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Denise M. Bostdorff

Denise M. Bostdorff

Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies

Biography

Courses Taught

  • COMM 111: Intro to Communication Studies
  • COMM 152: Public Speaking
  • COMM 250: Rhetoric and Civic Engagement
  • COMM 251: Communication and Social Protest
  • COMM 252: Argumentation
  • COMM 254: Political Rhetoric
  • COMM 257 (Writing Intensive): Communication and Collective Memory
  • COMM 260: Environmental Communication
  • COMM 299: Rhetoric of Black Civil Rights & Alabama Civil Rights Trek
  • COMM 352: Rhetorical Criticism
  • COMM 401: Junior Independent Study
  • COMM 451/452: Senior Independent Study
  • First-Year Seminar: Rhetoric of Polarization-Lessons from the Vietnam War

Selected Publications & Presentations

Books

  • Bostdorff, Denise M. Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine: The Cold War Call to Arms. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. Winner of Bruce E. Gronbeck Award for Political Communication Research, 2010.

  • Bostdorff, Denise M. The Presidency and the Rhetoric of Foreign Crisis. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994.

Dr. Bostdorff has published extensively in outlets such as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Voices of Democracy, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. Her work also has appeared in edited volumes like Handbook of Crisis Communication (2023), A Rhetorical History of the United States, Vol. 8: World War II and The Cold War (2018), Rhetoric and Democracy: Pedagogical and Political Practices (2008), The Prospect of Presidential Rhetoric (2008), and The Encyclopedia of Political Science (2010).

Representative Publications

  • Bostdorff, Denise, M., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “The Rhetoric of Prophetic Dualism: Crisis, American Exceptionalism, and Religious Nationalism in Truman’s St. Patrick’s Day Addresses, March 17, 1948.” Journal for the History of Rhetoric, 28.1 (2025): 1-48. (Lead Article).
  • Bostdorff, Denise, M. “Observations on the Rhetoric of Place and Space through Frequency and Location Patterns of Presidential Travel.” Forum on Allison M. Prasch’s The World Is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War. Journal for the History of Rhetoric, 27.2 (2024): 245-249.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Donald Trump, Access Hollywood, and the Rhetorical Performance of Aggrieved White Masculinity.” Western Journal of Communication, 87.2 (2023): 215-238. 
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “U.S. Presidents and Crisis Communication.” Handbook of Crisis Communication. 2nd ed. Edited by W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Holladay. Wiley-Blackwell, 2023. 247-260.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “Barack Obama’s Eulogy for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, June 26, 2015: Grace as the Vehicle for Collective Salvation and Obama’s Agency on Civil Rights.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 23.1 (2020): 107-152.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Public Address Scholarship and the Effects of Rhetoric.” Special Issue on Rhetorical Criticism, published decennially. Western Journal of Communication 84.1 (2020): 349-364.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M., and Daniel J. O’Rourke. “Religion, Sport, and the Return of the Prodigal Son: The Post-Secular Rhetoric of LeBron James’s 2014 ‘I’m Coming Home’ Open Letter.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 21.1 (2018): 1-38. (Lead article).
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Dean Acheson’s May 1947 Delta Council Speech: Rhetorical Evolution from the Truman Doctrine to the Marshall Plan.” A Rhetorical History of the United States, Vol. 8: World War II and The Cold War. Ed. Martin J. Medhurst. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2018. 167-214.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M., and Shawna H. Ferris. “John F. Kennedy at American University: The Rhetoric of the Possible, Epideictic Progression, and the Commencement of Peace.” The Quarterly Journal of Speech 100.4 (2014): 407-441. (Lead article).
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Epideictic Rhetoric in the Service of War: George W. Bush on Iraq and the 60th Anniversary of the Victory Over Japan.” Communication Monographs 78 (2011): 296-323.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Iraq as a Representative Anecdote for Leadership: Barack Obama’s Address on the Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War.” Making the Case: Advocacy and Judgment in Public Argument. Ed. Kathryn M. Olson, Benjamin Ponder, Michael William Pfau, and Kirt Wilson. Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2012. 161-189.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Judgment, Experience, and Leadership: Candidate Debates on the Iraq War in the 2008 Presidential Primaries.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 12 (Summer 2009): 223-278.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M., Chair, Martin Carcasson, James M. Farrell, Robert L. Ivie, Amos Kiewe, and Kathleen B. Smith. “Report of the National Task Force on Presidential Rhetoric in Times of Crisis.” The Prospect of Presidential Rhetoric. Ed. James Arnt Aune and Martin J. Medhurst. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. 355-378.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “Rhetorical Ambivalence: Bush and Clinton Address the Crisis of Haitian Refugees.” Who Belongs in America?: Presidential Rhetoric and the Politics of Immigration. Ed. Vanessa B. Beasley. College Station: Texas A&M UP, 2006. 206-246.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “History, Collective Memory, and the Appropriation of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Reagan Rhetorical Legacy.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 35 (2005): 661-690.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “The Internet Rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan: A Case Study in Web Site Community Building Run Amok.” Communication Studies 55 (Summer 2004): 316-337.
  • Bostdorff, Denise M. “George W. Bush’s Post-September 11 Rhetoric of Covenant Renewal: Upholding the Faith of the Greatest Generation.” The Quarterly Journal of Speech 89 (Nov. 2003): 293-319.

Professional Experience

  • Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, The College of Wooster, present.

  • Professor of Communication Studies, The College of Wooster, 2007-August 2026.

  • Department Chair, 2014-2018, 2019-2022.

  • Posse Mentor for the Class of 2026, The College of Wooster, 2022-2026.

  • Associate Dean of Advising for the Class of 2012, The College of Wooster, 2008-2010.

  • Associate Professor of Communication Studies, The College of Wooster, 1997-2007.

