What is the Black experience from a rhetorical and communicative perspective?

Generally, Professor Deborah Atwater’s research and interest areas focus on several issues dealing with the contributions to the rhetorical theory and the practical implementation of rhetorical and communication concepts by African Americans. My primary research focus is on the messages created by African Americans in general and African American women in particular. In what ways have and do African Americans utilize their public space for the public good? Currently, I am working on a text that deals with the rhetoric of African American women from slavery to current times, examining slave narratives and contemporary print, music, and other media surrounding the lives of African American women. Below are a few publications that may be of interest.

Gyant, L. & Atwater, D.F. Journal of Black Studies, (May 1996), 577-592, “Septima Clark’s Rhetorical and Ethnic Legacy: Her Message of Citizenship in the Civil Rights Movement.”

Atwater, D.F. and Herndon, S. “Cultural Race and Space: The National Civil Rights Museum and Museum Africa” Howard Journal of Communications, 14: 1-14, 2003.

Atwater, D. F. and Herndon, S. “The Use of Public Space as Cultural Communicator: How Museums Reconstruct and Reconnect Cultural Memory,” in R. L. Jackson and E. Richardson (eds.) Understanding African American Rhetoric: Classical Origins to Contemporary Innovations,Routledge, Inc., 2003, 69-82.

Atwater, D. F. &Gyant, L. “A Woman of Vision: Dr. Bertha Maxwell Roddy.” International Journal of Africana Studies (10) #1, 2004, 117-130.