Karen A. Foss, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1976  Office: Room 216	Regents Professor Communication

Research:

My research program centers on the exploration of change and communication from feminist perspectives.  I have always been interested in rhetors outside the mainstream and the communication options they create for entering, subverting, and accommodating the mainstream. Although much of my work has focused on the discourse of women, I have also looked at the rhetoric of Harvey Milk, first gay supervisor of San Francisco; John Lennon; and political fugitives, to name a few.  I have become increasingly interested in taking seriously social construction and its accompanying truism in communication—that symbols create reality—and this is an undercurrent of much of my current work.  I am ultimately interested in how humans can construct a wider range of options for themselves in any communication situation.

• I am co-editing, with Stephen W. Littlejohn, an Encyclopedia of Communication Theory for Sage.  This 2-volume set will contain about 350 entries related to communication theory.  Approximate publication date:  November 2009.

• I am working with Pam Lutgen-Sandvik and Elizabeth Dickenson on a theoretical essay about why women bully other women more frequently than they bully men.  To be called “Cat Fights, Bitches, and Alpha-Females?: Exploring and Critiquing the Women-Bullying-Women Pattern in Bullying Survey Research,” we have submitted a program on this subject to WSCA.

• I am working with Yea Wen Chen, Elizabeth Dickenson, and Courtney Fletcher on a project exploring the role of narratives in creating social change.  We are examining narratives about contemporary issues—terrorism, the environment, and race—to understand how telling a story differently functions to facilitate change.

• I am working with Sonja Foss on an essay about a different paradigm of change that contrasts with the traditional one privileged in the communication discipline.

• I am working with Stephen Littlejohn on revising the 10th edition of Theories of Human Communication.

• I am writing, with Ann Skinner-Jones, a book called Color Up:  Decisions to Thrive On about making decisions more creatively.

• Janet Cramer and I recently submitted a revised version of our essay, “Creating Transformative Environmental Discourse: Baudrillard and Our Destiny with the Natural World” to Environmental Communication.

Sample Publications:

• Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss (2009).  The Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.

• Shawn Spano, Karen A. Foss, and Kris Kirschbaum (forthcoming 2009).  "Creating Opportunities for Social Construction:  The Albuquerque NCA Summer Institute."  Ed. Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz and Gloria Galanes.  Socially Constructing Communication.  Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

• Janet M. Cramer and Karen A. Foss (forthcoming 2009).  "Baudrillard and Our Destiny with the Natural World:  Fatal Strategies for Environmental Communication."  Environmental Communication:  A Journal of Nature and Culture.

• Sonja K. Foss and Karen A. Foss (spring 2009).  "Our Journey to Repowered Feminism:  Expanding the Feminist Toolbox."  Women’s Studies in Communication, 32, 36-62.

• Karen A. Foss and Sonja K. Foss (2008).  "Accomplishing the Mission:  Creating a Partnership with Your Advisor." In Getting the Most from your Graduate Education in Communication: A Student’s Handbook.  Washington, D. C.:  National Communication Association, pp. 59-70.

• Karen A. Foss (2007).  "Harvey Milk and the Queer Rhetorical Situation:  A Rhetoric of Contradiction."  Queering Public Address.  Ed. Charles Morris.  Tuscaloosa:  University of Alabama Press.

• Karen A. Foss and Charlotte Krolokke (July 2007). "’Sorg hellere for en solid tremmesent’: Feministiske udfordringer til retorikken" ["’You’d Better Build a Strong Crib’:  Feminist Challenges to Rhetoric"] Rhetorica Scandinavica, 42, 4-19.

• Karen A. Foss and Kathy L. Domenici (August 2001).  "Haunting Argentina:  Synecdoche in the Protests of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo."  Quarterly Journal of Speech, 87, 237-58.

Teaching:

My areas of teaching include rhetorical theory and rhetorical criticism, feminist perspectives on  communication, public speaking, and women studies.  I regularly teach C&J 538—Rhetorical Criticism, C&J 337—Rhetorical Theory, C&J 515—Feminist Perspectives on Communication, and C&J 130—Public Speaking.  I am teaching C&J 600—History and Philosophy of Communication and Rhetorical Criticism this fall.  I have taught several of the core courses as well as topics courses in the Women Studies program.

I am currently the Ph.D. advisor to three students and serve on three other Ph.D. committees.

Service:

• Department Service:  Associate chair; member of the colloquium committee, the hospitality committee, and the faculty advisory committee.
• Recent/Current University Service:  Affiliated faculty of Women Studies.  I have also been primarily responsible for initiating and coordinating an exchange program with the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. 
• Current Disciplinary Service:  Editorial board for three journals—Women’s Studies in Communication, Southern Communication Journal, the Western Journal of Communication. I am also consulting editor for Comm Currents, NCA’s online journal. 

Playing:
When not “professoring,” I can be found sewing, gardening, reading, traveling (I’ll go just about anyplace), riding my very cool bike, hooping, going to the movies, or running.  Life is supposed to be fun!