  • Department Chair, 1998-2002.

  • Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, The College of Wooster, 1994-1997.

  • Associate Professor of Communication, Purdue University, 1994.

  • Assistant Professor of Communication, Purdue University, 1988-1994.

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication, Purdue University, 1987-1988.

Awards & Honors

Research Honors

  • Henry Luce III Fund for Distinguished Scholarship. “Strom Thurmond’s States’ Rights Campaign of 1948 and the Issue of Civil Rights.” $2206. 2021.

  • Bruce E. Gronbeck Political Communication Research Award for Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine: The Cold War Call to Arms. 2010.

  • Purdue Research Foundation Summer Faculty Grant. “The Language of Political Reversal.” $5000. 1993.

  • Contributor to Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations. (Eds. Elizabeth Lance Toth and Robert Heath). Winner of PRide Award for “Innovation, Development, and Educational Achievement in Public Relations Research.” Speech Communication Association. Essay contribution: “‘The Decision Is Yours’ Campaign: Planned Parenthood’s Character’-istic Argument of Moral Virtue.” 1992.

  • B. Aubrey Fisher Outstanding Article of the Year Award. Western Journal of Communication. Western States Communication Association. Awarded for “Vice-Presidential Comedy and the Traditional Female Role: The Rhetorical Characteristics of the Vice Presidency.” 1992.

  • Purdue University XL Summer Faculty Research Grant. “Contemporary Presidents’ Public Messages and Media Management During Foreign Crises, From Kennedy to Reagan.” $5000. 1990.

  • Purdue University Library Scholars Grant. “Presidential Communication During Foreign Crises.” $200. 1989.

  • Moody Grant. Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. “The Johnson Administration’s Strategies for the Construction of Public Messages and Management of the Media During the Tonkin Gulf Crisis.” $550. 1988-l989.


Teaching and Mentoring Honors

  • Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education. National Communication Association. Awarded to honor an NCA member who exemplifies superlative teaching in higher education. 2024.

  • Experiential Learning Faculty/Staff Award, which recognizes a faculty or staff member who has demonstrated a sustained commitment to facilitating opportunities for students to engage in high-impact experiential learning activities. The College of Wooster. 2023.
  • Co-advisor (with Michelle Johnson) of “Chapter of the Year” for Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Association’s Honor Society. Awarded to The College of Wooster Lambda chapter for fostering and recognizing scholastic achievement, stimulating interest in communication, promoting professional development, providing opportunities to discuss ideas in the field, cultivating close faculty-student relationships, and exploring options for graduate education. 2022.
  • Top Four Finalist for “Best College Advisor” EXPY Award, sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE), which recognizes outstanding work in experiential learning. 2019.
  • Advisor of “Chapter of the Year” for College Democrats of Ohio. Awarded to The College of Wooster chapter for its voter registration, education, and get-out-the-vote efforts in the 2012 election. 2013.
  • National Speakers Association’s Jeanne Robertson Outstanding Communication Professor Award. $2000. October 2000.
  • Selected as Inaugural Partner in Communicating Common Ground (CCG) Service-Learning Program Sponsored by the National Communication Association, the American Association for Higher Education, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Campus Compact. 2000.Advisor of “Chapter of the Year” for Lambda Pi Eta, the national communication honor society. Awarded to The College of Wooster’s Lambda Chapter for fostering and recognizing scholastic achievement, stimulating interest in communication, promoting professional development, providing opportunities to discuss ideas in the field, cultivating close faculty- student relationships, and exploring options for graduate education. National Communication Association. 1997.
  • School of Liberal Arts Departmental Award for Educational Excellence. Purdue University. December 1994.
  • W. Charles Redding Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Purdue University. April 1994.
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. International Communication Association. May 1986.
  • Bruce Kendall Award for Excellence in Teaching. Purdue University. April 1986.
  • Daily Illini’s list of “Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students.” University of Illinois. Spring 1983 and Fall 1983.

Selected Other Honers

  • Rex Mix Program of Excellence Award from the Undergraduate College and University Section of the National Communication Association (with Michelle Johnson, Ahmet Atay, Rohini Singh, Oscar Mejía, and Zhenyu Tian) that named Wooster’s Department of Communication Studies as the top undergraduate program in the country based on performance with regard to four criteria: diversity, civic engagement and social justice, undergraduate research, and mentorship. 2021.

  • Fund for Positive Engagement Grant from Campus Compact, for community outreach (with Nate Addington, Angela Bos, Rohini Singh, and Désirée Weber). $5000. 2017-2018.

  • University Research Fellowship. Purdue University. $6600. 1985-1987.

  • University Graduate Fellowship. Purdue University. $6000. 1983-1985.

  • Summer Fellowship. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. $750. 1983.

  • Trustee Academic Scholarship. Bowling Green State University. $2000. 1979. 1980. 1981. 1982.

  • Manhart Award for Leadership, Scholarship, and Contributions to Individual Events [Speech Team] Program. Bowling Green State University. 1982.

  • 10th in the nation in pentathlon (overall speaker). National Forensic Association. 1982.

  • 3rd in the nation in informative speaking, semi-finalist in persuasive speaking and

  • extemporaneous speaking, quarter-finalist in impromptu and after-dinner speaking. National Forensic Association. 1982.

  • 1st in the nation in speaking category of rhetorical criticism, 5th in the nation in persuasive speaking, and semi-finalist in extemporaneous speaking. National Forensic Association. 1981.

  • 1st in the nation. Peace Intercollegiate Extemporaneous Speaking Competition. 1981.

  • Quarter-finalist in extemporaneous speaking and after-dinner speaking. National Forensic Association. 1980.

Want to learn more?

Interested in The College of Wooster or have questions about courses? Feel free to reach out!

Contact Denise