Vanessa B Beasley
Biographic Data
| ID | 4394267 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vanessa B Beasley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Vanessa B |
| FAMILY NAME | Beasley |
| SIGNATURE | BEASLEY V B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas A&M University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
In Search of Good Humans, Speaking Well
Public address scholars trained in U.S. communication departments have tended not to study rhetoric created by people with disabilities as much as they do other social movements. Here I attribute this relative lack to two ableist assumptions associated with communication’s emphasis on winning arguments: the presumed disqualification of people with disabilities from public argument itself and the normalization of this disqualification based on bia…
Running on screen while black
This essay asks what popular representations of fictional black presidential candidates reveal about the social and symbolic conditions that made their presidencies imaginable in the first place. We find that black presidents on screen are only rarely there as the result of democratic elections. Furthermore, when they are, their candidacies are represented in ways that rely heavily on racialized stereotypes of both the black candidate and presump…
The Politics of Belonging
Additional informationNotes on contributorsVanessa B. BeasleyVanessa B. Beasley is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Program in American Studies at Vanderbilt University
Speaking at S elma
This article explores the multiple challenges President B ill C linton faced when he spoke in S elma, Alabama, at the thirty‐fifth anniversary commemoration of B loody S unday. Given the symbolic weight of S elma within public memory, its centrality within U . S . nationalistic narratives about equality and C linton's own personal and political persona, the president had to operate within narrow rhetorical parameters on this occasion. His respons…
Friendship Fictions
Book Review| September 01 2012 Friendship Fictions: The Rhetoric of Citizenship in the Liberal Imaginary Friendship Fictions: The Rhetoric of Citizenship in the Liberal Imaginary. Michael A. Kaplan. Vanessa B. Beasley Vanessa B. Beasley Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2012) 15 (3): 546–548. https://doi.org/10.2307/41940615 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Perm…
In Defense of Not Having a Data Set
Instead of supporting the use of one standardized data set as proposed by Coe and Neumann, this response argues that scholars should continue to be required to construct arguments and offer justifications for what they are examining when they say they are analyzing presidential discourse, regardless of methodology. Two reasons are offered for this position. First, presidential communication is inherently difficult to define and/or delimit. Second…
The Rhetorical Presidency Meets the Unitary Executive
Communication scholars interested in presidential rhetoric on public policy are very familiar with the rhetorical presidency, but there is another paradigm worth our consideration: the unitary executive. This model emphasizes the institutional reasons why presidents might not use public discourse to promote theirpolicies, relying instead on the expanding powers of the executive branch. Although there is relatively little discussion of one model w…
The rhetoric of ideological consensus in the United States
For over two hundred years, many influential observers have argued that the people of the United States are uniquely united by certain constitutive ideals. But what, exactly, are these ideals? In this essay I review and critique traditional accounts of the United States' alleged ideological consensus in order to show how rhetorical scholars might redirect this discussion towards a more epistemological and pragmatic focus on how these ideals have …
Making diversity safe for democracy
Research suggests that modern U.S. presidents increasingly use the local address to speak to voters where they live, both literally and figuratively. Yet most explanations of these speeches suggest that their political efficacy is limited to winning votes. Here I call for a reconsideration of the local address as part of rhetorical presidents’ responses to U.S. citizens’ diversity. Specifically, I provide a historical‐critical account of why pres…
The rhetoric of ideological consensus in the United States
For over two hundred years, many influential observers have argued that the people of the United States are uniquely united by certain constitutive ideals. But what, exactly, are these ideals? In this essay I review and critique traditional accounts of the United States' alleged ideological consensus in order to show how rhetorical scholars might redirect this discussion towards a more epistemological and pragmatic focus on how these ideals have …
Speaking at S elma
This article explores the multiple challenges President B ill C linton faced when he spoke in S elma, Alabama, at the thirty‐fifth anniversary commemoration of B loody S unday. Given the symbolic weight of S elma within public memory, its centrality within U . S . nationalistic narratives about equality and C linton's own personal and political persona, the president had to operate within narrow rhetorical parameters on this occasion. His respons…
In Defense of Not Having a Data Set
