My teaching and research revolve around the rhetoric of resistance in US history. I believe that a rhetorical analysis of social movements can reveal how struggles for rights, opportunities, and resources depend, in large part, on a battle over shared meanings. Social movements give scholars the unique opportunity to trace such struggles across space, time, and various levels of society. I try to account for the rhetoric of contentious politics through extensive archival research, especially oral interviews from grassroots activists. This approach demands a flexible methodology, ranging from close textual analysis, rhetorical history, and critical public address studies. Most recently, my work focuses on the often competing claims of democratic citizenship and warfare.

Philosophy of Communication; Public Memory; Argumentation; Rhetoric of Democracy & Dissent

Social Movement Rhetoric; Public Memory; Debates over War and Peace