In the “old days,” people who wanted to preach or make a public speech about something would haul a soapbox into the middle of the street, climb on, and start talking. Soapboxes must have been more sturdy back then. Nowadays, we just use webpages. Here’s my contribution to that tradition. Some of these entries are academic, some are not. For other writings, check out my She-blog.

Some Ancient Academic Papers

A brief essay on the Feminist Public Sphere discusses two forms of feminist discourse, the confessional and the deferral of “not speaking for others.” These two forms erode public discourse and feminist politics. Delivered at the Western States Communication Association convention in 1997. It’s very old, but still has some relevance.

A book review of Donna Haraway’s book, Modest Witness, published in Hypatia. This book review was coauthored with Ingrid Bartsch, who is a plant biologist, and Carolyn DiPalma, who is a political theorist. It took three of us together to make sense of the book. Gosh, Donna’s so smart.

Critical Public Address — This paper Josh Gunn and I wrote and  delivered at the Public Address Pre-conference in Chicago, 2003. In this paper we try to resurrect the oratorical root of public address studies. It’s a hoot. Fun if you’re into PA stuff.

The Southern Phoenix: Women’s Voice and the Sexual Politics of Louisiana’s Old State Capitol — This is a paper delivered to Southern States Communication Association convention in April 2002. The capitol building erases women’s real world political accomplishments while it foregrounds stereotypes about southern women. This paper was written before Kathleen Blanco’s election as governor of Louisiana in 2004. Sometime in between this paper and her election, the film exhibit I discuss in the paper was removed from the State Capitol in favor of a new film that celebrated the Louisiana Purchase.

Other Writing

Respecting the The First Day of Class — Applies Harry Wong’s principles of the first day of school to college teaching.