In the fall of 1910, Syracuse University inaugurated the Department of Oratory - one of the nation’s first academic programs devoted to the study of communication and rhetoric. In the intervening 100 years, that department became part of the School of Speech and Dramatic Arts, then the Department of Speech Communication, and now continues as the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies. Students and faculty in the discipline of communication and rhetorical studies (CRS) focus on communicative discourse and its interactional consequences. Students in the communication and rhetorical studies major develop a set of specific professional communication skills, including group and teamwork, interpersonal relationship management, argumentation, conflict management, interviewing, public speaking, leadership, listening, and critical skills. As important as skill development is, the study of communication also involves a sophisticated understanding of communication processes such as context and culture. Examples include studying communication practices of organizations, families, politics, public discourse, popular culture, social movements, and cross-cultural interaction.

This page contains all publications submitted to SURFACE written by students, faculty, and staff in the department.

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2024

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Performance as Preservation: Constructing Queer Love in Public Memory, Aevyn Barnett

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We Are Performing Against Ourselves: The Relationship Between Respectability and Relatability, Asajahnique Collins

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Building a Cinematic World for Queer: Ways of Winking Back at Barbie (2023), Diana Durk

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“We are men”: Constituting the Prisoners’ Rights Movement Through Prison Writing, Emily Kathryn Iknayan

The Last Days of Summer: The Exploration of Black Innocence and Survival Through Letter Writing, Janae Kea

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Indigenous Artistic Activism and the (Re)envisioned Landscape: Decolonizing Settler Land Knowledge, Hannah Lorell Sparks

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Remembering the Historical Injustice of Comfort Women and Be(com)ing A Witness: A Rhetorical Analysis of the War & Women’s Human Rights Museum and the Liji Alley Comfort Station Museum, Xinyue Tao

Finding "Trap Doors:" Trans Memoirs in Print and Digital Spaces, Maria Irene Tsangarakis

2023

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A Sonic Intervention Into Authenticity And Black Metal, Easton Daniel Draut

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A Sonic Intervention Into Authenticity And Black Metal, Easton Daniel Draut

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Sexual Scripts and Sex Tips: Construction of the Spiciest Subject Through Sex Educational Content on TikTok, Ashley G. Hay

Death before death: The Rhetorical Construction of the Sikh Diaspora through the Murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, Aranveer Singh Litt

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The Body Knows: Embodiment and Whiteness A Rhetorical Analysis of White Bodies Engaged in Antiracism Work, Otsego County, New York, Kerry Lynn Mess

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THE PASSING INTENSITIES OF A NEIGHBORHOOD. SENSING ATMOSPHERES IN LA BOCA, Gabriel Tomas O'Rourke

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Theaters of the Intimate: The Feminine Culture of Self-Care on TikTok, Rayana Weller

2022

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Infectious Intimacy: Men Who Have Sex With Men (msm)'s Narratives of Risk Analysis During Covid-19, Seth Knievel

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On the Use and Abuse of Violence for Life: Affect, Witnessing, and Protest, Harrison Maurice Lucas

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The 1980 Refugee Act and a New Type of National Apology, Shewit Mikael

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The Emergence of Postcolonial Apologia: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Chinese Governmental Response to Western Accusation During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Yiqing Ran

2021

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Antichrist in the Oval Office: the Rhetoric of 'antichrist' in Online Discourse Surrounding Donald Trump, Meagan Bojarski

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Antichrist in the Oval Office: The Rhetoric of ‘Antichrist’ in Online Discourse Surrounding Donald Trump, Meagan Bojarski

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Tale As Old As...Feminism? The (re)making of Beauty and the Beast, Cara Doreen Hardman

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Tale As Old As...Feminism? The (re)making Of Beauty And The Beast, Cara Doreen Hardman

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Imaginative Rhetorical Invention In The 21st Century: An Analysis Of Afrofuturism And Black Utopian Thought In A Black Lady Sketch Show As An Avenue Toward Black Liberation, Natalie Weathers

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Imaginative Rhetorical Invention in The 21st Century: An Analysis of Afrofuturism And Black Utopian Thought in a Black Lady Sketch Show As An Avenue Toward Black Liberation, Natalie Weathers

2020

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Some Reservations: Food Tourism, the Food-Selfie, and Everyday Life Performances on Instagram, Alexander Charles Breth

How to Be in the World, Not of It: The Rhetoric of Place, Time, and Subjectivity in Independent Christian Cinema, Courtney Jo Dreyer

