John Murphy, a national expert on presidential campaign speeches and rhetoric, presents “A New Birth of Freedom: Barack Obama and the Rhetorical Uses of History.” He spoke Feb. 16 at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University.
The lecture is the third in the series “Realities and Representations: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign” co-sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities and the Communications Studies Department at Vanderbilt.
Murphy is associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research concerns the rhetoric of the U.S. presidency and contemporary politics with particular emphasis on the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton.
Articles presenting his work appear in leading communication journals including Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication Studies, Rhetoric & Public Affairs and Presidential Studies Quarterly. He has appeared on CNN’s “Talk Back Live” as well as in interviews with the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and others.
The lecture series “Realities and Representations: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign” brings leading scholars and critics to Vanderbilt’s campus to reflect upon the historic nature of the presidential race, as well as to examine the ways in which mass media are shaping the national response to the campaign.
The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities promotes interdisciplinary research and study in the humanities, social sciences, and, when appropriate, natural sciences. For more information about the Warren Center, visit http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/center.htm.
Media Contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
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