J. Robert Cox

Professor
Rhetorical Studies

Current Research:  “Challenges of Scale and the Strategic,” in Strategic Choices for Integrating Local Action into a Climate Campaign (Cambria Press, forthcoming); “Communicating Climate Change: Challenges of Scale and the Strategic,” inaugural lecture for the Center for Communication and Sustainable Social Change, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; “Complexity, New Media, and Contested Knowledge Claims,” keynote address, Conference on Media and the Environment: Between Complexity and Urgency,” European Environment Agency, Lisbon, Portugal, April 2-3, 2009.

Recent Publications: Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere, 2nd Ed. (SAGE Pub., 2009); “Social Movement Rhetoric: Public Discourse, Counter-publics, and Resistance” (with Christina Foust), The SAGE Handbook on Rhetoric (SAGE, 2009), pp. 605-622; “Nature’s ‘Crisis Disciplines’: Does Environmental Communication Have an Ethical Duty?” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 1 (May, 2007): 5-20; and “Golden Tropes and Democratic Betrayals: Prospects for the Environment and Environmental Justice in Neoliberal “Free Trade” Agreements,” in Environmental Justice and Environmentalism: The Social Justice Challenge to the Environmental Movement (MIT Press, 2007), pp. 225-250.

Courses Regularly Taught: Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere; Discourses of Environmentalism: Apocalypse, Accommodation, and the Social Construction of "Nature"; Public Policy Argument (climate change)

Future/Projected Courses: Honors seminar (COMM 572), “Communicating Climate Change”
Areas of Specialization: Principal research and teaching areas include environmental communication, rhetorical theory, and the discourse of social movements (with a focus on environmental media and politics).

Honors: FIRST Professor, University of Colorado at Boulder (2007), Christine L. Oravec Research Award in Environmental Communication (2006); sponsored by the Environmental Communication Division, National Communication Association; American Communication Association’s 2001 Outstanding Service to the Public Award; Featured Guest, “North Carolina People,” UNC TV; “Tar Heel of the Week,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.); Tanner Award (UNC-CH), “In recognition of Excellence in Inspirational Teaching of Undergraduates Students”; “Favorite Faculty” award (Senior class, UNC-CH); Katherine Kennedy Carmichael Award, (Order of the Grail/ Valkyries), “Outstanding service to women students”; “Best Monograph” award (American Forensic Association).

Professional Service: Advisory Editor, Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture

Current/Recent Work with Graduate Students:  “Social Movement Rhetoric: Public Discourse, Counter-publics, and Resistance” (with Christina Foust), in The SAGE Handbook on Rhetoric (SAGE, 2009), pp. 605-622.

Ph.D. students in progress: Billie Murray, “Disciplining Disruption:  Regulation and Surveillance of Public Space;” Natalie Fixmer, “Reproductive Technologies and Cultural (Re)Production”; Andrew George, “Democracy, Conservation, and National Forest Management”

Community Service: President, Board of Directors, Sierra Club, San Francisco (2007-2008; 2000-2001; 1994-96), and Director, Sierra Club (1993-1999; 2000-2006; 2007-present)