Deconstructing Rhetorics of the Human: Towards Decolonizing Non/Human Relationality, Mariann Rene Fant

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“Saved to Citizenship”: The Rhetoric of Delinquency and Industriousness in the New York Catholic Protectory, 1902-1911, Lucas Joshua Hann

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Accountable Witchcraft: A Story-Theory Account of The Witch as a Site of Disruption for Whiteness and Colonialism, Alex Rae Hillen

Decolonizing Transgender: Deconstructing Western Framings of Indigenous Gender-Diverse Identities, Joshua Tyler Ratel-Khan

Questioning the President: Positioning, Stance, and Frames in the Trump Press Conferences, Nicole Tauxe Tanquary

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Defending Boyle Heights: Visions of an Emancipated Barrio, Mikayla Torres

2019

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Positioning and Face Work on 4chan’s /r9k/, Michael Camele

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Branding White Saviorism: The Ethics and Irony of Humanitarian Discourse on Instagram, Elizabeth Smith Cooney-Petro

Don’t Let Gwyneth Paltrow Tell You Shit About Life: The Rhetoric of Self-Care, Alternative Medicine, and the Politics of Experience, Christina Deka

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“A growing excitement that ‘something was happening’”: A Rhetorical History of Gay Liberation and Socialist Feminism in the New American Movement between 1970 and 1980, Chris DiCesare

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Call Me Maybe: An Analysis of the Effect of the Celebrity Persona on the American Telethon, Kyra Meister

Seeking Refuge: Neoliberalism, Institutional Rhetoric, and the Sanctuary Campus Movement, Matthew Ringard

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Sexually “Broken”: The Rhetorical Production of The Distressed Nonsexual in The Flibanserin Debate & Beyond, Hannah Helene Thompson

2018

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Emb(Rae)cing Awkward: Satire, Ambivalence, and Representation on YouTube, Kiah E. Bennett

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Unsettling Boundaries: (Pre-)Digital Fat Activism, Fatphobia, and Enclave Ambivalence, Sarah E. Bolden

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Communication and Crisis in NYC Transit Labor, Brandon Matthew Daniels

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Foster Care Reform Rhetoric: How Communication Relates to Action, Hannah Gleason

Histories of the Future: Discursive antithesis on progress and social change in radical education, Oreoluwa Olaniyan

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9/11 Education Policy: Is the Twenty-First Century’s “Day of Infamy” Adequately Taught in Modern Classrooms?, Susanne Prendergast

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What Does It Mean To Be A Man? The Social Construction of Manhood, Sam Sinykin

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Understanding Obama's Rhetoric on Race: A Critical Analysis of Key Speeches, Jennifer Sweet

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Queer’ing Croporate Pride: Memory, Intersectionality, And Corporeality In Activist Assemblies Of Resistance, Hunter C. Thompson

2017

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Reading Between the Pictures: Documenting Economic Hardship in a Neoliberal Age, Pamela Ann Barker

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Immaterial Attachments: Performing iPhone and the Rhetorics of Dematerialization, Codey Ryan Bills

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Getting Out of the Basement: Space, Performance, and the Oscillation of DIY Punk Publics, Ryan L. Bince

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Affect, Coalitional Politics, and Pride: Imagining Activism through Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners and the United Kingdom Miners’ Strike of 1984-5, Cameron Whitfield Gaynor

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Beyond Survival: Embodied Rhetoric and Resistance to Campus Sexual Violence, Logan Rae Gomez

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The Communication of Cheating: A rhetorical analysis of the communication Major League Baseball players use when accused of taking performance enhancing drugs., Andrew Mallon

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Good Mourning: Structured Feelings and Queering the Affective Potential of Grief, Myles Mason

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Fashion, Communication, and Consumerism, Jodi Robbins

2016

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Soil for Your Soul: African American Women & Social Entrepreneurship, Markova Casseus

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Touring Extinction: The Rhetorics of Biodiversity Loss on Display, Terrell Jake Dionne

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Ethnography and Analysis of the Effects of Racism and Creating a Black Family Tree, Courtney Garvin

Southerners and the City: Queer Archives, Backward Temporalities, and the Emergence of AIDS, Joe Edward Hatfield

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La Pasionaria: The Ethos of a Leader, Nicole Gonzales Howell

University Administrator Interactions: Balancing Politeness and Authority, Laura DeJoseph McArdle

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Rendering Disaster Architecture: Remodeling Citizenship in Post-Katrina New Orleans, Dylan Rollo

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Affective Cultural Practice: Imagining Queer Feminism in the Riot Grrrl Movement, Kate Siegfried

