Associate Professor of Communication Studies Vanessa Beasley says presidential inaugural addresses generally celebrate a smooth transition of power, use rhetoric to bring people together and lay out general principles for the new administration. Beasley, who has written a book that looks at inaugural addresses since the late 1800s, says there are high expectations for Obama’s address on Jan. 20. Beasley is the author of You, The People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric.
Contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu