Karen A. Foss, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1976  Office: Room 234, 505-379-0459  karen.foss@comcast.net	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.

Sample Publications:

• Sonja K. Foss and Karen A. Foss. “Constricted and Constructed Potentiality: An Inquiry into Paradigms of Change.” To be published in Western States Communication Journal, 75(2), 2010.

•  Stephen W. Littlejohn and Karen A. Foss. Theories of Human Communication, 9th ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2010.

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

•  Karen A. Foss, Belle A. Edson, and Jennifer A. Linde. “What’s in a Name? Negotiating Marital Name Choices.” Casing Interpersonal Communication: Case Studies in Personal and Social Relationships. Ed. Dawn O. Braithwaite and Julia T. Wood. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2010, pp. 3-8.

•  Charlotte Kroløkke, Karen A. Foss, and Jennifer Sandoval. “The Commodification of Motherhood: Surrogacy as a Matter of Choice.” Contemplating Maternity in the Era of Choice: Exploration into Discourses of Reproduction. Ed. Lynn Hallstein O’Brien and Sara Hayden. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010, pp. 95-114.

•   Karen A. Foss. “Harvey Milk and the Queer Rhetorical Situation: A Rhetoric of Contradiction.” Queering Public Address: Sexualities in American Historical Discourse. Ed. Charles Morris. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007, pp. 72-94.

•   Janet M. Cramer and Karen A. Foss. “Baudrillard and Our Destiny with the Natural World: Fatal Strategies for Environmental Communication.” Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 3 (November 2009), 1-19.

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

Teaching:

My areas of teaching include rhetorical theory and rhetorical criticism, feminist perspectives on communication, public speaking, and women studies. 

Service:

• Department Service:  Associate chair; Coordinator of C&J exchange programs for graduate students.
• Recent/Current University Service:  Affiliated faculty of Women Studies.
• Current Disciplinary Service:  Editorial board for three journals—Women’s Studies in Communication, Southern Communication Journal, the Western Journal of Communication. I am also a member of the committee helping to plan the 2012 Western States Communication Association convention in Albuquerque.

Playing:
When not “professoring,” I can be found sewing, guerilla 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!