Speaker: Vanessa Beasley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Vanderbilt. Primary research interests include presidential rhetoric, U.S. political communication,
rhetorical criticism and theory.
Does what US presidents say really matter?
Throughout US history, there has been some debate about this question, with some feeling that presidents should not speak directly to US citizens at all. Offering a broad historic overview of this discourse and its presumed functions at various stages in our political past, Vanessa Beasley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Vice
Provost for Academic Affairs at Vanderbilt, shared her perspective on that question.