies of an economic crisis; it also refurbished an older free market economics by inventing a new set of roles for citizens, governments, and presidents in the U.S. economy.
“Protest, the President, and the Pipeline: Contesting Climate Change at the White House.” Competitively selected by the Environmental Communication Division. National Communication Association Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 2015.
"Forging a New Design For Government: Constructing Presidential Leadership in Rexford Tugwell's Defense of FDR's First Hundred Days." Winner of the David Zarefsky Top Student Paper Award. Central States Communication Association Convention, Madison, WI, 2015.
“Imagining the Great Society: Constructing a Rhetorical Vision in Lyndon Johnson’s University of Michigan Speech.” Top Student Paper in Rhetoric and Public Address. Southern States Communication Association Convention, New Orleans, LA, 2014.
“The Inter-Branch Rhetoric of Lyndon Johnson’s Freedom of Information Act Signing Statement.” Paper competitively selected by the Public Address Division; National Communication Association Convention, Washington, DC, 2013.
“The Nation Needs Its Women: Jeannette Rankin, The Great War, and the Suffrage Amendment.” Paper competitively selected by the Feminist and Women Studies Division; National Communication Association Convention, Washington, DC, 2013.
“What Recovery Looks Like: Visualizing Transparency in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Paper presented at the Gesa Kirsch Graduate Student Symposium, Center For Writing Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 2013.
“On Arriving at the Digital: Describing Critical Paths into the Digital Humanities.” Co-Facilitated Workshop at Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC), Lima, Peru, 2014.
My dissertation project, tentatively titled "Sunlight and Shadows: The Rhetoric of Transparency and Secrecy in Debates Over the Freedom of Information Act, 1955-1976," provides a historical accounting of what I call “freedom of information” rhetoric. By “freedom of information” rhetoric, I mean discourses concerning normative conceptions of what the public should be allowed to know, what the proper balance between secrecy and transparency should be, and how government information should properly be managed and protected. Looking at Congressional and archival sources, I analyze policy debates and popular arguments over transparency and secrecy that began in the early 1950s and culminated in the 1970s.
Below are some of my recent research projects:
“Constituting An Economy of Heroes: The Rehabilitation of an Economic Idiom in Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Economic Recovery Campaign.” Winner of the Robert Gunderson Award (Top Student Paper). Public Address Division. National Communication Association Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 2015.
In 1981, in the context of an economic crisis, passionate Congressional opposition, and the aftermath of the unpopular presidency of Jimmy Carter, President Ronald Reagan devoted four high-profile speeches to convincing the American people to support his economic recovery program. While Reagan’s economic campaign opened up rhetorical space for justifying new economic policies, the most significant rhetorical work the speeches did was constitutive. I argue that Reagan’s rhetoric reflected a discursive shift in how presidents discuss the economy that defined distinct roles for the president, the American people, and the federal government. In doing so, Reagan proposed a new, “realist” idiom for the economy that both marked a break from Carter’s technocratic approach and dissociated government from the president and the people in order to restore confidence and agency to the American people. While Reagan’s language was new, it was also set against an intellectual rehabilitation of an older economic theory: New Classical macroeconomics. Reagan’s language thus did not merely seek to address the immediate exigencies of an economic crisis; it also refurbished an older free market economics by inventing a new set of roles for citizens, governments, and presidents in the U.S. economy.
“Protest, the President, and the Pipeline: Contesting Climate Change at the White House.” Competitively selected by the Environmental Communication Division. National Communication Association Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 2015.
"Forging a New Design For Government: Constructing Presidential Leadership in Rexford Tugwell's Defense of FDR's First Hundred Days." Winner of the David Zarefsky Top Student Paper Award. Central States Communication Association Convention, Madison, WI, 2015.
“Imagining the Great Society: Constructing a Rhetorical Vision in Lyndon Johnson’s University of Michigan Speech.” Top Student Paper in Rhetoric and Public Address. Southern States Communication Association Convention, New Orleans, LA, 2014.
“The Inter-Branch Rhetoric of Lyndon Johnson’s Freedom of Information Act Signing Statement.” Paper competitively selected by the Public Address Division; National Communication Association Convention, Washington, DC, 2013.
“The Nation Needs Its Women: Jeannette Rankin, The Great War, and the Suffrage Amendment.” Paper competitively selected by the Feminist and Women Studies Division; National Communication Association Convention, Washington, DC, 2013.
“What Recovery Looks Like: Visualizing Transparency in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Paper presented at the Gesa Kirsch Graduate Student Symposium, Center For Writing Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 2013.
“On Arriving at the Digital: Describing Critical Paths into the Digital Humanities.” Co-Facilitated Workshop at Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC), Lima, Peru, 2014.