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Crafting Rhetorics of Trust: Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Appeals to the American People, Chelsea Anne Spring

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Embodiment in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Discourse: Healing, Silence and the Miracle Cure, Kaicheng Zhan

2015

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Chiraq: One person's metaphor is another's reality, Jacoby Cochran

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Redesigning the Use of Electronic Health Records in the Exam Room: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Quinton Dean Fletchall

Yeezus meets Watch the Throne: How Kanye West and Jay Z Construct Identities and Build Relationships in Rap Music and Interviews, Danielle Hodge

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THE RED CROSS’ MEDIATED ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS: Outreach and the civil imagination, Heather Powell

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Embedding Nationalism: Construction & Effects of National Narratives in the XXVII Olympic Games' Opening Ceremony, Rachel Elizabeth Presley

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Mediated Motherhood: Discourse and Maternal Identity in the Digital Age, Melissa A. Vaillancourt

2014

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Sights and Spaces of Moving Memory: The Public Memory Work of the Women's Rights National Historical Park, Alia Renee Bellwood

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SEEING BEYOND PLAY: THE IMMERSIVE WITNESS IN VIDEO GAMES, Sarah Beth Evans

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When Heritage Preservation Meets Living Memory: Constructing the Medina of Fez as a World Heritage Heterotopia, Matthew Houdek

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20 Weeks, 13 Hours, 140 Characters: The Abortion Controversy in the Texas State Senate and Online, Elyse Nicole Janish

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Cripping the Memoir: Unraveling the Discourse Around Disabled Athletes' Identities, Jessica Kerley

2013

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Self-Reported Symptoms of Central Auditory Processing Dysfunction Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Devon Beebe

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Constructing a World War II America: The Rhetorical Craftsmanship of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Tiara Kay Foster

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Conspiracy, Pragmatism and Style: An Analysis of Richard Nixon's Antecedent Anti-Communist Conspiracy Rhetoric, Evan L. Johnson

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Bridging the Gap: An Invitational Approach to Confucianism and Daoism, David Munson

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Supportive Alignments & Teams in Group Supervision for School Counselors-in-Training, Christopher Sean Perrello

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'Twas the Night Before Black Friday: A Rhetorical Analysis of Hegemonic Consumerism in Mediated, Consumptive, and Resistance Spaces, Emily Anne Soule

2012

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United States Sophistry on the Palestinian Resolution for Statehood, Marc James Mason

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Woodrow Wilson: Examining the Scholarly Statesman Through a Rhetorical Lens, Candice Elaine Mae Radloff

2010

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(Re)Writing History: Public Memories of the Holocaust, Vietnam War, and American Civil Rights Movement, Lauren Braun

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Citizen Participation, Metadiscourse and Accountability: A Public Hearing on a Zoning Change for Wal-Mart, Richard Buttny

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A Spectrum of Philosophies: The Rhetorical Framing of Avant-Garde Art Manifestos of the Early Twentieth Century, Alison Kara Falotico

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And That’s How I Feel on the Gudaha: A Quilting Project from a 4-6th Grade Classroom from the Somali-Bantu Community-Based Tutoring Program of Syracuse, Amanda Stessen

2009

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Wal-Mart’s presentation to the community: Discursive practices in mitigating risk, limiting public participation, and developing a relationship, Richard Buttny

2007

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Drawing on the words of others at public hearings: Zoning, Wal-Mart, and the threat to the aquifer, Richard Buttny and Jodi R. Cohen

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Accounts of violence from Arabs and Israelis on ABC-TV’s panel discussion from Jerusalem, Richard Buttny and Donald G. Ellis

2006

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Border insurrections: How IndoHispano rhetorics revise dominant narratives of assimilation, Damian Baca

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Pure: Life and Design in Finland, Sarah Moskaitis

2002

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Grassroots democracy in process: Ethnographic writing as democratic action, Seth Louis Kahn

1995

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Seneca Ray Stoddard and the Adirondacks: Changing perceptions of wilderness, Jeffrey Lanier Horrell

1983

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The Rise And Development Of The Art Museum As A Cultural Institution: The Philadelphia Story, Susanna Koethe Morikawa

1973

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An Investigation Into The Influence Of Ramistic Rhetoric On The Rhetorical Expression Of Shakespeare's Comic Heroines, Daniel Joseph Lavista

1968

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Sissieretta Jones: A Study Of The Negro's Contribution To Nineteenth Century American Concert And Theatrical Life, Willia Estelle Daughtry