Carole Blair

Professor
Rhetorical Studies

Current Research:
My current research focuses on contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, attending especially to rhetoric’s crucial role in understanding visual and material phenomena.  In particular, I study the rhetorics of commemorative places and artworks of the twentieth-century U.S.  This project addresses how rhetorical constructions of the past advocate particular visions of nationalism and citizenship in and about the U.S. for the present and future.  Over the long term, the aim of the project is to account for changes in how the U.S. nation-state commemorates: Who or what is commemorated: during what periods, under what cultural conditions, and with what civic and political consequences?   My current project—with V. William Balthrop and Neil Michel—is on U.S. memorials built in Europe during the interwar period and marking U.S. participation in World War I.  

Current/Recent Publications:
Dickinson, Greg, Carole Blair, and Brian L. Ott, eds.  Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials.  Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, in press (2010).
Blair, Carole, Greg Dickinson, and Brian L. Ott.  “Rhetoric/Memory/Place.”  Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials.  Ed. Greg Dickinson, Carole Blair, and Brian L. Ott.  Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, in press (2010). 
Balthrop, V. William, Carole Blair, and Neil Michel. "The Presence of the Present: Hijacking ‘The Good War’?”  Western Journal of Communication.  Accepted for publication, 2010. 
Blair, Carole.  “Review Essay: Rethinking The First World War.”  Southern Communication
    Journal.  Accepted for publication, 2009. 
Blair, Carole, and Neil Michel.  "The AIDS Memorial Quilt and the Contemporary Culture of Public Commemoration."  Rhetoric and Public Affairs 10 (2007): 595-626.
    To be reprinted (with updates) in Remembering the AIDS Quilt: Commemoration and Critique of the Epidemic Text.  Ed. Charles E. Morris.  East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, forthcoming. 

Courses Regularly Taught: Graduate.  Rhetorical Criticism, Practicum in Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetorics of Public Memory, Rhetorics of Place.  Undergraduate: Rhetoric and Social Controversy, Rhetorics of Public Memory.

Faculty Affiliations: American Studies, Cultural Studies.

Honors:
2009      Distinguished Scholar, National Communication Association. Award for career achievement in scholarship
2009     Scholar in Residence, National Communication Association Faculty Development
    Institute (Hope Conference)                           
2009      Gender Scholar Award, Southern States Communication Association       
2009      Institute for the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, University of North Carolina       
2008      W. N. Reynolds Competitive Research Leave, University of North Carolina       
2008      Paul Boase Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in Communication, Ohio University   
2006      Charles H. Woolbert Research Award, National Communication Association, for             "Disciplining the Feminine," with Julie R. Brown and Leslie A. Baxter
2006    Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecturer, National Communication Association       
2005    Golden Anniversary Monograph Award,  National Communication Association, for         "The Rushmore Effect," with Neil Michel 
2000    Francine Merritt Award for Contributions to the Careers of Women in Communication,
     National Communication Association
1999     Outstanding Mentor Award.  UC Davis Consortium for Women in Research       
1995    Outstanding Article Award.  Organization for the Study of Communication, Language,
    and Gender, for "Disciplining the Feminine," with Julie R. Brown and Leslie A. Baxter
1995    UC Davis Washington Center Faculty Fellowship                       
1993    Golden Anniversary Monograph Award,  National Communication Association, for     "Contested Histories of Rhetoric"
1990    Humanities Institute Fellowship, University of California, Davis                
1984    Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, National Communication Association       

Professional Service:
Currently editorial board member for six journals and three university press book series.
Current or past member of numerous NCA and regional committees and task forces, division chair, etc.
Workshop codirector (with Bradford Vivian, Syracuse University), on Rhetoric, Memory, and Forgetting, Rhetoric Society of America Institute, 2009.
Seminar Leader, National Communication Association Faculty Development Conference (The
    Hope Conference):  Hope College (Michigan): 1997, 1998; Luther College (Iowa): 2003, 2006; Randolph-Macon College (Virginia): 2007.  Scholar in Residence, RMC, 2009. 

Current/Recent Work with Graduate Students:
Cindy Spurlock,  “Making Conservation Public: Rhetorical Environmentality and the Contested Future(s) of America’s National Parks.”  Dissertation. University of North Carolina, Spring 2009.  Currently Assistant Professor, Communication, Appalachian State University.
In progress: Letia Frandina on September 11 commemoration; Stacey D. Treat on sonic tourism; Jessica Fifield on violence and citizenship in Brazil.  Serving on an additional 16 doctoral committees.
Chaired Fifield, Ravescroft, and Spurlock M.A. theses.