Instead of supporting the use of one standardized data set as proposed by Coe and Neumann, this response argues that scholars should continue to be required to construct arguments and offer justifications for what they are examining when they say they are analyzing presidential discourse, regardless of methodology. Two reasons are offered for this position. First, presidential communication is inherently difficult to define and/or delimit. Second…
The Rhetorical Presidency Meets the Unitary Executive
Communication scholars interested in presidential rhetoric on public policy are very familiar with the rhetorical presidency, but there is another paradigm worth our consideration: the unitary executive. This model emphasizes the institutional reasons why presidents might not use public discourse to promote theirpolicies, relying instead on the expanding powers of the executive branch. Although there is relatively little discussion of one model w…
Making diversity safe for democracy
Research suggests that modern U.S. presidents increasingly use the local address to speak to voters where they live, both literally and figuratively. Yet most explanations of these speeches suggest that their political efficacy is limited to winning votes. Here I call for a reconsideration of the local address as part of rhetorical presidents’ responses to U.S. citizens’ diversity. Specifically, I provide a historical‐critical account of why pres…
The rhetoric of ideological consensus in the United States
For over two hundred years, many influential observers have argued that the people of the United States are uniquely united by certain constitutive ideals. But what, exactly, are these ideals? In this essay I review and critique traditional accounts of the United States' alleged ideological consensus in order to show how rhetorical scholars might redirect this discussion towards a more epistemological and pragmatic focus on how these ideals have …
Making diversity safe for democracy
Research suggests that modern U.S. presidents increasingly use the local address to speak to voters where they live, both literally and figuratively. Yet most explanations of these speeches suggest that their political efficacy is limited to winning votes. Here I call for a reconsideration of the local address as part of rhetorical presidents’ responses to U.S. citizens’ diversity. Specifically, I provide a historical‐critical account of why pres…
The Rhetorical Presidency Meets the Unitary Executive
Communication scholars interested in presidential rhetoric on public policy are very familiar with the rhetorical presidency, but there is another paradigm worth our consideration: the unitary executive. This model emphasizes the institutional reasons why presidents might not use public discourse to promote theirpolicies, relying instead on the expanding powers of the executive branch. Although there is relatively little discussion of one model w…
In Defense of Not Having a Data Set
Instead of supporting the use of one standardized data set as proposed by Coe and Neumann, this response argues that scholars should continue to be required to construct arguments and offer justifications for what they are examining when they say they are analyzing presidential discourse, regardless of methodology. Two reasons are offered for this position. First, presidential communication is inherently difficult to define and/or delimit. Second…
Friendship Fictions
Book Review| September 01 2012 Friendship Fictions: The Rhetoric of Citizenship in the Liberal Imaginary Friendship Fictions: The Rhetoric of Citizenship in the Liberal Imaginary. Michael A. Kaplan. Vanessa B. Beasley Vanessa B. Beasley Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2012) 15 (3): 546–548. https://doi.org/10.2307/41940615 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Perm…
The Politics of Belonging
Additional informationNotes on contributorsVanessa B. BeasleyVanessa B. Beasley is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director of the Program in American Studies at Vanderbilt University
Speaking at S elma
This article explores the multiple challenges President B ill C linton faced when he spoke in S elma, Alabama, at the thirty‐fifth anniversary commemoration of B loody S unday. Given the symbolic weight of S elma within public memory, its centrality within U . S . nationalistic narratives about equality and C linton's own personal and political persona, the president had to operate within narrow rhetorical parameters on this occasion. His respons…
Running on screen while black
This essay asks what popular representations of fictional black presidential candidates reveal about the social and symbolic conditions that made their presidencies imaginable in the first place. We find that black presidents on screen are only rarely there as the result of democratic elections. Furthermore, when they are, their candidacies are represented in ways that rely heavily on racialized stereotypes of both the black candidate and presump…
In Search of Good Humans, Speaking Well
Public address scholars trained in U.S. communication departments have tended not to study rhetoric created by people with disabilities as much as they do other social movements. Here I attribute this relative lack to two ableist assumptions associated with communication’s emphasis on winning arguments: the presumed disqualification of people with disabilities from public argument itself and the normalization of this disqualification based on bia…
Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Rhetoric and Communication Studies (7 works) · Presidential system (6 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Media studies (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works)