Research




I study the intersection of rhetoric, race, and religion. Grounded in an interdisciplinary understanding of scholarship, I study African American public address and rhetorical criticism, prophetic rhetoric, and rhetorical theology along with political rhetoric, homiletics, critical race theory, and religious and hip-hop studies. It finds a home in both the historical and contemporary. While I have an eclectic research agenda, I primarily focus on the areas below. To download articles and book chapters, click here.



AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLIC ADDRESS


PUBLISHED WORKS




HENRY MCNEAL TURNER

My primary research centers on the rhetorical career of African Methodist Episcopal Bishop HenryMcNeal Turner (1834-1915). I have devoted my academic career to unearthing and researching texts, speeches, letters, and other writings from Turner. I see my work on Turner as a reclamation project—drawing from the tools of rhetorical criticism, history, religious, and African American studies to (re) introduce this vital figure to academic and contemporary audiences. I also see this as a significant addition to the field of African American Public Address, filling a void in the study of African American Public Address in the mid-to-late 19th century. The historiographer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Teresa Fry Brown calls me the “definitive scholar on the works of Henry McNeal Turner.”

PUBLISHED WORKS ON HENRY McNEAL TURNER

 BOOKS:

 No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. University Press of Mississippi (2020). 

  • Winner of the National Communication Association African American Communication and Culture Division Outstanding Book Award (2021)


  • Winner of the Religious Communication Association Book of the Year Award (2021)



The Forgotten Prophet: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the African American Prophetic Tradition. Lexington Books. (2012) *2013 Winner of the African American Communication and Culture Division Top Book Award

EDITED COLLECTIONS:

JOURNAL ARTICLES:
“God is a Negro”: The (Rhetorical) Black Theology of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. Black Theology Journal. Vol 13 Issue 1. (April 2015) 29-40

BOOK CHAPTERS:

“To Wake Up the Latent Powers”: Henry McNeal Turner and the Legacy of the Israel AME Lyceum. Reframing Rhetorical History: Cases, Theories, and Methodologies. University of Alabama Press, Kathleen J. Turner and Jason Edward Black, eds. (2022), 151-171

“Further Silence Upon Our Part Would be an Outrage”: Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and the Colored Convention Movement” in, The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century Gabrielle Foreman, Jim Casey, and Sarah Lynn Patterson (eds). Duke University Press, 2021

"I Have Had to Pass through Blood and Fire” Henry McNeal Turner and the I Rhetorical Legacy of Reconstruction in Remembering the Memphis Massacre: An American Story edited by Beverly Greene Bond and Susan Eva O'Donavan. University of Georgia Press, 2020, 178-189

Fighting the Devil with Fire: The Political Career of Henry McNeal Turner, in The Handbook of Research on Black Males: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Multidisciplinary. Theodore S. Ransaw, C. P. Gause, and Richard Majors (eds). Michigan State Press. 2019 27-44

“Is the Negro Like Other People: Race, Religion and the Didactic Oratory of Henry McNeal Turner” in Converging Identities: Blackness in the Modern African Diaspora, Julius Adekunle (ed). Carolina Academic Press, 2013


DIGITAL HUMANITIES PROJECT: 

In addition to my published, forthcoming, and future works on Turner, examining the rhetoric of Turner has led me to create the Henry McNeal Turner Project—a Digital Humanities project devoted to the collection of the writings of Turner. I am doing this work with the help of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Memphis. Currently, we have uploaded texts from 1859-1900. 

PROPHETIC RHETORIC

Studying Turner as a prophetic figure lead me to further study the field of prophetic rhetoric. First, I noticed that while many scholars wrote about prophetic rhetoric, no one defined prophetic rhetoric. Second, much of the prophetic rhetoric examined in our field centered primarily on two sub-genres—apocalyptic and jeremiad. Since then, through my work on Turner, I have 1) crafted a working definition of prophetic rhetoric and 2) offered other sub-genres of prophetic rhetoric. I discovered not all prophetic discourse fits neatly into apocalyptic or jeremiadic rhetoric. Within the African American prophetic tradition, I argued there were at least four other sub-genres of prophetic discourse—celebratory prophecy, disputation/refutation prophecy, pragmatic prophecy, and pessimistic prophecy.

Moreover, my definition of prophetic rhetoric—as discourse grounded in the sacred, rooted in a community experience that offers a critique of existing communities and traditions by charging and challenging society to live up to the ideals they espoused while providing celebration, encouragement, and hope for a brighter future—yielded another contribution. This definition explicated a rhetorical structure that critics can use in rhetorical criticism. To demonstrate if a text is an example of prophetic rhetoric, first speakers must ground their rhetoric in what the speaker and the audience deem as sacred. Second, there is an element of consciousness-raising through a sharing or an announcement of the real situation. Third, there is a charge, challenge, critique, judgment, or warning to the audience(s) and finally, there is the offer of encouragement and hope. 


PUBLISHED WORKS:

JOURNAL ARTICLES:


“The Prophetic Persona of James Cone and the Rhetorical Construction of Black Theology.” Black Theology Journal 8.3 (2010) 266-285 *Top Article Award from the Religious Communication Association in 2011




RELIGIOUS RHETORIC and COMMUNICATION

My work on prophetic rhetoric led to the study of religious communication; in particular, new work in rhetorical theology. The way that I define it is that rhetorical theology maintains that all theology is at its core argument. It invariably leads the critic to ask, “What rhetorical strategies and personas did the theologian use to produce the document?” and “How did the critic invite the audience to participate in the theological position that the speaker offered?” These and other questions frame the discussion of rhetorical theology.

PUBLISHED WORKS:

(with Katherine Whitfield) Tyler Perry and the Rhetoric of Madea: Contrasting Performances of Perry’s Leading Lady as She Appears on Stage and Screen. Religions. Vol 10.7, 2019


“God is a Negro”: The (Rhetorical) Black Theology of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. Black Theology Journal. Vol 13 Issue 1. (April 2015) 29-40


(with Natonya Litsach) "Women, Step Forward!" Doing Rhetorical Historiography by Exploring Womanist Leadership in the AME Church in Womanist Ethical Rhetoric: A Call for Liberation and Social Justice in Turbulent Times. Annette Madlock Gatison and Cerise Glenn-Manigault (eds). Lexington Books, 2020

"MLK and the Meeting that Never Was: Race, Racism, and the Negation of the Beloved Community." Journal of Communication and Religion, 2020

"Taking the Inward Journey: Prophetic Rhetoric’s Listening Function." Listening: A Journal of Communication, Ethics, Religion, and Culture. 2020


CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARSHIP

While much of my research is historical, my research is also contemporary. I study hip hop, presidential rhetoric, and social movement discourse; particularly Black Lives Matter. 

PUBLISHED WORKS

Hip Hop Studies

BOOKS


Presidential Rhetoric

JOURNALS

(with Damariye L. Smith) Creating Purpose, Power, and Passion: Sister Souljah and the Rhetoric of Hip Hop. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric. Vol. 12, No. 2, (2022), 45-51

“The Scold of Black America”: Obama, Race, and the African American Audience.” Howard Journal of Communications. Vol 28, No 2. (2017)

“You Go Out and Make Me Do It”: The Bully Pulpit and the Articulation of Black Pain Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric. Vol 5. Issue:3/4 (2015) 


BOOK CHAPTERS

(with Dianna Watkins-Dickerson) "Fighting to be Heard: Shirley Chisholm and the Makings of a Womanist Rhetorical Framework" in Gender, Race, and Social Identity in American Politics edited by Lori L. Montalbano. Lexington Books. 2019, 155-168

What Do You Have to Lose”: Donald Trump, Religious Freedom, and the African American Vote.” The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States. Eric Miller (ed) Lexington Books, 2017. 183-200.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS/BLACK LIVES MATTER

BOOKS

(with Amanda Nell Edgar). The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Lexington Books, 2018. * 2019 Winner of the African American Communication and Culture Division Outstanding Book Award

BOOK CHAPTERS

Confrontational and Intersectional Rhetoric: Black Lives Matter and the Shutdown of the Hernando De Soto (I-40) Bridge,” in The Routledge Handbook of the Rhetoric of Social Movements. Nathan Crick ed. 2020

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Dislocations and Shutdowns: MLK, BLM, and the Rhetoric of Confrontation. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric Vol. 8 No. 3, 2018

Teaching in Ferguson: A Rhetorical Autoethnography from a Teacher/Activist. Southern Communication Journal. Vol. 81 No. 4. (2016) 267-269.

Understanding the Rhetoric(s) of Race. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric. Vol. 5 Issue 3/4 (2015) 
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